i was driving in light rain after a descent amount of rain and was about to make a stop at a bridge near McCarthy Blvd to get to 237 Milpitas because the light was red. I was going about 25 mph and started to slow down, anyways the ABS reacted like crazy and it wouldn't stop the car. I released the brakes and reapplied them ever-so softly, it kept going. then i push all the way down, still no traction. I ended up in the middle of the intersection-(looking like some drunk idiot) by the time i stopped, the light turned green. I was heading home from Wal Mart at 12 am and there were only two or three cars. I was shocked. the road was composed of tar??? the texture was a little different from the place i ended up stopping in. could that be a reason.?? can i turn off my anti lock brakes??? i want them unintalled. is there a good reason for it?
thanks for input...

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Naples Gold Metallic 2000 3.2 TL
Wings West Kit Type-W
Comptech Exhausts
INSPIRE Tails
Cleared Out Custom HID's
00BMW Sidemarker DRLights
Custom Grill

 

I'm not sure if I understand you correctly, but ABS brakes usually can stop a car within a shorter distance than non-ABS brakes. It does this by pushing the brakes to the limits, without allowing your wheels to slip significantly. Certain surfaces like snow or gravel though, can make ABS think that it is constantly slipping and prevent the application of the brakes. A non-ABS car would actually stop more quickly than an ABS car in such circumstances.

I would advise you to leave the ABS feature activated. Overall, it does you a lot more good to have ABS.

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'01 TL with Navi
Naples Gold Metallic
Wings West custom 2-leg spoiler wing
Solar Gard Titanium Tint 43 all around.
Acura logo tire valve stem caps.

 

Its possible that there was oil or somethig else on the road surface that caused your car to act like that. As bebber said in such a situation your car may take a few more feet to stop, but you still maintain control. On a Non-ABS equipped car, who knows what could have happened if the back end stepped out on you.

If I was you I would find an empty parking lot when it raisn next time, and just get the feel of your ABS system.

 

Do you understand how cars with ABS work.
The 3 rules for ABS are STOMP, STAY & STEER.
#1 STOMP hard on the brake pedal.
#2 STAY on the hard on the brake pedal.
#3 Steer you car away from danger.
The ABS will prevent the brakes from locking up.This will allow you to maintain some control of your car with the steering wheel.
If you did not have ABS your car brakes would have locked up. Is this your first car that has Antilock Braking System (ABS)?
In reading your post you said you released the brake pedal after applying it.So what you did is not activate the ABS.You have to STOMP hard to get it to work & STAY hard on it. If it was some oil on the road you probaly would have taken a bit longer to stop. I looked at your post again & you said the ABS was acting like crazy. My question is how was it acting did the brake pedal push back up at you or make noise? If you hit them very hard & stayed very hard on them the ABS should have reacted. When you got off the brakes & pushed them again you stoped the ABS from working. At 25MPH if ABS was on it should have stoped the car very quick.

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">[This message has been edited by FTM-1 on April 09, 2001 @ ]</font>

 

ABS is one of the best inventions for cars it should rank in the top ten. I would rank it up there with Power Steering, A/C, Power Brakes. You don't wan't to turn off ABS on passenger cars.

 

3point2TL, I know that intersection very well. That is where they are constantly doing construction right? Sometimes they don't fix up the road very well and also leave big metal slabs to cover holes that they made. You might have gone over a bump or something while stopping. I've ran that light so many times already cuz you don't see the light until you are too close to it to slow down.

Also, if it is the the nasty stoplight for 237/880 South East, I think your car is starting to slant down the hill a bit as well.

Try it on at an empty parking lot. You can probably go to one of those Cisco buildings since everyone got laid off.

