2003 Front Brakes locking under heavy braking w/rw abs only
 

OK, I realize that my truck only has the rear wheel ABS, but the fronts seem to lock TOO quickly unless the pavement is dry. My truck is also AWD. I slid into some moron today as they cut me off really badly and I just locked up the fronts (in the rain, wet roads) and at least got it under 10mph before impact.

Anyhow, what should I be looking at? I'm starting to think my tires might be old, gotta check the date codes. I did a 4 wheel brake job with all new rotors/pads/hardware all around about 3 months ago. On dry pavement the truck stops like a bear. I drove it in one snow storm when I got it and it was all over the place when stopping (needed brakes then I was hoping that would fix it). My pedal is perfect, no lights, no leaks, everything seems to be working fine otherwise.

I'm looking for opinions. If tires are the biggest suggestion, I'd love some opinions on those as well, just remember I am in Canada and tires are about 40% more expensive here than the US.

THanks in advance!

if you only have rwabs then it sounds like its behaving normally. like you already determined the weak link and only thing left to check is tires, but unless you drive an extremely low annual milage its unlikely your tires are aging out before they wear out.

I was worried about that, this is the only real weak link in this truck.

I doubt it's a weak link in anything. If you really wanted to know, pull the fuse for the rear anti lock and see if the back locks up about the same time. Seems like a limitation of your tires though. There are some ****ty tires out there cough goodyear wrangler cough.

thank you for agreeing that the tires are the weak link :D, yes there are some ****ty tires out there, and the goodyears that are on my RAM are among them. Which ones did you have problems with?

The ones I had were wrangler radials. They were ok in the dry, but any water on the road and they just slid like it was ice. I've since had firestone destination a/t and general grabber at2 on the Durango, and both are way better.

Yeah check your tires tread depth and age. That's what I would say is your issue. Mine does the same. Got better when I got new tires, but still not great (off brand mud tires). Put good tires on it and you'll be surprised. It'll never be as good as 4WABS but it'll be much better with good tires.

And I back the argument about Wranglers. Have them on my company truck. 2015 Chevy Colorado. They are worthless with any amount of water on the road. I'll never buy Good for a Years.

They are Michelins and they are date coded to 2014 so I don't believe they are the issue. I'm just thinking that I need to keep a larger distance in front of me in the poor weather than I am used to.

I don't do Goodyear, lol.

How much tread do they have left? RWABS will never be as good as 4WABS. Once you achieve lockup, you just slide. The best stopping power you'll ever get is just before lockup. But once you lock up, you just slide. My suggestion, go drive on an empty road with nothing around you next time it rains (when it hasn't rained in a while, most slick. Oh! And on black top, not cement) and test the limits of how far you can push that pedal. You'll feel the difference. Stopping power will increase until the fronts lock then you just slide. Need to back off, let the tires spin again then apply slightly less pressure. Wet black top is by far the slickest crap You'll encounter short of snow or ice.

Or buy another Durango with 4WABS :icon_beerchug:

Also... 4 year old tires. I don't care how good they are (yes Michelins are great) but the compound hardens as they age. Tires are only deemed good by the DOT for 6 years. So 2/3 of the life of those tires are gone. It makes a difference in how they respond specifically in slick conditions.

ha i hear ya, my RAM requires a gentle touch to get going in heavy rain or snow without spinning, going with a set of cooper discoverer at3s when these are shot, which will probably be fall of 19, the damn wranglers wear like iron.



as for tires aging out, id say they heat cycle out long before the age out, at least if you do any amount of driving that puts some heat into them (highway driving puts a surprising amount of heat into tires believe it or not), im convinced that my 18 month old tires on my challenger are heat cycled out with only 8 or 9k miles on them :/ (its my toy and gets used for performance driving so the tires do see more heat than street driving)