Help - Kia Ceed brake problem

babaduck

Registered User
Messages
364
Drove home through the blizzards of snow & dodgy roads tonight, stopping for 5 mins at local supermarket to get stuff. When I was leaving the car park, my brakes felt very odd, almost as if there wa a chunk of ice under the brake pedal & it juddered every time I pressed the brake pedal. By sheer good fortune, I made it home without having to brake, but the pedal won't go down at all now

Is it
(a) a chuck of frozen crap
(b) something more sinister

For what it's worth, I had the car serviced fully 2 weeks ago but as we're billed monthly, I haven't seen the list of items replaced so unsure if they changed the brake pads...
 
No lights came up on the dash so I don't think so (*although I could easily be very wrong...)

Absolutely bricking it as I have to get to Dublin for a funeral tomorrow and then meetings!
 
Hope so - has never happened to me before - although this is the first spell of snow I've had in this car!!!
 
have a look at the excerpt below,it might help to identify if it's what you felt and set your mind at ease.

good luck driving tomorrow, it's scary when the roads are so treacherous. i had a bit of a slide the week before christmas. ended up on the wrong side of the road heading for the ditch. i still don't know how i managed to get back on the right side of the road. it was on the approach to a bend too. i got such a fright, i was still shaking by the time i got to work.


from: http://www.aaafoundation.org/resources/index.cfm?button=abs#how

How do you know ABS is working?
First, ABS will only feel different from ordinary brakes when you're braking hard. During “ordinary” braking (i.e., not a “panic” stop), you should brake in exactly the same manner whether you have ABS or not, and the brakes should respond in the same way.
When you initiate hard braking, the anti-lock braking system may be activated. When this happens, you may experience rapid pulsations or vibrations of the brake pedal, it may feel like the brakes are “pushing back at you,” or the pedal may suddenly drop. Also, the valves in the ABS controller may make a noise that sounds like “grinding” or “buzzing.” These are not signs that the ABS is not working, they are signs that the ABS is working, so if you're braking hard, and you this happens, just keep the brake pedal pressed down.
One way to test your ABS brakes, and also familiarize yourself with the feeling of how they work, is to drive your car ( fairly slowly ) on a loose gravel lot ( without any people or traffic ) and apply the brakes hard.
 
Woodbine - that's exactly it! Roads were hideous this evening & pile of crap have dropped from the chassis of my car onto the drive so hopefully my car will be 100% tomorrow. It took me 1h40 to get from Ennicorty to Wexford Town this morning
 
I wouldn't recommend you make that journey tomorrow to dublin unless absolutely necessary. A lot of roads along your route from wexford where hazardous today, and tomorrow is meant to be even worse.
 
Wexford will be a nightmare tomorrow. Came up from there today, and the untreated roads are appalling.

OP -- have you ever had ABS kick in before this? What you describe sounds exactly like the ABS doing its job. Having ABS kick in for the first time is a bit unnerving. My own was doing it frequently this morning in Wexford area.
 
Hi Dub Nerd

I've never had it kick in like this before - mind you, this car has never seen weather like this before...