2000 Mazda B3000 Ticking when applying brakes.

ABREANNEH

MEMBER
2000 MAZDA B3000
6 CYL
4WD
MANUAL
245,000 MILES

When I brake it starts to tick. Sometimes the ticking stops after a few seconds. Sometimes it ticks until I let off them. Also last night the abs light came on, but while it was on the ticking stopped. Then when I re started the truck later it was ticking again and light was off.

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,873 POSTS

Given the multiple symptoms and observations, the ticking is likely the anti-lock brake hydraulic controller activating, which is a normal sound, but it's activating due to the appearance of a tire about to start skidding. That's called "false activation", and is usually due to a wheel speed signal dropping out to the point it can't be read by the computer.

The yellow ABS warning light turning on means the computer did detect a problem, and it set a diagnostic fault code to tell you what it found. The system turns off when the light is on, and that's why it didn't activate anymore and you didn't hear the ticking. To reset the system you have to turn the ignition switch off and back on, then it will work normally until the problem acts up and is detected again.

With intermittent problems like this it's important that you do not disconnect the battery or let it run dead until the fault codes have been read and recorded, otherwise that valuable information will be lost.