Steering Wheel Hacked Off!!

It isn't quite this simple and if you think about it, it's not in the interests of the manufacturer to sell a design that tries to swap ends when something fails.

There's a noddy failsafe system where these EBD systems are installed, such that it defaults to a steepish front end braking effort - so that is the EBD and ABS are linked and both are disabled by, say, a duff sensor, you merely have old fashioned 70:30 front:rear brake bias, rather than the closer proportions you may get with EBD in use.

Although ABS can do the EBD thing by design, it doesn't split the braking effort 50:50 front to rear, else under even moderate braking you'd trigger the ABS for the rear wheels.

My Ka didn't have EBD, my Saab does. Although the Ka had a strong front brake bias, under the more extreme of conditions it would trigger the ABS at the back. It didn't _feel_ like the ABS was in use, instead you could hear it. I'd typically encounter this behaviour on the track come to think about it, or when going over a short, sharp bump, braking firmly.

The Saab's brakes do have ABS but it isn't anywhere near as chuckable as the Ka and I don't plan on track daying it. I can at least confirm that it has superb brakes with a tonne of horse box behind, probably because the EBD figures out the rear brakes can do more than sit there looking shiny.

How many mpg were you getting when you (allegedly) did this?

That depends a _lot_ on the car.

Columns aren't designed for change. it's not (unlike a rack) something that often needs to be changed. As almost all of them are installed from the inside, they're going to need a significant amount of trim stripping before you get anywhere near the thing. Now on some small modern cars, you're looking at a whole day to get that amount out and then back again, without even starting on the column..

SimonJ ("SimonJ" ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Sorry, but no.

Nor do most non-ABS vehicles.

Ever driven a car with ABS? Ever got the ABS to kick in? Which end locks first?

Every single time, it's the front.

SimonJ ("SimonJ" ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

they usually have liniting valves (rather than load sensing) so that the rears cannot lock under any circumstances. you may have seen the road safety ad. where a driver ploughs into a child with the front wheels locked up, the rears are still turning. personally I reckon it would have stopped in time if the rears were more powerful

hopefully neither end will lock

certainly many are very quick to remove, mostly the column goes below the dash, so only a cover needs to come off, not the whole lot.

When I use the 75 on the track, the only time the rears do anything is when I've overheated the fronts. Once I start locking up rears, I know it's time to come in and let everything cool down.

Mrcheerful ("Mrcheerful" ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Odd how something more likely to be braking heavily - let's take as an example, my 900 turbo - doesn't, then, despite having rear disks, which none of those have. And a boot which would probably hold a Metro. The

I wouldn't. But what difference would it make anyway? It's not going to get fixed. Not at Merc prices.

maybe because they are all lighter and hence MORE likely to lock up wheels than a bigger car with better weight distribution

Mrcheerful ("Mrcheerful" ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

than a car with a markedly nose-heavy weight bias?

Thanks for all the feedback guys

Calling the police in a bit, just for a crime number though, not that it's going to do me any good

You may find, as I did when my son's brand new locked up bike was stolen from a railway car park, that the police don't want to know as it's the railway police's province. They of course feign interest and nothing more is heard from them despite a video cam being right next to the crime scene. So, the moral of the story is never use railway car parks.

Err have you ever driven a Metro? There's a reason they got four pot front calipers.

I'd allege quite a lot of MPGs - I rarely have my foot on the accelerator when using the brakes.

Ssseeeeesshhh. Away for a week then he's back trying to snipe away at me.

I did try two foot dick dancing around, but it wasn't effective enough in the Ka, nor all that useful given the throttle response.