1996 ford bronco brakes/ABS

|I live in the snow belt and I have to say ABS is great except when your |coming up to a stop sign slowly and hit the brakes and the dam ABS comes on |because one wheel was on ice and you go right throw the intersection!! |Pretty Dam scary and standing standing on the brakes doesn't make a |difference, which is just a reaction when you don't stop as you do out into |the traffic. I think ABS shouldn't work under a certain speed, anyone else |experience this? | |Anyway the ABS thing I have to live with but recently I've notice on dry |pavement that the brakes won't lock up, they seem to bottom out about 1/2 |way to the floor and more pressure won't move the peddle past that point. |Seems only to happen when I need to brake for a longer period and they loose |their grab?? No leaks and the brakes are all new, actually that¹s the reason |the brakes are all new because I was trying to solve this problem. I heard |it could be the result of the ABS valve, internal leak or something.

It's a known fact that ABS is a detriment in a few circumstances, notably in situations as your describe. Best braking in loose snow over ice is lockup, so the snow stacks up in front of the non-rolling tires. |

Rex in Fort Worth

pull the fuse. There, real brakes again.

Problem with that is if I was in an accident I'll be held liable and my insurance company may not cover me. Getting pretty tough around here on mods to vehicles, great way for insurance companies to get out of paying.

time to change insurance companies then. It's been proven that non antilock stops shorter than antilock. Maybe not as straight, but shorter. And shorter is the name of the game. All of ours are disconnected in a fleet of

I don't disagree.... but if someone got hurt in an accident and the lawyers got wind of the fact that you purposely disabled the ABS, well let's just say I wouldn't want to be in your shoes. Bob

I agree as well.

Not sure shorter is the real name of the game. Stopping while under=20 control is more important to me, especially in snowy conditions. I use=20 to have 1979 Mustang that would lock up and swap ends with the lightest=20 touch in wet conditions. I'll take ABS - used properly - over non-ABS=20 in (Canadian) winter any day.

--=20 S t i =A9 k y

The deal is when one tire is on ice and the other 3 are on dry pavement the abs kicks in because one tire locked up and you go further than you would if if you didn't have ABS. Try it sometime. But that¹s not my problem, that¹s the way ABS works. My problem is on dry pavement the wheels will not lock up, the brake fade, the ABS is not coming on!! The wheels need to lock before the ABS comes on, and trust me you know when the abs is on because you hear it and feel it.

That makes sense. Thanks. I live in southern Arizona so I don't have any ABS experience with snow. I do have ABS, however, on my car and I don't really notice it one way or the other. Maybe I should be following closer? jor

ABS doesn't "apply" the brakes. You do. ABS releases them to prevent lockup. Anytime you 'release' the brake, you are not 'applying' the brake. Hence, the shorter stopping distances with non abs.

ABS works fine at high speeds and in the rain, but at slow speeds on slipper surfaces snow or ice its a bit of a pain, actually its scary when you come to an intersection and you expect to stop but you keep going. I remember the old commercials when I was a kid where they showed ABS would stop you in a shorted distance with control, but this was always on high speed passes on wet roads. But they don't seem to advertise the shorter stopping distance anymore but instead they advertise the skid control aspect of it. My experience with most people is when in a panic situation they hit the brakes and freeze on the wheel instead of turning away or around the situation that caused them to hit the breaks in the first place. I feel a good experience driver will out brake out maneuver someone with ABS. I wonder if race cars use ABS??

Take care.

Pull the fuse, blow it, then replace it again.

Yes but again that doesn't solve my brake fade problem.

No, you'd notice if the ABS kicked in. There's no way you can not notice, even if you're deaf. You just haven't been in a situation where the ABS felt it needed to react (or the ABS system was killed, somehow, and you don't know it). If you want to demonstrate it, come and visit in a week or two when the snow and ice returns :-).

-D

I think you're right about that.

I have yet to drive an ABS-equipped vehicle more than occaisonally. I also haven't had any real problems either (in upstate New York, where snow is plentiful in the winter time). You just need to know how the brakes work and work with them. Then you can control any skids you get into (or create).

I would actually rather not have ABS during a snow storm because the brakes don't work normally especially if you let up on the pedal and then push it again.

Although I think the ABS in my mom's '94 Astro helped me a couple weeks ago. I think the sound of it startled the deer causing it to only bang the door rather than continuing to cross the road in front of me. (so, perhaps, it wasn't so much the ABS as it was the noise that helped :-))

-D