So frightening, Annie. I am grateful you managed that malfunction so well and are alright.

Very scary but you handled it well.

I think they were doing what they are supposed to be doing, especially if they worked fine on the way home.

I hate not knowing mechanical things. Thursday I went out to my car and there was a curved piece of steel by my front tire. I picked it up and just for kicks went to my mechanic. He said it was my front strut coil and showed me with a flashlight where the spring was compressed instead of being wide open like it should have been. It was missing one, the one that broke.

I said I had errands to run but thought I'd better see him first. He said it was a good thing I did, if I had hit a pothole or drove over a something rough it could break and go into my front tire or lose control and cause a heckuva lot of damage.

So glad you are safe, @Annie Deighnaugh. I probably wouldn't have tried to drive home...just too scary for me.

Good job, @Jasdip, stopping at a mechanic first thing!

I appreciate you're suggesting they were doing their job, but I disagree in that the roads were essentially dry (we'd had a brief shower an hour earlier) and certainly no ice or freezing conditions as it's in the 50s. Moreover, my inability to steer was an issue. I don't think I could've been hydroplaning or anything as I was going too slowly...I was pulling up to a stop sign in a residential street. Also, thinking back, there have been a few times in the past 2 or 3 maybe, where I'm pulling up to a stop sign, step on the brakes and it took a split second for them to engage...and then everything was normal. But you have this sensation that you're stepping on the brakes and they're not responding. This was similar to that only instead of being a split second, it was several seconds that the brakes weren't working properly. There are all kinds of wheel sensors that will turn the abs on based on wheel speeds and such that could go awry. So I'm getting it all checked out. Hopefully if something was wrong, the computer would have a record of it.

The brief shower could have been the culprit. The road oil lifts up with the rain and makes the road slick until it’s washed away. Or at least that’s what ”they” say.

But of course brakes are about the last thing you want to take risks with; if you’re feeling uneasy then you should get them checked out.

I couldnt steer once when the car stalled while slowing down. Weird things started happening occassionally after that. The wipers woukd come on and off, at the same time the a/c would cut off, and the doors would start locking and unlocking. The dealer suggested getting a new a/c system- umm no! It turned out to be the electrical box

What FOAS said is what we PNWers are reminded of every fall. We get an inch or two of rain all summer, so the first rain of the rainy season makes the roads very slippery.

They have the car and are looking at it including looking for error codes and will be test driving it as well. It needed it's usual service anyway so we'll get that done at the same time.

Oh, man that's scary Annie. I remember driving my DH's F150 out of the parking lot at a flea market a number of years ago and the steering failed. I had to call AAA. I was lucky not to have entered the highway. I could have died and taken other people with me.

Wow...scary. Something similar happened to me years ago on the throughway in FL. While driving, suddenly the steering wheel stopped functioning and the brakes felt weird. We did manage to get home without further incident. It turned out to be the accessory belt coming loose and it was a recurring problem. Thank goodness we got rid of that lemon.

Vehicles are getting too fancy pants for me. I kinda miss the old daze when cars were simpler (and yeah sure, less safe). But when a car gets a mind of it's own that's not much of a comfort. Glad you're a-ok Annie!

Brakes doing what you described have been my recurring nightmare for years!

Glad you're getting it checked out. Let us know!

ABS systems, which I believe have been mandatory on all cars for a good while, are one of the most important automotive safety innovations of the last 50 years. They function precisely by chattering, a repeated very fast on and off functionality on the brake disk or drum, so that the brakes function and don't lock up to produce a skid. They kick in when they sense wheels not turning or slipping on the driving surface. ABS stands for Anti Lock Braking System. Those who learned to drive before ABS brakes became ubiquitous were taught to "pump the brakes" when a skid or wheel lockup seemed to be happening. ABS does that automatically.

The description of the situation suggests a slippery surface, assuming the driver wasn't driving too fast and then trying to stop too suddenly. If so, then the steering behavior is because of a slippery road. If not, some cars (maybe all these days, I don't follow it that closely) now have electronic rather than mechanical connections between steering wheel and the actual steering system that turns the front wheels. It's the auto equivalent of what in a large airplane is called "fly by wire", an innovation for passenger planes first adopted by Airbus. Anything electrical rather than mechanical can hiccup or suffer an electrical/electronic malfunction in rare instances.

I suspect oily roads at the first rain in fall or early winter is a greater problem in the southern part of the West Coast, where the number of spring to fall months without any rain at all is much greater than in the Pac Northwest. I'm okay with that.

Well, I was on a residential street and slowing gradually as I headed for a stop sign like normal, so I don't think I could've been hydroplaning...I wasn't going fast enough and there was no standing water. If oil rose to the surface of the street to cause that much slippage, it must have been a *lot* of oil as I was sliding for quite a stretch...my loss of control was as if I had hit glare ice....but certainly the road surface didn't look any different. I'll see what the experts tell me tomorrow.

Was that your first experience needing to stop abruptly with anti-lock brakes? I think many of us have had similar experiences. ABS actually contributed to a collision I had some years ago. I was in a stop-and-go situation, in line with other cars stopped for a red light. I was rolling (not accelerating) when the pickup in front of me stopped suddenly. When I tried to do the same, my brakes kicked in, making their ABS noise, and my low-slung car slid right under the pickup truck. It felt just like I was skidding on ice. Grrr . . .

Alisande, I've used ABS before and am aware of it, but this was different.

