Myth? ABS kicking in when brakes overheat.
 

Hello everyone.

I've been reading this forum for over two years now, but only registered now. I had a small incident with my brakes and the dealer seems to be BS'ing me, so I wonder if any of you can shed some light on this:

I was driving down a pretty long and steep slope a few weeks ago (Whiteface mountain, in upstate NY) and the car (2008 HCH2) was going too fast even in Low gear. The drivers in front of me were riding their brakes like crazy so I had to do the same for a few minutes, to keep a safe distance from them.
Obviously my brakes started overheating after a few minutes and then I started hearing and feeling a pulsating noise and vibration similar to when the ABS kicks in. I pulled over for a few minutes until the brakes cooled down and the cars in front went away, and then I was able to get to the bottom of the hill without using the brakes. I've put a few hundred miles on the car since then and never heard that noise again.

I took the car to the dealership last week and asked them to inspect the brakes. I explained the type of sound and vibration I heard and the guy said "Oh, that's just the ABS kicking in to prevent overheating". Now, I know a bit about how cars work and I've never heard of this feature on any car model (although it does sound like a good idea). I expressed my disbelief but the guy kept insisting that the HCH does have such a feature. They did check my brakes and said everything looked fine.

I've searched the internet and couldn't find any mention of such a feature anywhere, so I'm still thinking the dealer was just BS'ing me to get rid of me.

Have any of you ever heard of something like that? Is there an e-mail address where I can ask Honda about such a feature?

Cheers,
Robert.