![]() ![]() And then we were told to drive at 50 miles an hour into a calibrated area and to stop as quickly as we could. We were put through our paces on the skid pad, practicing what to do with our twitchy rear ends. My own best experience with ABS occurred in 1985 when I took the BMW advanced driving course, run by the Skip Barber Racing School at the Lime Rock racetrack in Connecticut. In fact, some insurance companies offer a reduction in premium for cars with antilock brakes. ![]() And they prevent you from running into the immovable object that you might otherwise have tried to move. They do allow control in an emergency stop. ![]() That is boggling, at least to those of us who value ABS as the third most important safety factor in a car after seatbelts and air bags. And another part has to do with a new study by the Highway Institute for Traffic Safety, which shows that ABS has saved almost nothing in terms of insurance claims. Part of it has to do with drivers not knowing how to use ABS. With a firm stomp on the pedal, the vehicle will stop in a straight line and in a much shorter distance.Īll the same, there is controversy over antilock brakes. That allows the driver to steer, at the same time keeping the tires from sliding and preventing the car from lurching to one side or the other, depending on the road surface. When that happens, the sensors send a signal through a central computer to the brakes, pumping them many times a second and slowing the wheels while keeping them rolling. ABS does that by using sensors that recognize the imminent lockup of the wheels. The main purpose of antilock brakes is to keep the wheels from locking up and to prevent an uncontrollable skid. But the questions indicate that a great many people seem not to know what it is or how to use it. ABS (which originally meant Anti-Blocking System and now has come to stand for Antilock Braking System) has been around for decades, first on airliners and later on trucks and cars. ![]() And a spate of questions for me, most of them about antilock brakes.Īnd, I must say, the queries have surprised me. A spate of misery for much of the eastern part of the country. Cars without ABS brakes will only have the flexible brake line.A LOT of snow. If the car has ABS brakes, there will be a flexible rubber brake hose attached to the brake caliper and a wire attached to the speed sensor in the hub area. Turning the steering wheel all the way to one direction or the other will make it easier to see behind the wheel. The final method for determining the presence of ABS brakes is to get in a position from which you can see the back of one of the front wheels. Additionally, the pump itself will have several other brake lines attached. This pump is located near the brake master cylinder and will be connected to the master cylinder by one or two metal brake lines. The first visual check is to look for an ABS pump under the vehicle hood. If you do not see a light for the ABS system, two methods remain to determine if your vehicle has ABS brakes. All of the warning and informational lights will be illuminated and any car equipped with an ABS system should display an "ABS" or "Anti Lock" light at this point. The next method is to look at your dash's instrument panel when turning the ignition key to the "ON" position, but not all the way to the start position. The easiest method is to read your owner's manual. You can determine if your car has an ABS system in four ways. While ABS brakes are very common now, not all cars and trucks are equipped with them. ![]()
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