ABS brake problem on my 97 Explorer

Hi,I'm new in here,tried to post a new thread in the 911 section but says I'm not allowed or something.The ABS light is on,when you brake the pedal kicks back against you and makes a funny noise,sometimes it looses the brakes alltogether,any ideas?.Thanks.Mark

try doing a search of the site to see if anyone else has had these symptoms. And welcome aboard.

Welcome

There have been lots of threads about the Explorer ABS system, which seems prone to problems.

I've had problems myself but never had the ABS light come on.

The pedal and noise - are you familiar with what happens when ABS IS working? - cause this sounds like it is - pulsating pedal, brake noise etc. - so that bit might be OK.

But this should only happen on loose ground, snow, sand, gravel not on good surfaces. If it's happening all the time, then it could be the front ABS sensors or their setup (airgap seems critical). Have you had any brake or wheel work done recently?

Unless your very mechanically minded it's going to have to go in for repair, but search this site first and go with as much info as possible. Dealers over here haven't got a clue - 5 trips to sort out mine!!

I agree with OUTHOUSE. The same thing happened to me a week ago when I changed Ford rotors for aftermarket rotors. The air gap between the ring on ther rotor and the fixed sensor is C-R-I-T-I-C-A-L. If it is too close, the ring will gouge the sensor, and if the ring is too far away, the sensor will not send a signal to the ABS system. This will cause an ABS light. I learned the hard way not to use aftermarket rotors unless they have the same air gap as the factory ones.

The dealership wanted $84.00 just to diagnose. I needed the brake fluid to be flushed, and the diagnosis would have revealed that the sensors were good, and the fault was in the rotors anyway. In short, a lot of money for diagnosis, and still more to allow them to repair everything.

In summary, if you have done, (or HAD DONE) any brake work involving the rotors, I would check that and the sensors again.