Brake / Abs suspected problem

[iand123]

Hi

I have an 03 Mini Cooper 1.6 Automatic. At the weekend the brake pedal started vibrating whe brakeing at pretty low speeds. This happened twice on satirday and once on sunday. It also caused the ABS, run flat light and the traction light (DSC?) to come on. Pulling over to make sure things were ok the lights then went off. I took it to the garage yesterday (it was due its service anyway) and they said that brakes were fine and cleaned up all of the sensors to make sure general dirt etc was not messing with them. Interestingly the vibrating brake pledal happened again this morning ( the wife said only very slightly compared to before) and the lights havent come on again since sunday.

I am not very knowledgable on cars, so can someone else point me to what may be wrong, or at least give me a few things to ask the garage which fixed it. The brakes are fine and respond exceptionally well its just this vibrating is worrying me somewhat. Pads and disks are fine.

Thanks very much!

Ian

[minicabrio]

More than likely a faulty ABS sensor

There's one on each corner of the car, and it controls the ABS, Runflat and traction systems

Simple fix, shouldn't be too costly Check out the MINI specialists in the Directory at the top of the page who will be able to help.

Oh, and welcome to MINI2

[iand123]

thanks for the welcome

Mechanic said ABS sensors can be pretty expensive, hope they are not!

[iand123]

just had a thought....

if the sensor is screwed, could this be causing the pedal to vibrate, ie falsely kicking in the abs bercause the sensor thinks it needs to? Sorry if this is pretty obvious, like i said cars isnt my strong point

[minicabrio]

yes, mine did exactly the same, except it was under warranty at the time so i don't know how muvh it will be

[iand123]

i just called my local mini dealership and its £47.42 for the part

[minicabrio]

Well that's not too bad

[James@fomsport]

usually the result of idiots working on the brakes and knocking bits out or getting the sensor dirty the local garage did it to my car when i was in a hurry last year when i couldnt get into the guys who normally look after it

[crofty136]

I have had a similar thing, Felt like the ABS was kicking in stupidly early, even if i wasnt braking particularly hard. a bmw mechanic drove it anyway and said it was fine! I have since changed the pads and bleeded the brakes its been ok.