dark inspire

yesterday evening, i was on the freeway driving to go to a restaurant to celebrate that Honda would give us a new tranny in our oddyssey for free even though it was past the 100,000 mile mark. traffic was flowing smoothly, then all of a sudden, i see everyone before me stagnant and w/ their brakes on, so i slammed on the brakes, my mom who was with me shrieked and started sayin somethin, i was too busy concentrating on not crashing. but as i floored teh brakes i did S curves in my lane which i thought would make me stop faster. i ended up stopping a safe distance from the car ahead of me but jus barely. my question is did i do the right thing i swearving from side to side, and how much of my brake pads and rotors did that kill? sorry for the long post, and thank you in advance. it was one rough stop.

BIG_KOUT

seriously, I think i would have kept the steering wheel strait, and let ABS do all the work, unless you didn't have enough time to stop which it looks like you did.

dark inspire

yeah thas the thing, i wasnt sure, cuz i barely made it. but somethin in my head told me to swerve back n forth.

sc354

if anything all you were doing is wearing your outter tire tread a lot more than you needed to. At that speed, a sudden movement of the steering wheel right or left, will unevenly wear the tires.

Like the other guy said, I would have simply slam on the brakes, and not swirved the wheel. No wonder your mom shrieked!!! I would have too!!!

Tatewaki

to swerve will only cause your car/van to spin off/fishtail much easier. Just keep it straight and pply pressure to the brakes. Let ABS do the job. If it's really close, steer to the shoulder 9if there is one) to give you more distance to stop. ABS will let you steer and not going straight should you lock up the wheels

Pure Adrenaline

iTrader: (2)

You did well. You didn't lose control of your car when you went zig zag. As I was reading your post, I was worried for a second then you might have hit a car next to you or something.

But next time, try not to do the esses. If the pavement is not in good condition, then you could spin out. It's better to just slam on the brakes and let the computer do the work. If you don't think you'll clear, then swerve at the last moment after checking in the direction you want to go.

I was travelling at about 85 mph on I-96 on my way home (I was going slightly faster than the rest of the traffic). Two lanes each way and I was in the left lane. There was an SUV in front of me, and all of a sudden, I saw the ass end of it just going up -> slamming on the brakes. Then he swerved to the left into the median. Now I had a clear view of what was ahead of me. Less than 200 feet, 3 cars completely stopped because they had a minor fender-bender. Old people, too... They were walking around with their cars parked in the middle of the interstate while all these cars are swerving away at the last minute going 70-85 mph. Geez.

I slammed on the brakes, but I knew that I would never stop in time. Physics told me that it's impossible. So I looked to the right, saw that it's clear and swerved away, hoping the sway bars and the H&R Sports would do their jobs. I barely cleared the bumper of the minivan by mere feet.

The best part is, during the whole emergency panic move, the car felt completely planted to the ground. I had a silly smile on my face for the next 10 miles.

DV -> *hint, hint*

sc354

ya I've had a few close calls in my TL-S, but nothing that the sh*t brakes can't handle.

anyways, I'm just taking it easy on my brakes to see if they will last me more than a mile before warping...probably just talking about warping will warp the rotors...I'm going to put aftermarkets on next time.

looking at the irotors and EBC greenstuff pads.

thsiao

If you are going at a fast speed, then brack without steering the car to the sides because otherwise your car might lose control and start to slide funny. However, at not so fast speeds when you need to break suddenly and the distance is short, turning the wheels from side to side helps.

crazym0nkey

Good thing you didnt spin out when you did the zig-zags....one time this a-hole taxi driver was "racing" with me on city streets......doing about 70 and a red light pops outta no where...i slam on the brakes and i knew i wasnt gonna make the stop so at the light i made a hard right turn ...good thing there were no cars.....emergencys require quick decisive actions so be careful people

patrick

I think the question that needs to be asked is: are you giving yourself enough braking distance for the car that's in front of you? In most instances, if you tailgate and the car in front of you slams on the brakes, it's gonna be a rear ender. The rule of thumb when driving on highway speeds is the 2 second rule. Choose a landmark that the vehicle in front of you will pass. Once that car hits that spot, you start counting until you reach the landmark yourself (one thousand and one, one thousand and two...). If you count to 2 or less, you are way too close to the car in front of you. Give yourself enough room, and any sudden stops or accidents in front of you won't be a hairy experience.

samkws

i spun out once when i tried to slam the brakes and turn

so it's a no no

dark inspire

actually what had happened, is that the 2 people infront of me switched lanes before i saw all the stagnant cars, but thanks all of you for your advice.

edgalang

First off...we're all glad you came out OK...but if you want to go by the books, you did a poor choice. Slamming on the brakes with the wheels straight is the fastest way to stop...PERIOD. The only reason why you would ever swerve in the first place is to move out of the way. Doing the "S" not only changes the dynamics of the car's behavior, but reduces the contact patch that you have with the ground. You can do research and find emergency safe driving tips that support this statement.

Vicman17

In my previous job, we had to do what you call "stomp and steer". In an emergency, you would slam on the brakes hard, keeping it on a straight line, then at the moment of opportunity let go of the brakes (hopefully bleeding off speed) and steer left or right away from the obstruction. I guess this move would be possible with ABS but the trick is to steer without locking the tires.

If you hit a rough spot, or anything on the road that will make your tires lose contact, you WILL spinout.

Hope you had your stock Michelins on so you can get better tires if you wore out the sides.