Scary moment today- Brakes

I had to hit the brakes today pretty hard on wet pavement. My brakes normally feel fine but when I realy hit them the car very slowly came to a stop but the pedal was pulsing up and down under my feet. I realize that abs brakes keep you from skidding but the lack of stopping power and pulsing pedal was not cool. The front end seemed to shake wile this happened as well. So is this brake related or possibly something like ball joints? Is there any way to check?

The abs is the pulsing you felt. It makes it so the drivers side front will brake when the rear passenger side is braking. Then it will switch to the front pass and rear drivers side, and keep switching back and forth. But you should check your brakes for wear.

Its being caused by a combination of losing traction and the abs. It will act the same on dry pavement if your moving fast enough/braking hard enough.

(also turning tightly makes it much more likely to happen, thanks to physics + friction)


its not really something to worry about, so much as to be aware of, so you can drive/brake around that slipping point. Technically speaking, if your wheels are losing grip w/ the pavement your putting too much pressure on the brake. (far more evident on wet pavement) that said, its better to put too much than too little in most situations.