Ford Edge Brake Issue 05 12 2018

Ford Edge Brake Issue 05 12 2018

When I talked to the dealer he said that on rare occasion it could be the ABS control module and that could be a 2 to 3 thousand dollar job.

The ABS control module relies on sensors that are located in the wheels. They are electric. And they sense wheel speed.

ABS means Antilock Brake System.

The car has a towing setting that can be changed from the dashboard. When you turn off traction control it makes the car run with better mileage. Traction control must sense how fast the wheels are spinning individually via the ABS system. But when it is turned on it appears that hydraulic fluid is being pumped to the brake pistons and keeping them tighter and therefore less mileage.

In effect it must be putting a drag on the rear wheels and stress on the brakes.

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Trailer length from rear axle to where the hitch is located is a key consideration in buying a boat towing vehicle. Why? Because boat ramps are often very shallow slanted. Meaning that you have to back further into the lake to get the boat to come off the boat trailer.

The Ford Edge has a short distance from the rear wheels to the trailer hitch ball.

So it means the brakes are more exposed to water than they should be? And therefore more prone to rusting. And when that piston rusts it seizes. Causing overheating of the brakes if not complete locking of one of them.

Also the sensors that sense wheel speed become more likely fouled due to water? And that sets the wheel speed sensing coordination off.

So the traction control and ABS system works to apply and take off pressure to the individual wheel brakes.

So what would make one wheel cylinder tighter than the other? If it was being sensed that that wheel was spinning more. There would be more fluid applied to the piston there. Or indeed it could be the ABS control module is defective and that is a 2-3 thousand dollar job.

Can the ABS control module be programmed via the dealer computer?

Can it be programmed wrongly? So that constant pressure is being applied to one of the brakes and therefore not making your car last as long? Or indeed making you believe it won't last as long and therefore selling it to buy a new one? I believe that New Car Dealers are guilty of this kind of activity.

So if indeed you disconnect the battery for a day will it erase this programming?

Probably not a bad idea to try.

That or always turn off the traction control so that the ABS system is not activly applying pressure.

The intended purpose of the traction control system is to balance the wheels via the braking system when one tire isn't gripping or is slipping. It is designed therefore to detect very minute changes in wheel speed from one wheel compared to the other three.

Could active applied pressure mean that a caliper is more likely to warp? Yes. Causing a Caliper piston to not come out straight? And therefore stick? Because a wedge is formed in the surface of it over time?

So you drive a long ways and back the car with the boat on the trailer into the launch. You hit that emergency brake which activates the piston via a lever. Can you warp that piston/caliper by doing that? Can the internal piston emergency parking brake be bent crooked in this manner?

The same thing that causes a brake line to malfunction could also cause the ABS control module to fail?

Will disconnecting the battery and always manually disabling the traction control via the dashboard setting fix the problem?

It might alleviate it. But that wheel still needs a new caliper, which I indeed ordered.

Also there is a way to check the wheel speed sensors.

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Can the FBI or another Gov agency send a radio signal to your cars ABS Control module causing one of the brakes on it to lock up? Very funny that I was going fishing to Illinois once and as soon as a I came to the border my right rear brake started to squeak. In a car that came along side of me was a young man, white collar, presumably talking on his cell phone and leering at me.­

Because the Traction Control is on by default and because it makes the gas mileage a lot worse than when it is off it means that it was likely defective from the very start. And if they are all that way it means there should have been a recall? That and the door shut sensors were bad from day one and the dealer was unable to fix it from day one.

© 2018 Thomas Paul Murphy