abs?

It may be that you activated the abs system by braking hard.
The symptoms and effect on the brake pedal are much as you describe.

ABS is designed to enable you to brake hard and still enable you to steer the car under braking. This is achieved by a pump effectively operating the brakes on and off and you can feel this through the brake pedal,and the abs light flashes.

Once you have finished braking hard the brakes operate as normal.
There is no adjustment to be made to the system it either works or does not. If it fails then there is normally a warning light on the dash that stays on.

Also are you sure that it was the abs light and not the brake pad wear light. If the pads are worn you will also get a grinding noise and this is because the lining have worn and are in contact with the brake discs. Brake pads and sensors will need to be replace in this case.

Maurice
March 2011