Great no ABS!

[RightWingZionist]

I bought a 95 Accord EX V6 recently with 4 wheel disk ABS. When I brakes even smoothly, at low speeds Ide feel the pedal click. Now driving from college today after probably hitting my stupid campus speed bumb at 20 mph I noticed in the expressway my abs light is on. I dont get that click anymore and I stop shorter than before. It's great. It's like a race car now, 4 wheel disks no abs.
ABS is for women.
No ABS is for cool people like me.

[jeffcoslacker]

Sounds like the ABS was operating all the time, maybe due to a faulty wheel speed sensor or something, activating the system every time the brakes were applied.

You can actually stop quicker without ABS, if you know how to drive right. That was never really the intent of it. It was designed to allow you to manuever the car while applying full force to the brake, something that even an expert driver is hard pressed to do.

With a working ABS system, you can pounde on the brake in a snow covered parking lot, and make a hard right turn at the same time.

I realize fully that if you are actually a skilled driver, you would most likely not put yourself in a position to have to do something like this.

But everybody slips from time to time.

I used to hate ABS when it first appeared, but now I'm comfortable with it, but as a last resort only. The problem is, there is the very common misconception that it allows you to stop FASTER, which is wrong, and also that people think that because they have it, they can push even harder in poor conditions.

It may have very well saved my ass once, when driving at night on a dark highway in the rain. As I checked my mirrors and over my shoulder while changing lanes, I was caught off gaurd by a vehicle sitting half in my lane and half on the shoulder up against a barrier with no lights.

I had to dynamite the brakes and swerve to the right hard all at once, a move that simply wouldn't have been possible without the extra control provided by the ABS system. As it was, I missed that car by mere inches, and didn't go into an unrecoverable spin or fishtail.

That situation is very rare, but it only takes one.

[RightWingZionist]

Hi, you mentioned I belive twice about flooring the brakes. That's where the problem lyes. You should never apply full brakes, only gradually if you can on a dry road if you need to.
I got my license June 26th and the car June 4th. I drove and beat the crap out of a 94' taurus in the rain and snow that also had dead abs (It had 225k miles on it!).
As far as skills go your right, but there is one more thing that's as or more important: staying calm. I've never freaked out while driving -that's my mom's job.
ABS is what it is; it keeps brakes from locking so your wheels do no slip. However, especially with 4 wheel disks, if you can get a good feel of your tires and you got good hearing, you'll know when to eas off before slippage; this is better than an ABS system pumping the brakes at high frequency. Maybe someday they'll make a system that simulates pro drivers where instead of using high frequency it applies the brakes until it senses it will lock then eas on it instead of letting go completely at periods of time.