If the abs sensor is broken the ABS light comes on and stays on.
Christ - do you people know nothing about driving.....
Not heard much from ABS since he left 5ive, glad to hear he's still around.
Smee, how long you been driving ? do you drive a tank ? is your driving perfect ? do you drive in Nevada or somewhere ??
I went to the website Jfeb directed us to, and it clearly states "ABS light may flash on and off" the operative word being 'MAY' so therefore not necessarily so..
Cheers jfeb.
ABS light does come on now & again.
Smee...no. Plainly you are the all knowing & I bow to thee. 😮
Possibly more scary is the fact that you've never practised a full on emergency stop ...........
I was driving down a hill over Cannock Chase today as slow as the car would go, and to gently touch the brake pedal activated the ABS, it was scary going round the corners with cars coming the other way!
This was on compacted snow.
You dont always have to be driving too fast for the ABS to activate, its just useless in snow.
Traction Control was useful though.
Paul, Ask Paul Aston if I got him all the way home (my car wouldnt turn into his side road) Ha Ha
I experienced my ABS this morning* and a fair few times in the past. Not a problem. On my car you can see the ring - its toothed like a fine cog? (with the caliper/disc assembly off) with the plug in ABS sensor.
* thick virgin snow middle of nowhere on a wide road, needed to turn left but thought I'd drive past first to see if carpark doors open yet. Car stopped, just not on a button 😉
Neverfastenuff - Been driving for 15 years, drive a Yaris or a Passat, drive mostly in the Scottish Borders (8" of snow here today) or Edinburgh, but have driven pretty much everywhere and I can drive perfectly when I want to.
Smee,
SOOoooo, you have a roller skate on one foot, and a slipper on the other, no wonder you need such driving skills,
Are you stoned?
[i]It only kicks in when your wheels are doing different speeds due to skidding. [/i]
what b*llocks.
ABS is anti-lock braking. It works when your wheels lock up under braking
I think you're thinking of traction control there matey
No, but the mention of a Yaris (roller skate) - getting stoned seems like a good idea. 🙄
johnhoo - how does your car know that you are skidding?
it's magic
unlike your patter.
It can hear you screaming.. 😡
It only kicks in when your wheels are doing different speeds due to skidding.what b*llocks.
ABS is anti-lock braking. It works when your wheels lock up under braking
I think you're thinking of traction control there matey
How does the car know that the wheels are locked sherlock?
Anyway, what would of happened to the OP if he didn't have ABS, thats right folks he would of skidded straight on in to the nearest whatever.
:rollseyes:
miaow
Just a thought, this isn't actually ABS we are talking about. Its stability control ot traction control. The car brakes the wheels independently to keep the car in a straight line. Sounds like the car was trying to keep you on the road.
Capt Cook - wtf you talking about?
that's what I said
The OP was talking about ABS - anti lock braking. Smee & friends seem to have confused that with traction/stability control
Just a thought, this isn't actually ABS we are talking about. Its stability control ot traction control. The car brakes the wheels independently to keep the car in a straight line.
Nope, we're talking about ABS. Traction/stability control uses the brakes and sometimes parts of the drivetrain to apply power or braking to the wheels independantly to keep you straight while driving. ABS does nothing other than stop your wheels locking and allow you to steer round things (theoretically) when you slam on.
johnhoo - you trippin dude?
and just to prove that I too can copy & paste from wikipedia:
[i]An anti-lock braking system, or ABS (from the German, Antiblockiersystem) is a safety system which prevents the wheels on a motor vehicle from locking while braking.
