This is the first car I’ve ever had that used ABS brakes and I really believe they saved the front end of my ride. Here is the story.

Okay, we were on Whyte Avenue (82nd Ave) here in Edmonton headed west and stopped in the intersection turning south onto 105 St. The traffic headed east was bumper to bumper so the guys waiting on the other side of the intersection made a gap so that I could turn south. It was two lanes heading towards me and their lanes were blocked so what the heck, they couldn’t go anywhere. So there I was going through between the cars waving my customary thank you when my wife shout “STOP!!!!”. I react and slam my foot on the brake and I see in front of me a grey Ford Tempo which camp up the curb lane. I guess the guy was impatient and wanted to get around the traffic, heaven knows where he was going as no one else was. That lane is usually used for traffic turning south from what I recall.

Anyway, I was ready to hear the bang but no sound. I felt the ABS kick in and smelt burning rubber. No squeal of tires though and I did not even stall the engine. All the years of standard, clutch & brake. All I can say is thank goodness I was not moving faster and someone must have been looking out for us. I figured that 2 seconds earlier I would have been more in the gap and that idiot would have slammed into the passenger side door and probably injured my wife. Those side air bags would have been a useful option if it was available up here in Canada.

After we got through we pulled over and we were shaking. My knees were weak and my hands were shaking. Thank goodness everything worked out okay. As my wife said, it was not our time to get hit. True believer in ABS now.

 

ABS saved my *** in a big way last winter. I was driving on a back road and it didn't seem to icy. I came up to a really long sharp corner that was REALLY icy (someone must have been prepare to skate there later or something). There was no way I was going to make it unless I applied the brake, but I new I was f*cked if I did. So I applied the brakes through the corner (hoping for the best), all the time the ABS was making a hell of a racket. But I was able to steer and dump some speed at the same time. If I had gone through the corner I would have dumped my car down a large hill, assuring extreme damage and an over all shitty day.

Since then... I <3 ABS

Jay

 

Glad to hear everyone is ok, including your P5. Hey...if you do smash your Pro, can I have the tower bar

Just kidding!!

I like ABS...I'm a big fan of safety devices!

 

Close one...

Thankfully no one was injured and your P5 was spared.

Haven't had to use my ABS yet, but its good to hear that they'll work WHEN I need them.

 

Yeah Mike sure. That's the first thing I would do is open the hood and get that part for you .

 

Jay,

I am kinda looking forward to see how it handles in winter. As you may recall we only got our P5 in April so no snow to speak of. I did feel the ABS kick in every so often in April but no real close calls yet except for last week.

 

As much as I am in favour of ABS (although my Pro does not have it, sniff!) I don't see exactly how it helped you in your situation UNLESS the road was slippery and you did not mention this.

ABS is designed to maintain manuverability while braking on slippery surfaces. When you perform panic braking on a dry surface and lock the wheels the car does NOT tend to slid or veer off course (in my experience anyway). (I suppose if the tires got hot enough they could melt and slid sideways, but that seems unlikely in everyday traffic )

So in that case, ABS actually increased your stopping distance and brought you slightly CLOSER to hitting the Tempo.

I was in this exact same situation driving my first car with ABS - a 1994 Chevy Cavalier. I performed a panic brake to avoid hitting a person who ran out on the road (to escape an abusive suitor no less) in front of me. The ABS kicked in and I shuddered to a stop a few feet in front of the person.

Now as soon as the snow hits, then I really miss ABS.

 

Hmmm, Toru, maybe you are right. I got the impression that since I felt the ABS kick in by the pulsating of the brake pedal that it was helping. I understand that the ABS does prevent sliding by doing what we all try to do in winter by pumping the brakes. I was also assuming that because there was no screeching of tires I was more in control. Whatever, I like to think it worked. Oh and the road was dry and hot.

 

ABS will not necessarily increase your stopping distance on dry pavement.

On gravel and in snow it may increase the stopping distance.

In this case, I don't think ABS necessarily brought him closer to the bumper....in fact, I don't think we'll ever know if ABS or not would have been better, but I do know that his ABS equipped car didn't get in an accident.

 

well if you learn threshold braking, you can stop in shorter distances then with ABS.....

HOWEVER, when you have to react quickly, good luck with the 'threshold' braking.... didn't work for me once, hehe, the 'threshold' braking turned into a stomp and slide a bit and then damaged my quarter panel..... that sucked