ABS activation?

[Benjamin_Trapp@xxxxxxxx]

I jammed on the brakes today to avoid hitting a car that jammed on the
brakes to avoid hitting a car that jammed...  and so on and so forth.
Anyway, I was only going about 20 mph because we had all just made a left
turn (from rest when the light turned green) out of an intersection.  I
think the ABS activated but I'm not sure.  Upon brake jammage, I heard two
frightening noises:  the jingle of my keys slamming into the knee bolster
(on the right side), and terrible clicking sounds emanating from the area
left of the instrument cluster near the base of the A-pillar.  What was this
sound, relays clicking on and off?  It was pretty disturbing because I
thought the brake cylinders were being ripped out of the firewall.  When I
had activated the ABS a month before, the pedal vibrated but the car was
silent.  No clicking sounds anywhere.  Unfortunately, I couldn't reproduce
the phenomenon later when I tried jamming the brakes in the parking lot.
	Also, (if what I heard was in fact the ABS), why would it have
activated?  I thought it was only supposed to activate if it detected
wheelspin, or does it go on if you jam on the brakes really hard regardless
of speed?  The car is an E34 535i if it matters.

Ben Trapp
benjamin_trapp@domain.elided
Dell OptiPlex & WorkStation Industrial Design
PCA / IDSA / CIP / BMW CCA #156642 (NCC)
http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gt9775a/bmwgallery.html (Chris' page)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I think my ABS works

------------------------------