hello all! i am here for my father in law.

when he is driving first thing in the morning at 3-4 mph and touches the brakes(no snow/ice) the abs kicks on. there is no abs light though.

once the vehicle is warmed up, this goes away.

he owns a 2000 f150 supercrew lariat.

i know that he has had the lockup issues in the past with the read brakes.

let me know what you think are the issues with the abs activation and what rear brake combo do you recommend to get rid of the lockup.

thank you for your time.:santa:

 

When my truck sits overnight (wife's car also) when it's cold/damp, the first stop or two, the brakes grab pretty hard due to slight rusting glaze on the rotors. After that they are fine. After doing a complete brake job on the truck it stopped doing that. We'll see for how long. Not sure what you mean by the ABS kicking on though.

 

imagine it being in the middle of winter and the roads are covered in ice and you slam on the brakes and you feel the abs kick on.

that is what happens at under 5mph but the abs light does not turn on. the abs actually kicks on though.

 

Okay. My 2000 F150 s/c did that for about 3 months. The front rotors were grooved, but not that bad, and the pads were like 60%. Finally I replaced the rotors and pads, and problem solved. The rears had 5k on them. A short time later (1 month), the ABS light came on (code said RF circuit failure). It may have had something to do with the rotors coming off so hard (air hammer), but I replaced the right front hub assembly, very pricey-$375 at NAPA, and all is fine.
I'm thinking the pads are "glazed", or the rotors are worn on his truck, causing a slipping when braking. I also expeirenced a slight pedal fade when this happened to me.

 

he has fully inspected his breaks and they are fine. what else could it be.

he is thinking of checking out the sensor in the rear diff.

 

If a sensor were bad, the ABS light would stay on.

 

If he has rear drums, it's quite common. There is a TSB on the issue that basically replaces the drums and/or shoes with higher quality products. Corrosion on the surface of the drum makes the brakes sticky or grabby until the rust wears off. Common problem with drum brakes.

If it's 4wheel discs, I'm clueless... never seen disc brakes act funny like that myself.

-Joe