Grinding Noise When Braking At Low Speeds UNTIL ABS Light Comes On

[LoveThatTurbo]

My 330i's been doing this weird thing where it makes a rattling sound at super low speeds like there's something hitting against the tires. Afterwards there's a slight grinding sound when I brake. However, as soon as I brake, the ABS warning light comes on telling me that it's inactive and that I should have it checked out. After the light comes on, the rattling sound goes away and the grinding goes away too, both at low and high speeds. However, after turning the car off and then turning it back on again (eg. after a stop at the gas station), the same process happens again.

I've asked like a bajillion people and tried looking for similar incidents all over the internet but it seems like nobody's ever had this problem. I've already spent a ton on my babe and can't afford any more serious expenditures for at least a while.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[White94RX]

Seems like you need to do the obvious and have the codes scanned.

[LoveThatTurbo]

Seems like you need to do the obvious and have the codes scanned.

So you think it's something to do with the computers on board rather than mechanical stuff?

[NoQuarterX]

Have you actually LOOKED at the brake components?

[Krkennedy0809]

I am having this exact problem now! Did you ever find out what the issue was?

[rm0310]

Did you guys ever figure this out? If you have, it would be cool to update and wrap up the thread for sake of future reference.

- - - Updated - - -

Grinding brakes typically means that you have worn through your brake pads and are now grinding directly on the rotors.

At this point, you would typically need to replace the rotors (as well as of course the worn out pads).

You could potentially machine down the rotors to be smooth again, if you wanted to save some cash, but would need to find a solid shop to do that.