[david.scarborough]

Last week I was breaking from about 60 mph when in dry conditions I crossed a strip across the road of different material and the ABS activated. The strip was only a foot wide so the ABS was not needed. The ABS then didn't reactivate the brakes, so I basically had no brakes.  I was braking moderately at the time but had to press quite hard on the brake pedal  to reactivate the brakes.  By the time I had reacted and the brakes had reacted I must have travelled 50yds or so without braking.
 This is the 2nd time something like this has happened and it was very scary.  I took it to the local main dealers yesterday and they could not find any fault with the ABS. 
Has anyone had a similar problem and if so did you get it fixed.

[tw2005]

Last week I was breaking from about 60 mph when in dry conditions I crossed a strip across the road of different material and the ABS activated. The strip was only a foot wide so the ABS was not needed. The ABS then didn't reactivate the brakes, so I basically had no brakes.  I was braking moderately at the time but had to press quite hard on the brake pedal  to reactivate the brakes.  By the time I had reacted and the brakes had reacted I must have travelled 50yds or so without braking.
 This is the 2nd time something like this has happened and it was very scary.  I took it to the local main dealers yesterday and they could not find any fault with the ABS. 
Has anyone had a similar problem and if so did you get it fixed.

I've had nothing exciting happen to me in the braking department.

A little curious with your description though.

" I crossed a strip across the road of different material", what are we talking about here? Loose gravel? Grass? Concrete, Painted surface, ice, snow etc ? Did the wheels lockup when it hit this patch?

"The ABS then didn't reactivate the brakes" I never knew ABS would deactivate the brakes but whilst under constant pedal pressure modulated to maintain braking control.

was the ESP on?

Honestly my knowledge is lacking in this area but looking for any other clues or systems at play here.

So once you hit this patch, the ABS activated(in what manner,braking force applied but pulsing) but you had no brakes , so how was the ABS contributing?

Sorry I'm a little confused with this one. At 60mph the vehicle travels 88 feet / second .

 

@nzenigma

[nzenigma]

Similarly confused.
how do you know the problem was caused by the ABS?

ABS does not activate the brakes, it allows the wheels to keep rotating, not locking up, when brakes are applied.

[david.scarborough]

ok well I assumed that the ABS was at fault.  I think the strip across the road was metal.  Basically after going over the strip in road , the brakes stopped working until I put a lot more pressure on the pedal.  One moment I was braking nicely heading up to a roundabout, the next moment I was not braking at all.

[beerman]

ABS is a system designed to stop the wheels from locking up and give you the ability to steer.

When activated the ABS is stopping the vehicle from entering a skid, over which you have no control of steering, thus allowing you to plot a path to safety.

When you hit the wet parch one or both of your wheels would have wanted to lock, thus the system intervened, like most safety features, it has some affects on the vehicle. The first should be a shuddering of the brake pedal just continue to apply pressure, you may also hear a shuddering sound through the vehicle.

ABS is not something you should discover in an emergency, as if you are not familuar with it, the response can be to take the foot of the brake pedal. 

I would encourage you to find a quite bit of road and become acquainted with the technology, practice steering while on the picks too.

[mickd]

ABS  really takes a lot of pressure to activate.
Sounds as if its loosing vacuum assistance as you said pedal was really hard and then had to re-apply.
?  ?

[beerman]

To me it sounds like ABS activated because it was needed (breaking from 100km/h to stop hitting a wet patch on the road causing the wheels to lock), the OP being unfarmiluar with the process has taken inturupted the process by thinking the brakes were not working (change from dry to wet surface will cause some increase in breaking distance). Then he has applied the brakes again, by which time the surface was dry.

So the inturuption to the braking process was caused by man.

That said it would be worth having the brakes checked over for any issues. Check the tyres too.