On numerous occasions, when I've pressed the brake pedal firmly (not slamming on it), my brakes have locked up and my tires skid. From what I can tell, just one of the tires is leaving a skid mark (rear passenger, I believe). I would expect the ABS to work the same way it has in every vehicle I've owned before this one but it hasn't in the 4 years I've owned it. This has happened to me at least a half dozen times slowing down from 40-45 miles per hour. The first time it happened I didn't think too much of it but now I'm thinking there's an issue. My dash isn't lit up with warning lights so I would think that my ABS should be working. Has anybody experienced this problem? Possibly an ABS sensor issue?

Wouldn't think that the abs sensor would fail without a dash light or code, if it was a mechanical problem with the calipers or disc or whatever, the vehicle would then show an abs light.

There is a few posts on here where they show how to test the abs sensor to see if its good or not, apparently these get stretched a lot when doing lift installations. Last resort would be to take it to a dealer. Good luck with your project.

Ya take it to autozone to hook up a code reader and I'll bet you get an abs code. Thats weird there is no dash light.

Nanny brake assistant. Scared the hell out of me the first time it happened to me and all i was doing was scrubbing speed to red light (slowing down to avoid stopping/ coast until light turned green). Apparently the nanny overlords feel you should not move your foot from the go pedal to the stopper to fast. If you do, the ABS thinks your panic braking and helps to avoid anything in front of you... Hope nobody is behind. TuRD locked up so fast, any thing not tied down, flew all the way to the dash board. On the plus side i stopped 90 feet short of the intersection and only 2 cars of church folk witnessed the embarrassment and the WTF
look on my face.

Doesn't matter how hard you push, it's how fast you go from gas to brake.
Toyota Brake Assist (BA) - YouTube

Maybe a stuck caliper. I would take off the wheel to inspect and clean/lube if necessary.

This seems to be my experience most of the times that it's happened. On the gas heading towards an intersection and, making sure nobody is right behind me, quickly moving to the brake because I don't want to blow through a red light. It's definitely a little scary and very embarrassing!


I've heard of stretched ABS wires during lift installs but I've always heard that the dash lights up when that happens. I'll have to plug in my code reader and see if I get anything. I definitely want to avoid going to the dealer at all costs!


This probably should be my first order of business. I don't have any experience working on brakes but I'm sure I can get the idea after a couple of YouTube tutorial videos.

Stuck caliper or crushed brake line. If an ABS sensor has a problem, you'll see it on the dash.

My truck has always done the same thing. I replaced pads and rotors F&R (due to normal wear) and serviced all calipers with Toyota grease/lube. Didn't change anything with the issue. Have also replaced 1 abs sensor that was damaged during lift install. Still does the same thing under the conditions you describe, so I'm thinking it's the brake assist kicking in

My car is doing something similar. Everytime I get out the rear passenger brake is smoking. I have change brake pads, rotor, caliber and brake line. Still does it not throwing any ABS codes and cannot figure it out.

The gas tank is on the driver's side. When the rear end unloads during sudden braking, the right rear lifts more than the left rear due to the weight imbalance.

So the problem was a little out there. But the shop replaced my axel seal which was leaking and apparently this was leaking onto the caliber and causing the brake to smell etc. They changed this and cleaned up the caliber/brakes and so far it is working.