A rotating road wheel allows the driver to maintain steering control under heavy braking by preventing a skid and allowing the wheel to continue interacting tractively with the road surface as directed by driver steering inputs. While ABS offers improved vehicle control in some circumstances, it can also present disadvantages including increased braking distance on slippery surfaces such as ice, packed snow, gravel, steel plates and bridges, or anything other than dry pavement. ABS has also been demonstrated to create a false sense of security in drivers, who may drive more aggressively as a result.[citation needed]
Since initial widespread use in production cars, anti-lock braking systems have evolved considerably. Recent versions not only prevent wheel lock under braking, but also electronically control the front-to-rear brake bias. This function, depending on its specific capabilities and implementation, is known as electronic brakeforce distribution (EBD), traction control system (TCS or ASR), emergency brake assist (BA, EBA or HBA), or electronic stability control (ESP, ESC or DSC).[/i]
so according to the last paragraph, smee is right. sort of. oh bugger.
I think my Audi had something called ESP. If you went into a corner and it skidded it would break the wheels individually (the ones required) to bring the car under control and get you round the corner. Ferrari & Lambo's have adjustable intevention for how much the car will keep you on the road.
Linking this back to original post, the sensors on the wheels when driving on ice can act straighten the car whilst breaking so traction control is helping to keep the car straight whilst it is decelerating.
yeah man, tripping on the euphoria of getting home from work in one piece thanks to my ABS, EBC, DSC, ESP or whatever it was that stopped me fishtailing like the car in front of me...
tune in, turn on, drop out, man
Capt Cook - MemberI think my Audi had something called ESP. If you went into a corner and it skidded it would break the wheels individually (the ones required) to bring the car under control and get you round the corner. Ferrari & Lambo's have adjustable intevention for how much the car will keep you on the road.
Yeah that's what my Verso has, think its more to do with under and over steer though.
But my Honda has ABS and EBD , but it still scared me at 10mph, so cars can be clever, but when those gizmos come on unexpectedly it is possible for the driver to overreact.
Tiff Needall drove a Lambo with all the gizmos turned off on a snow circuit and controlled it beautifully, he then turned all the safety gizmos on and the car would not even accelerate - that demonstrated perfectly the safety devices that help us all drive.
If the abs sensor is broken the ABS light comes on and stays on.
Smee - No one mentioned the abs sensor. We were talking about the abs ring, which may or may not have caused the OP's brake pedal judder.
Christ - do you people know nothing about driving.....
LOL. Just read what is being posted better.
that's what I saidThe OP was talking about ABS - anti lock braking. Smee & friends seem to have confused that with traction/stability control
At least read my post, how would a car know if the wheels were locked?
Ok, I'll spell it out for you, if all four wheels are locked then the speedo shows zero m/kph, if the speedo shows zero then the car thinks its stationary, how can the car then activate the ABS?
Go on, I reckon you can work out the rest for yourself 😉
jfeb - thank you. you have just saved me replacing the cv joint on my passat.... 😀 Cheers,
ABS is great in the wet or dry even and utterly useless IMO in the snow.
Use the handbrake a bit as well this lets the tyres dig in a bit helping the car to stop.
Only for the experienced though.
ABS works fine in the snow simulates what we were taught do on our advanced driving many moons ago. One thing we told never to do was grab the handbrake.
I am surprised by the general lack of ignorance about this subject shown on this site.
Basically ABS is a system as described that has sensors on the wheels to detects locked wheels. The ABS is linked to a pump that pulses the brakes to prevent full lockup, thereby maintaining steering control.
Since its introduction, various manufacturers have linked other systems to ABS to make cars safer. My Audi A2 for example has accelerometers and steering angle sensors as well as ABS wheel sensors. The car uses the ABS system to prevent wheel spin, ie ABS system is used to give traction control. It will also use the ABS system to prevent sideways drift and skidding. Technically this isn't ABS, but the system is so integrated on modern cars that the ABS wheel sensors do more that provide straight forward ABS.
Bloody surprised you can drive for more than a couple of years and not use ABS. Also surprised how many on here clearly do not RTFM.
CHB - MemberBloody surprised you can drive for more than a couple of years and not use ABS. Also surprised how many on here clearly do not RTFM.
Why the surprise? If you're driving in line with the road conditions, you should never need it to come on.
