ABS Working/ Not Working?

[Bekverdy30]

To start off this issue, my brake pedal on my car is super stiff. I wanna say it has about a total of 3/4 of an inch of travel. Secondly, my brake lining light is on which I believe is my rear brake lining wear sensor (i have already changed the front one). When I brake hard, sometimes my abs kicks in and sometimes it locks up. Most of the time it locks up. It happened to me on the freeway going around 70 mph when someone cut me off and I had to brake hard. It scared the sh*t out of me and now I am looking to fix this since I care for my life. I do not have any anti- lock lights on the cluster. The only thing that is on is the brake lining light. Could it be the abs sensors or my brake booster being stiff? I need help before I die, thanks!

[DesktopDave]

If you're unfamiliar with working on brake hydraulics, please seek professional advice from a good independent Euro mechanic. They've been worth their weight in gold to me over the years. I'm not bragging here: I have decades of experience with makes & models from the 70s through the teens, a very nicely outfitted man-cave, and I'll still take cars to my mechanic for jobs I'm unfamiliar with.

Anyhow...it seems to me that your ABS system is working as designed. I'd suspect another problem. if your brake pedal is super stiff, I'd check for a seized caliper or air in the brake lines. My brake pedal is pretty tight but not nearly as bad as yours.

I'm not trying to be pedantic here, just trying to figure out your mechanical skill & familiarity:
How old is the brake fluid?
Brake lines looked OK? No cracking in rubber hoses nor rust on hard lines?
How did you bleed the system?
Is there any possibility of debris in the master cylinder?
Were the caliper pistons difficult to retract on the last brake job?
Are the brake pad rails and caliper slide pins lubed properly?
Does the brake booster groan or chatter?

New calipers can be pricey, but they're easy to rebuild if you're handy. RockAuto has a decent selection of cheap rebuilt calipers. Centrics have worked OK for me. PM me for a discount code.

Those break pad lights have been unreliable for me. Mine always have problems. I've done a lot of work to turn off that stupid dash light but it seems to break again every year or so. It's on right now!

[Bekverdy30]

Thanks for the reply. I think I'm just going to have it inspected by a reputable euro mechanic shop. Definitely out of my comfort zone to try and fix. My brake fluid was last changed when I changed my master cylinder but it wasn't a full flush. I suspect it's my brake booster as another mechanic has told me who has driven my car. He is also the one who did my brake pads and he didn't mention anything about the calipers being seized. My brake line look fine to my eyes and the hardlines look fine as  well. But yet again I need to give it to a professional to confirm. Also, I am an amateur so I take every bit of criticism constructively haha.