 

hehe

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2000 Navi TL White Diamond Pearl
(they're magically delicious)

 

yeah i know how abs works but for such a low speed i barely tapped on the brakes to slow down and when the abs activated, (pumping sound right?) I floored the brakes, (stomp), what im saying is that abs wasn't necessary, but it activated anyways. my prev car was an integ wo abs and i it would screech the tires at a hard stop. EDub, yep that's the interesection. I guess it just felt scary at a low speed and flooring the brakes and not having them stop, like a bad dream. thanks

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Naples Gold Metallic 2000 3.2 TL
Wings West Kit Type-W
Comptech Exhausts
INSPIRE Tails
Cleared Out Custom HID's
00BMW Sidemarker DRLights
Custom Grill

 

WOW! This is the EXACT same thing that happened to me once in my Maxima (previously owned). I was going about 15-20mph in the snow. I went to go around a slight turn, hit the brakes to slow down, and they just seemed to lock. I pressed harder and nothing happened! My ABS light came on (and wouldn't go out), I released the brakes, hit them again, and slid off the road. It was like they were not even there, and the pedal was frozen in the up postion. I took the car to the dealer and they said that nothing was wrong. Within a few weeks, I traded it in on a 99 TL!!

:-jon



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02 TL-S NAV w/Spoiler, Body Kit and Bowling Ball Wheel!
01 TOYOTA MR-2 Yellow
98 MAZDA B4000 4-DR PickUp

 

ABS won't stop a non-ABS vehicle any faster if it has a good driver. What most people don't realize is that in a non-ABS vehicle you can't brake AND steer at the same time. By pumping the brakes you steer in between the pumps. Since ABS pumps them for you, you just mash down on the brakes, steer, and hope for the best.

 

I know what you mean about the ABS being very sensitive. In spite of that, you should have kept the brakes STOMPED DOWN and the car would have stopped by itself. By letting off the brakes, you defeated the ABS system....thus your car ploughed ahead into the intersection.

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2000 Naples Gold 3.2TL/Navi - Factory Stock but with up-graded tires

 

get yourself some pirelli P7000 supersports.. these tires go through water like it was extra-dry pavement.. simply amazing.. stock mich's suck ass

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-Fiddler
Creator - Voice Recognition Unit
1998 Accord EX V6 Coupe (HomePage)

 

have you tried new tires, i hear the stock ones aren't that good...it may also be the hydroplaning...

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1996 2.5 TL Dark Green
HKS Powerflow, HKS Fuel Pressure Regulator, Sebring Exhaust, Jacobs Pro Street, Apex-i AFC, Jet ECU, Powerslot Rotors, Axxis Metal Master Pads, PIAA 1100x, Clarion 9255, Tube Driver Amps, Boston Pro 10's (2) , CD Technologies 6-4-2, Clarion MVA6491 (3), Valentine 1, Cliford Avant Guard 4, Monster Capacitors (2), Jacobs Accuvolt, Trunk and Underdash Neons...
[URL=http://albums.photopoint.com/j/]AlbumIndex?u=1530721&a=11664800&f=0][url]

 

Oblio98: This is my exact point you released the pedal & then hit it agian. This is why they have had so many crashes with cars with ABS going off road. When you hit the brake hard & the ABS kicks in just stay on the brake steer the car away from danger.If you had non ABS car your brakes would lock up & you would have skided with out control of the car.Remember that if you had another car without ABS & it was smaller than the TL it may stop shorter because of its weight.ABS allows you to have control of the car & prevents the brakes from locking.
So if the ABS kicks in & you stay hard on the pedal the car may still be moving this allows you to steer.

 

For those of us here before they had ABS in cars, we were taught to "pump" the brakes - in essense, preventing the wheels from locking up. This is exactly what ABS does - it pumps the brakes for you (a lot faster than you could manually), so releasing or pumping the brakes in a car with ABS is a no no. Like others posted, you need to apply the breaks and hold them until you stop. You should feel a quick pulsing sensation on the brake pedal. Some people mistake this as a defect in the brakes and release the brake pedal - this is bad, because, you've just...you guessed it, released the brake!

So, do what FTM-1 says, STOMP, STAY, and STEER!

 

Sounds like you were hydroplaning and didn't realize it. When you went to stop, it took a few seconds to break the wedge of water under the tires. If this was the case, ABS or non-ABS, the result would have been the same.