Having said that, when my wife was learning to drive, I intentionally sought out opportunities for her to try it - so that she [i]wouldn't[/i] get the shock that the OP did.
IMO ABS kicks in waay too early. First time it happened approaching a wet roundabout- NOT hooning etc or misplanning approach I thought 'why so early'? I didnt stab or suddenly press firmly etc.
No abs system will work if all your wheels are locked but if one of them is still turning (such as hit a bit of ice on one side of the car) then the system will cut in and pulse the brakes.
It works by having sensors on all the wheels that look at the peaks and troughs in the abs ring and monitors the speed in relation to each other it has nothing to do with the speedo which gets its information from the final drive side of the gear box.
Different cars abs can be very different. I had a peugot where the pedal would sink when the abs cuts in but on my renault the pedal gets firmer.
Eps/abs is scary on a Citroen C4, when you brake hard the pedal hits the floor and the car is meant to do the rest 😯 only problem is the initial reaction to pump the pedal when it hits the floor! It does helpully put the hazards on for you though.
To answer both Druidh and Hora, I don't always drive in strict accordance with the road conditions, and use adverse road conditions to test how my car reacts when brakeing heavily or trying to lock the wheels. If you don't test how your car behaves in these situations then the first time you have to manage a skid or really need the ABS then it will come as a shock. I just assumed that any owner of a new car will try out things like ABS, just as you would test the brakes on a new bike!
Hora, what you might be experiencing is the ABS testing itself. ABS will periodically to check that the system is working. This is normal. On my car sometimes you can feel the pulses through the pedal even when full ABS is not engaged.
CHB - Memberjust assumed that any owner of a new car will try out things like ABS, just as you would test the brakes on a new bike!
Much as I was suggesting above then.
The maximum braking in soft snow is acheived by locking wheels (just the front, once the rears lock you WILL spin) so a wedge of snow builds up in front of the tyres and provides the stopping force (similar in gravel). But not possible in modern cars, where ABS in nearly standard. WHich for majority of cases is better. This is incorporated into all sorts of DSC, ESP, ASC etc. all of which act differently across different cars. Go and test them out in an appropriate legal place (probably a dedicated skid pan session), its fun as well.
In snow my car will not move with DSC on, so 1st stage is turned off (traction control) to get moving, then turned back on once in motion (even tells you to do this in the manual).
Even knowing this, I still nearly managed to take out the local post box, on black ice at 5mph. Tried all gently, gently approach, nothing happening, so just thought **** that, stood on brakes and let the electronics take over.
jfeb - thank you. you have just saved me replacing the cv joint on my passat.... [:D] Cheers,
You're welcome 🙂
How sensitive the ABS system is varies completely from car type to car type.
I used to have a Ford Focus and the ABS was way too sensitive and there was no way you could left foot brake because the bloody ABS would kick in.
My current MX5 has ABS but in normal driving conditions it barley ever kicks in, but this morning it kicked in just as easily as any other car would because there is so little grip on snow.
It was also interesting trying out the DSC system this morning. Even that couldnt cope at times and was locking fron wheels to keep the car going in a straight line. How with it off it was much more fun 🙂
If you READ the manual of your car it does say ABS makes the car take longer to stop on snow. IMO to have scared yourself that much, and that you couldnt stop in time you were going way too quick for the conditions!
Hora, what you might be experiencing is the ABS testing itself. ABS will periodically to check that the system is working. This is normal. On my car sometimes you can feel the pulses through the pedal even when full ABS is not engaged.
ABS should never activate in normal conditions. Self-tests are done at start-up and the first stint of low speed, after ~5mph the control unit tests and calibrates the wheel speed sensors and is ready to go, at no point should the pump be cycling. Some cars do just have stupidly ABS-happy systems. I have noted that having corroded discs plays a massive factor (obviously) and that the ABS on my peugeot kicked in rediculously early until I changed the discs when I noticed the rear faces had built up some rust.
