Earlier tonight, I was backing up in an empty parking lot and I have to admit, I kind of goosed the throttle a little bit and got up to about 20mph in reverse. Well, I started to slow down to turn around and exit the parking lot and while applying my brakes VERY SOFTLY, my ABS kicked in. It was the weirdest thing. I got out of the car to make sure I didn't roll onto a piece of rock while backing up and mistake a tire pulling the rock along the pavement as ABS and there was nothing to slip on. Any ideas?

 

The car's braking system is designed to be used mainly for forward travel. When you're driving forward, the front's do about 70% of the work of stopping the car, and the brakes are set up to do this. Since you were in reverse, when you pressed the brake, the car squatted in the rear while the front raised up and lost traction. The ABS system compensated for this. EVERY older car I've ever had moving at that speed in reverse (pre ABS days) would lock the front wheels when the brakes were applied.

Nothing's wrong. It did what it was supposed to do.

Rawhyde

 

Thanks! That actually makes a lot of sense...

 

I get to experience that backing down my driveway on wet leaves every Fall.
First time, like you, light touch on the brakes and ABS came on. I was at first concerned about an ABS fault but the evidence of skidded leaf piles at the front wheels explained it.