Today i was going down the freeway when i saw cars abruptly coming to a stop infront of me. I hit the brakes pretty fast but not hard enough to lock them out. What happened is it felt like the ABS was being actuated but i couldnt apply more pressure felt like idk 50% pressure was being applied to brakes. At one point i heard like a consistent rattle that almost sounded like the bumper was grinding on and off the floor... my car was still rolling forwards at a pretty steady pace and not slowing down. I saw an open lane next to me and so i just slid over. Had i not had room to slide over i wouldve rear ended the car in front of me. I drove the rest of the way home cautiously but the brakes seemed to work fine afterward. Ive applied full force braking prior to this incident so i know how abrupt the car can stop and what the abs feels like but this felt way different. Felt like it had a lack of braking power. Has there been any TSBs or has anyone felt any similar behaviour regarding braking?

 

When was the last time the brake fluid was changed out?

 

I only took possession of the vehicle around 8 months ago. Don't have service records but the brake fluid is at proper level. Don't know what types of brakes are on the car. They are low I guess but not low enough to engage the noise clip thing.

https://streamable.com/g0phac

There is the video of the incident but unfortunately I had my mic muted. From the point which I applied brakes you can see a little bit of sway as I try to figure out what the hell to do in a parsec. The wheels were very much still rolling forward and not progressively coming to a halt

 

First I am not aware of any TSBs related to ABS system, but you might want to research further with that.
I would start with inspecting the front pad thickness and if caliper slide pins are moving freely. Inspect the rear drum brake shoe thickness and wheel cylinders for leakage. Rear drum brakes last a long time on these cars. My 09 Fit has about 155K miles and shoe thickness is still within specs.
What you described is not normal braking but start with basic inspection first.

 

Definitely have the brakes looked at and consider changing out the brake fluid. It's an inexpensive maintenance item that affects your safety a lot.

 

Great driving there m8!

In the video it seems there is a liquid on the right side of the lane where you were stopping; could that have been part of the issue?

In any case, I would not drive this and get the brakes fully checked by a good mechanic ASAP. The fix may not be expensive but you may feel a lot more comfortable and safe driving.

 

Someone else mentioned this on Reddit. There seems to be coolant or something spilled on the floor, which would've prematurely engaged the abs. I get that part but what I don't get is why the car wasn't stopping.

Ive done a visual inspection of the brake system when I got home pads, fluid, leaks etc but I think I'm just going to buy new pads and redo everything. Current pads are already on the low side.

 

i had these after i bought it from second owner,,brakes booster breathe from engine right?when my car slide down creeping a hill because brakes wouldnt engage and in another time the throttle went wild and the engine is revving and brakes get cut every other second so car isnt slowing down,,had to turn engine off to stop it. i went to replace and do an overall maintence of the car,,fuel filter sparkplugs,tb cleaning mtf change and after that car seems normal

 

It's not very helpful. But my default advice to anyone having brake problems is just to get it checked out. Brakes are too important a safety issue, and I'm just not going to take guesses sight unseen over the internet.

 

Fits are a bit notorious for not stopping all that quickly, 60 MPH - 0 is slower than other cars in the class. Fits have disc brakes front & drums back & I think that has a lot to do with it.

 

Not so much the drums as it is the right pad. The OEM pad is really hard wearing, most of us went over 60k on the original pad. Swap to a softer compound and the difference is pretty huge. Swapping to rear disc brakes really won't help. I would know, swapped mine back in July last year.

 

That's why I never understood the need on the fit to do rear disc brakes when the front brakes are doing like 80-90% of the braking.

 

I did it strictly for looks. I'm single, no kids, no outstanding debt, why not?

 

I am not familiar with the FIT and only came here for a friends car to do some research.
I am familiar with many vehicles and more specifically my present VW Jetta TDI.
The ABS controller on my car is a part of the abs actuator and if I was having issues with stopping quickly enough with the symptoms you mentioned I would look into the ABS controller rather in depth. Especially after reading another has had issues with their brakes as well.

The statement of using a softer brake pad stopping quicker is absolutely true. Ceramic pads are nice as the heat up less, unfortunately that means less friction.
The problem with less friction is less stopping power and longer stopping distance.

So My honest recommendation is to research the ABS system and figure out what you can about it.
Flush the brake system since the vehicle is new to you and that is a regular maintenance item.
Change the pads out with organic, or semi organic pads and de-glaze the rotors and drums. or have them turned.