I used to participate in track days at Road Atlanta. My mechanic got me involved. On about my 3rd time I lost my ABS brakes midway through day one. I wasn't on the track, I noticed the alert light between track times. Luckily my mechanic was there as one of the instructors so I found him and he came and checked my car out. Basically I had overheated the brakes and the ABS shut itself off. When you do a track event you disengage your ABS system anyway, so it was just a self protection aspect when the ABS shut itself off.

When the ABS is working correctly, the chattering is what you will experience. The brief rain, as others have already stated, was probably the culprit. A quick rainshower will cause the oils on the asphalt to rise to the surface, which creates an unstable surface as far as the ABS/braking system is concerned. You hit the brakes and due to the slick surface, they don't immediately grab. Imperceptible to you, but the ABS senses it and will engage, causing the chattering. Most people instinctively then press harder on the brakes, extending the chattering response.

Annette, I've either read (or maybe heard on "Car Talk") the opposite: When they hear the ABS noise, especially for the first time, most people instinctively lift their foot off the brake, when in fact they should maintain steady pressure. I'll look this up when I have time.

Alisande, you may be right. It's possible I'm thinking of people who are participating in track events. One of the things they teach you to do at a HPDE is to approach a turn building speed as much as you can do comfortably. Then just before the turn, you stand on the breaks, and then accelerate through the actual turn. I have discovered that there are those who are naturals at some of these steps, and some who are not. I was a NOT, lol. Which is the reason I started going to begin with, I felt the need to learn to control my car in situations that seemed out of my control.

Alisande - I'm pretty sure I heard the same comment on Car Talk and elsewhere. It only happened to me once and my first instinct was to remove my foot - but then my brain kicked in and I kept my foot on the brake. Boy do I miss those guys thought - what a great show .

Click 'n Clack....that takes me back....we still stream Motor Week. RIP Pat Goss.

I didn't lift my foot off...I pressed harder as we weren't stopping at all. I find it hard to believe that it was an oil situation as most oil is usually left by the stop sign where the cars stop. There was a car already there so I was well back from it.

Well, when I hear what the mechanic has to say, I'll let you know. He may tell me it's just the nut behind the wheel...

Glad you're okay.

I hope they find a cause because when it's fixed, it will put your mind at ease that it won't happen again. If they don't find anything mechanical and cannot adjust the nut behind the wheel, perhaps look at the possibility there was extra oil on the road in that spot. I'd be wanting to go check, but I was thinking maybe there was an accident there earlier and some fluids leaked that didn't get cleaned up?

I talked to the dealership and they didn't find any error messages or anything wrong. They will test drive it again, and then if they don't find anything, let us pick it up. All I can think is that with the rain, it was enough to create an oil slick. I hope that's all it was. It will take some time to get my confidence back in the car. Either it's fine, or it will kill me. So it goes.

They're making these new cars so smart that they will turn on us one of these days...

Yikes, Annie. It sounds like an hydraulic issue, or sensors. Glad you’re okay.

Seems like the dealership would have discovered a hydraulic or sensor problem.

Glad you came through well, Annie.

I noted that you were some distance behind the vehicle ahead of you. Aren't you glad?

The rule we hear is that when stopping behind a vehicle ahead, leave room enough to see some of the road surface behind the rear tires of that vehicle.

I've suggested to some drivers that they leave space ahead ... for if you get rear-ended that's one repar job, if it's not too serious. If the vehicle ahead of you is quite close ... quite likely a second repsir job will be necessary. Would you prefer just one, or would the need of a second not bother you heavily?

Spacing is wise for vehicles as well!

ole joyfuelled

I've been thinking more about it, and the 4-way stop was empty of cars except for the one stopped at the sign in front of me. This is an intersection where people generally will almost stop, especially if no one is around. But that car was fully stopped and took awhile to get going. I wonder if they too had hit oil, slid and was stopped trying to recover from the shock...

Annie, my Outback behaved like yours when descending our ice- and snow-covered driveway last winter. Here's hoping it was a legitimate engagement of your ABS and not something random.

Annie - I'm so glad you're safe and hopefully it's just the ABS doing when it's meant to do.

@Eileen - Like you we are warned to be careful on the roads after a dry stretch of weather because of the oil on the roads making them slick and when it's really raining we get hydro-planning warnings.

I drove for decades without knowing about oil rising to the road surface after a rain. And then I found out about it the hard way--driving a rear-wheel drive sedan before we had ABS, braking suddenly, and going into a spin. My big car ended up impaled on a big rock.

Annie what was the diagnosis?

NPF....No Problem Found. They checked everything and had several people road test it. I've been driving the car since without incident. So I can only figure that there was just enough mist/rain to lift oil off the road and create a slick, and the car did exactly what it was supposed to with the ABS, and that's why I couldn't steer. But I have to say, in my 50 years of driving, I've *never* had that happen before. I hope it won't happen again!

The dealership checked out the car thoroughly, so I hope you can drive with no worries. If it were me, I think I would not be able to drive to that stop sign for awhile without thinking of the skid.

So, glad NPF and that you’re ok. It does sound like what Food, Elmer, Annette and others have suggested. A section of slick roadway and your ABS system functioning as it should, the best it could with a momentary slick patch.

I have a car with Fly By Wire steering. It responds well, but doesn’t have that tight immediate sportscar feel.

Annie, I think what frightened you so was feeling out of control of the car, but the car was in fact in control, and keeping you safe.