My 98 Disco brakes seemed to lock up while sliding down a muddy hill the other day. The pedal locked up when I tried applying the brakes and since it was a very slippery hill and I was already sliding fast I don't know if the wheels locked up but I feel they judging by the way the car started fish tailing.
The abs sensors looked ok aside from the mud. Any ideas on what cauased this? Is it normal on ABS and muddy environment? Thanks for the help, Marc
Wait till you try it on ice! ABS is famous for giving drivers a false sense of security and then giving thema good kick first time it gets icy. In very slippy conditions cadence braking will stop you quicker than the abs
I don't think the ABS is active below 5mph and if all four wheels lock it'll think your stopped anyway. Low box second and don't touch the clutch is my advice.
Gloat gloat, yes indeed when it comes to it we are all equal in the face of road conditions and there ain't nothing magical that will save you from the hedge I ended up in on Christmas day. Slippery is slipperly and there are factors that have more importance than brakes, at least I knew not to trust mine.
Thanks for the advice but I wasn't expecting ABS to help at all on that hill, heck it was so slippery I don't think anything would've helped, I'm worried ABS was getting in the way.
Anyway, after trying the brakes and realising I was going to be sliding all the way down I hit the gas and powered straight down the hill with some control rather than none. What was wierd was the brake pedal seemed to lock up about halfway down its travel when I did tap it on the way down the hill and it seemed to vibrate which scared the sh__ out of me as I knew I was going to need them at the bottom. At the bottom where slippage was minimal, all was well.
This is the first time for me with ABS off-road, just checking if I missed something in my off-road driving technique readings.
According to the manual for my old Audi 90 (which has an ABS on/off button), ABS should be disabled on "loose" surfaces such as gravel or grass, as the tyre builds up a small wedge of the loose material if it is allowed to skid which helps in the braking. Then again they may have been making excuses for the bad performance of an early ABS system!
You are almost right on the second presumption (they were making excuses) The main reason AUDI was advising the disabling of ABS on "loose" surfaces was the fact that the systems available at this time (back in 1994) were three ways ones (one sensor for the each of the front wheels and one for the pair of rear) which resulted in VERY poor performance on mixed road conditions (such as gravel, rain or snow on only one side of the vehicle's wheel). The processing speed of those systems was pretty low also (only a few times per second of input from the sensors)
Later generations of ABS systems (first introduced in 1995 with the RS2) were given a much faster processing speed (around 50 times per second if I remember well) and a four sensors (one per wheel) so they were operating much better. Nevertheless the ABS still was disengaging automaticaly with the rear differential locked (because of the imminent characteristic of locking diffs to lock both wheels when one is locking) Later system accomodated for this also but just because the rear diff lock was replaced by the ESP (Electronic Stability Program) which is similar in a lot of things to the Land Rover developed ETC (Electronic Traction Control, ie a brake operated sort of locking the diff by decreasing the speed of the spinning wheen instead of locking the diff).
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BUT, it is still recognised that on fresh snow conditions, or when driving on gravel, it is better NOT to have ABS since the build up of snow or gravel actually assists on braking faster than with ABS. On the other hand ABS is much better as it regards increasing the directional capabilities of the vehicle even on those conditions.
Sorry if I got TOO technical about it. Here in Greece where we get lots of gravel and dusty road most of land rover drivers tend to remove the ABS fuse of fit a disabling switch.
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