Just had a wheel bearing go bad on one of ours. A 95 jimmy. Full package, 4 wheel abs, two wheel drive. Bad wheel bearing caused almost totall brake failure. Anyone ever have this happen? NO DAMAGE TO BRAKES. just wheel bearing. Spindle fine, new bearings, races and seal, grease. Brakes work again.

Got news. I want brakes to work when wheel bearing starts to go out. ANY normal system would have kept working. ABS CAUSED failure.

How to remove it completely? Find one without ABS and get myself a proportioning valve setup and reroute my lines? Then rip it off? Is that about the basics or am I missing something. Is there so much intertwined electronics with the main brain it cant be done or is it such a seperate system that it CAN be done??

To tell you the truth, I am ready for drums.

 

My question is - how could the ABS have caused the failure? A wheel bearing is a strictly mechanical item with a limited service life. I can't imagine any way that aBS could have caused a bearing to fail...but maybe I'm not understanding what happened.

I think you're on your own with such a project. No dealer, will want to help with that project. Of course, there are fuses, aren't there? You could pull the ABS fuse and test the behavior of the vehicle to see what you'd be losing.

I suggest the best option is to make sure ABS is working as designed. After all, ABS is normally a trouble-free system and the pluses are more than the minuses.

 

Remove the ABS fuse. No more ABS. But it might get you into trouble in the unlikely event of an accident.

 

I agree with Pilgrim
ABS will not cause a wheel bearing failure. ABS is a system designed to prevent the tire lock up during a panic stop. unless you stomp on your brakes hard, your ABS won't engage. No doubt that pulsing sensation you felt was from the wobble of the wheel caused by worn out bearings. No doubt you will need new bearings, you will need new rotors, and pads up front, And you might even need new tires. Worn out bearings cause uneven tire wear. I would seriously look at all your tires, especially the tire on the opposite corner. Run your hands around them, feel and edges? If so, you have uneven wear. Letting things go until failure gets extremely costly.

 

Let me get everyone on the same page. ABS caused totall brake failure. (inside the cockpit, at the pedal) Thats what I said. The reason ABS caused failure is because wheel bearing went bad. Get it? Wheel bearing- outer went out. It self destructed. Any number of reasons including lack of service, I have only owned car for about 8000 miles, that would be 8 thousand. No misreading this one. Yse I have serviced a great deal of the automobile but had intended to wait for wheel bearings till brakes needed replacing.

THE ABS and the BRAKES are still fine. BUT......

NOTHING FUNCTIONED when the wheel was wobbling around. GET IT??? We here and not just me, are convinced that abs sensor was the reason for complete pedal to the floor reaction of system. I have never had this happen with regular brakes. Regular discs just tighten on both sides of the rotor with the caliper doing its thing. They could care less about the wheel bearing as long as things are still on the spindle, get it??? The sensor told the abs something was a certain way and the abs reacted, thats all. PROBLEM IS???? its my whole braking system. GET IT???

Needles to say, I am hot. I was not driving car, wife was, and in the middle of the nite.


I only had to replace wheel bearings, and I did both and seal. I did not have to replace anything associated with brakes. There was no PHYSICAL damage to brakes. We got it now, right? My writing isnt clear sometimes! I do think it might have functioned slightly diferently if the back shoes were a little newer; they could stand replacement. It appears whoever did the front, did it alone and not the back.

I recommend that if the front needs done on and abs car that even if the back is at 60 percent, that they also be changed and adjusted correctly.

I never felt "pulsing or pulsating" I think that may be from another post and someone elses car. If mine did that I'd check the rotor. I prbably have three or four good rotors laying out there somewhere, Id sure change a couple if I felt anything funny.

Really odd remark that no-one would help with this project. To build somnething into a car that already exists is normal isnt it? Do regular brakes not exist in blazers?

It would be really abnormal to let my brakefluid take a path through a set of valves that didnt work anymore. Removing it and rerouting the lines through a proper proportioning valve is the right way. I will get to that project. but if no-one want to know, I wont post about it, ok??[&:]

 

I cannot speak for others. However I guess I am more confused now then I was earlier.

If you don't have a brake fluid leak, and are not low on brake fluid, then the typical reason for peddle to the floor is worn out brake shoes.

It could be possible that your ABS malfunctioned, however that is not normal on our trucks.

If your set on removing the ABS system, yes there are brake systems from earlier S10-Blazers that didn't have ABS.

 

No abs alarm/warning lite. No abs failure lite when pedal was to the floor. ( not even a regular "brake failure" light???) No lite before or after replacing bearings and seal.

I want everyone to know that I had to really convince myself to NOT buy a master cylinder while I had someone at the parts store. But I had no loss of fluid, no air in line. I never had to do ANY WORK at all to the brake system, or master cylinder. As soon as I replaced the bearings and placed the tire back on the wheel, it was fine. i know I am sounding like this is ficticious, but why would I even mention this junk if it were not real??

I couldnt contain the feelings this gave me. When my wife arrived at home and told me about her "brakes" I got in the car and tried them. I had no pedal. I got a flashlight and checked each wheel. No leaks. I opened the master cylinder and it was full??? I told her the master cylinder had gone bad.

The next morning I started with the drivers rear and pulled the tire and drum. No problem. Passenger rear, no problem. Went to passenger front and when I jacked it up I heard the front "creak" on the other side. I remember telling my son we were going to have to find that problem too. No problem in the passenger front. Of course when I got to the "creaking" side, I saw an immediate problem. As soon as the center cap came off and the dust cover was laying in there loose, I knew the bearing was, at the very least, gone. It was destroyed. Told the wife we might need a spindle and to be ready for a big bill. Took the rest apart and did not need spindle. Replaced everything in there.

Got in the car and drove it immediately cause I had brakes.

I kid you not. What else could it have been? The only logical choice for me is that since the back brakes ar down to the last 25-30 %, it is possible that without proper adjustment, they didnt operate well enough to help out in a front failure caused by a bad reaction by the sensor on the wheel with a bad bearing. I dont understand why I never got ANY alarm on the dash. Yes the ABS lamp lites on startup, no the fuse is not missing.

 

Strange. I got one for ya.

Girlfriends 96 4.3 Blazer.

She is driving down the freeway 110k/hr and the thing would studder like a miss every once in a while. It made her nervous so she made me drive.(women)lol. It would keep doing it so I stayed in the slow lane at 110k/hr. I would start to notice it happen more or so when I stepped on the gas to pass or speed up. WELL get this, when it would miss or what ever the problem is the truck would shake then the ABS light would come on followed by the BRAKE light for a few seconds and shut off again. All brakes work fine.
This baffles me.

 

The vibration could be a lot of things, balance, rotor, shock, bearing, whatever.. I would check all those.

A vibration or wobble in the wheel seems to affect the abs systems. I think that is why my brakes failed, though according to my wife, she never had any indicator. I also didnt when she got home and the brakes were completely to the floor.

The vibration may be in the shock even a balance problem, but it may cause the sensor to get BAD information. Bad information leads to UNEXPECTED results and from what I can see, also consequences.

How about recalls, anyone know of any?

 

the same thing happend to me, what i figuerd with the bad wheel bearing the wheel would shake , and if the wheel shakes enough the sensor would asume it was slipping or on a bump thereforyour brakes dont work because of a a constant reading from the wheel speed sensor