Weird ABS

[Street]

Well I've been driving home today in the snow and I've noticed a weird problem with the ABS.. I've had it a couple other times but never really paid any attention. It happened once in the snow so I thought I'd recreate it by making the car slide under braking.

What happens is the pedal goes really hard and I get a sort of grinding noise, doesn't sound healthy, I have to lift off and reapply the brakes..

Any ideas?

 

[JD_SCN]

That is the ABS working! It's supposed to do that!???

The vibrating you feel and the noise is caused by the brake pads touching the discs rapidly. If it just made immediate contact you would just slide into the car ahead, this feathers the braking meaning your wheels don't lock up.

Unless you mean something else...but ABS always feels like a grinding vibration through your foot and there is a noise to accompany it...

 

[Street]

Hmm.. Maybe!?

Never had a car with ABS before this one! Didn't think it was meant to make a grinding noise though!?

Been looking into it a bit more, seems like the ABS pump is near the driver and quite loud so you do hear it a lot when it kicks in!

Nevermind, looks like I'm just being a n00b!

 

[erichuyn]

Well, this is how a car's ABS works now.
My Fiesta had it like this, my 6J Ibiza had this, my parents Zafira does it and my LeonII does it aswell.

Every car with ABS does this, the grinding noise is to vibrate the pedal and notify you that the ABS is engaging.

 

[/dev/null]

Yes, definitely meant to do it. Did you do your driving test in an ABS car? They should have shown you what it felt like for your emergency stop.

 

[Tam]

yep, standard ABS .. bloody hate the feeling of a solid hard pedal and no real sign of stopping

 

[Street]

Yes, definitely meant to do it. Did you do your driving test in an ABS car? They should have shown you what it felt like for your emergency stop.

I did my test 9 years ago, was just a Clio I learned in, the cars I had while I was learning and the cars I've had after my test have never had ABS!

Have had about 20 different cars over the years too!

I've only recently been able to afford decent cars, my Focus that I owned for the last year and a half now my FR.

 

[JD_SCN]

Well hope this helps street! Good luck stopping in this snow!

 

[erichuyn]

Yeah, it's not breaking down it's meant like this!

 

[Jedimaster65]

ABS / Braking in the snow...

Be extra careful in the snow guys...extra easy on the brake pedal...if you are getting ABS coming on a lot, you need to be gentler with the middle pedal... I recently went on a defensive driver course...I got top marks but this is one area where the examiner and I disagreed...he advocated using the brakes all the way to a junction, then changing down to leave it, whereas I (tought to drive by a cop driving instructor) feel you should come off the power earlier, and use the gears to slow gently, - especially in icy winter weather, as the the reliance on braking will take you straight to the scene of the accident !

About 10 years back my first car with ABS showed how the system isn't foolproof, - imagine you are going downhill at say 10-20mph, on compacted snow / ice : The ABS cuts in and you get no "chocking" of the snow in front of the tyres, so all you get is a very fast release/slide/release/slide... (the slide being when the brakes are actually touching the disks)

I went into the back of a car like this at only walking speed and no means to get control as the ABS took over. In a very slow downhill situation on ice ABS can be quite dangerous.

It simply wouldn't have happened in a car without the ABS. I wish you could switch it off like TCS/ASR

 

[Rebeldriver]

Hm this snowy spell is certainly showing up the weaknesses of performance tyres
such as the bridgestone potenza's on my fr dsg.
Last night while driving into Dublin in snowy conditions a broken down bus
appeared in front of me on a downhill section of dual carriageway
I applied the brakes easing on first then harder and harder.The car was just sliding along
at about 30mph with the brake pedal dancing against my foot.It honestly
felt like i had no brakes at all and realising i was not gonna stop i had to jump lanes into a tight gap on the left hand side .................phew!
Learned a few thing s last night:

1 the stock seat supplied 17'' bridgestone potenzas are apalling in snow as they are a summer performance tyre with aboslutely 0 yes ZERO braking ability in snow.

2 ABS is only as good as the tyres you have on -obvious but .........take note

3 only use S mode or manual in snow -ensures good engine braking.

4 dont assume the electronics will save you- id have had a better chance of stopping
last night if i was in my first car a mk2 golf with no electronics and cheap tyres.

5 The leon fr tfsi is a lot heavier than it looks and is not easy at all to stop in ice or snow on the stock bridgestone potenzas

Jedi is correct -using engine braking to control slow downs is far more effective
than just stomping on the abs in this car!

All im saying is watch out in the snow if your running bridgestone potenzas re050