So I was on my way home from work yesterday driving on the freeway. Rush hour traffic so it was relatively slow around 75kph (45mph) but steady flow. All of a sudden the brake lights started coming on the cars in front of me. I hit the brakes also and my abs kicked in. It was one of those moments where you're just not sure if you're going make it unscathed. Any way I stopped ok and nobody rear ended me (yeh!).

A weird thing that happen during my panic stop. As I was braking, I also instinctively pumped my brakes ( I am old school when cars didn't have abs so it's just something I haven't programmed out of myself yet) and when I did this I noticed that for a split second my brake pedal actually locked in the depressed position. A half second later it released and I could pump again. The pedal has been fine ever since, it just seemed weird that it would lock up like that for a split second. Has anyone else ever had this happen to them.

 

hmm. ive never had that happen and ive had to do a couple really hard stops in the car.

but if i were you, i'd flush the system

 

Wow, such drastic measures for a single incident LoL

 

I'm thinking the car's emergency brake assist kicked in because it detected you were trying to make a panic stop.

 

flushing the system is drastic? it takes like 30 minutes. the rears pump themselves and the fronts you can just gravity bleed. lol

but ive had several "panic stops" cause of traffic jams. 80-0 and nothing weird happened.

better safe than sorry

 

I doubt its a fluid issue. The fluid has been effectively flushed a couple of times in the last two years because I had to replace both my front calipers. The driver's side I did a second time within six months because the first replacement started leaking prematurely. During normal driving the brakes feel fine and firm. My personal guess is the abs computer went wonky for a second.

 

Theres your problem there.. Don't Pump the brakes. (User/Driver error)

Nothing wrong with the car.. you did something against the nature of the ABS system..

 

This is what I was sort of guessing as well. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced such an event. For a half second it was kind of scary.

 

Well, I've owned my GS400 for 16 years now and have driven it in almost every condition including tracking it and have been very hard on the brakes til in was glowing hot.. Never once did it Fail me. Just mash it and it stops.. Doesn't get any simpler.. (I grew up with classic cars and understand the need to pump the brakes, only if your brake pedal bottoms out do I ever think about pumping them)

Drive your GS with confidence. For an older car, Its still one of the best on the road. Don't ever doubt what it can do.. A good condition GS today is a performance bargain for a Sports-Luxury Sedan.

 

Maybe whoever changed the calipers screwed up?

 

Ok here's a bit of an update.

Last night I started hearing clunking coming from the left front side of the car. I don't think the clunking was there a few days before but last night it was very pronounced. It sounded like a broken spring or shock. A couple of years ago I had a somewhat similar sound but not quite as loud. That time it turned out that One of the brake pad clips either broke or fell out and the pad became loose causing it to clunk.

Anyway I took it to my mechanic this morning to have it checked out. It turned out that both of the caliper slider pin bolts holding the caliper to the caliper bracket were missing and the caliper was just hanging there. I was really surprised since I hadn't done any caliper work in almost a year (at least 12-15k miles). Anyway here put in new bolts and everything looks fine now.

Anyway loose both their slider bolts?

 

Did anyone recently ask you to increase your life insurance coverage?

 

how the hell? whoever worked on your brakes last probably jacked that one up

but if i had the crazy brake problem then i would hav elooked at it immediately