I have a 2001 Ford Escort with ~60,000 miles on it. The brakes all of a sudden started slipping intermittently a few days ago. When they slip it then seems like the ABS turns on. I took it in to a shop and they said there was an ABS sensor that was loose and that they tightened it. The brakes seem better now, but they feel a little spongy, and every once in awhile it still slips a little and the ABS system kicks in. The ABS light never comes on.

Does this mean I need a new sensor? Or is there something else I can check? I removed the fuse for the ABS and drove it around a bit and it didn't act up at all. I will drive it around more tomorrow and see if that fixes it. Even the spongy-ness seems better with the ABS fuse out (the ABS light does come on when I have the fuse out). Thoughts? Thanks!

 

typically that is from a bad wheel speed sensor. It is giving bad wheel speed data to the brake control module and the module is activating the abs system thinking a wheel lock up condition is occuring.

you will have to determine which sensor is bad and replace it.

 

I agree with primem.
Have you considered having another shop look at it. Kinda skeptical that they didn't test drive it before giving the vehicle back to you which if they did they would have known it wasn't corrected.

 

Thanks for the input! I will ask them if they are able to do that kind of work...or like you said hanky, maybe I better go somewhere else. They told me that he test drove it 3 times yesterday and brought it back and worked on it again after each time. They told me to drive it a couple of days and if it still wasn't good then we would probably have to do something with the sensor. So maybe they know what they are doing, but just ran out of time or something? I don't know. It is a Firestone car repair shop.

 

Sometimes,,,,,,,,,,,, two visits are more productive $$$$$ than one.

 

if no codes are setting, the shop must have the equipment that can record and plot all the wheel speed sensor data when the abs activation occurs. When the data is plotted in graph form you can see which sensor's signal is dropping out. Then replace that sensor. Any other way is guess work.