Q: Brakes lock up when wet

asked by on September 30, 2016

My Malibu had been acting up at high speeds, when I would brake the whole car would shake violently and I could feel it most in my foot on the pedal. I had it worked on and besides some residual shaking as the new brakes broke in everything seemed fine. The shaking began again on a rainy morning while I was coming off the interstate, braking..and then it stopped again, I guess because they didn't get wet for a while. Now the last three times they have gotten really wet (we have had some strong storms) Not only will the car vibrate when braking at high speeds but it will begin vibrating just while driving at high speeds. This morning it started and my brakes locked up! What I mean by locked up is the pedal was hard to push...but it didn't matter because I didn't need to push it. The car was in constant braking mode with my foot removed from the pedal and also while hitting the gas. I got the car home, let it dry and later it was fine, it has locked up at lower speeds too when wet

My car has 149000 miles.
My car has an automatic transmission.

This is a common issue with the ABS systems in many cars when the wheel speed sensors are going bad.

All of the wheels on the car have wheel sensors that monitor the speed of the wheels and relay this info back to the computer which controls the traction control and ABS systems. When these sensors are bad they can send incorrect signals to the computer which causes the ABS system to engage when it does not need to.

I would recommend having an expert from YourMechanic come to your home to diagnose the shaking symptom firsthand and help you repair it as necessary.

The statements expressed above are only for informational purposes and should be independently verified. Please see our terms of service for more details

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