psteng19

Having not driven the TSX in snow much, yesterday was one of the first times I had ABS activate for more than a second.

I was on slushy conditions and while trying to brake somewhat normally, it pulsated the brake pedal pretty violently and the car did little to slow down... pretty scary stuff. I was going maybe 15 mph at the time.

Is this normal?

curls

ABS pulsates the brakes for you, and yeah it sounds normal what you experienced. The ABS pulsation transfers directly through the pedal so yes, you will feel it, and it's at a fairly high frequency (I'd guess 10-15 pulses per second?).

LukeaTron

The reason it was doing little to slow down is the same reason the ABS was going off. Your tires were slipping.

LuvMyTSX

Yup, it's normal. It takes some getting used to when you come from a car with no ABS or if you haven't had it kick in before.

dthondatune

Normal. A bit scary at first... but normal.

ak3883

I had a 92 Accord, it was the first Accord offered with ABS(on the EX only). The pedal pulsaded a lot more and was much louder than my 98 Accord I just traded. Still have yet to feel it on my new 08 TSX ABS system.

But yea that is totally normal to feel it pulsating like that. I'm used to it cause I have only driven cars that have ABS on them.

TheDukeZip

When I first got my TSX one of the first things I noticed was the ABS felt very different than any car I had every driven before. It surprised me how hard the pulsing of the pedal was.

Previous cars were all various Ford/GM/Chrysler products.

psteng19

Yeah, it's my first car with ABS, but I've driven other cars with ABS and it was much less violent than on the TSX.

acn684

i think thats a good thing it pulsates, at least u know when it kicks in so you know when u might be loosing grip on the tires.

cestmoi

My first experience with this pulsation in my TSX was in early January when there was a patch of ice near an intersection. I was driving perhaps 15mph and trying to stop. Scared the crap out of me.

And it wasn't my first experience with ABS as I had it on my Mercedes E190 before and it was similar.

TacoBellSauce

ABS is def a scary experience at first

i took my maxima out on the day of the storm here in NJ and was going downhill at Rutgers when the galant in front crashed into the car in front of it. i step on the brakes hard and the abs start pulsating like crazy
unfortunately there wasnt enough space for the car to come to a stop without hitting the galant so i yanked the emergency brake and came to a stop on my side. Luckily the bus stopped in time or bye bye maxima lol

Simba91102

I too had a 92 Accord EX w/ ABS and I'll agree that the engagement was pretty noticeable. In my opinion, the TSX ABS is much less noticeable (can't think of a softer way to say "more violent"). Coming from 10 years of Audis and BMWs with ABS, I've found the Honda version much less "violent" than the Germans' take on it.