brakes

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#1
yestarday i almost crashed,
one guy in a ford pick-up stopped suddenly and the little nissan who was behind the truck had to hit the brakes. I was behind the little nissan and saw the incident a few seconds later, I had to brake hard and i notice something weird, diferrent from any other cars i've owned. I could feel some weird movement in the brake pedal and some weird noise out of my tires, i PANIC, and stoped pushing the brake because i saw an opening on the right side of the nissan. Is this the way BMW brakes?

As a result i went to a slippy road without any movement and pushed the brakes as hard as i could, i noticed the same sounds and feeling BUT i was expecting the car not to stop that fast, as a matter of fact there were almost no marks of the tires on the road... is this normal?
 

Big Daddy

Senior Member
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#2
You have antilock brakes and yes this is normal. Every car with antilock brakes pulsates the pedal under antilock (hard braking). You will also hear a thud thud thud like noise. Tires/pavement leave marks when the tires are sliding and creating heat. When in anticlok mode the markings on the pavement should be minimal if any.
 
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Paderborn, Germany
#3
adding to big daddys describtion, ABS (Anti lock brakes) keep the car steerable during braking. non ABS cars lockthe tires and you can steer where you want. the car will not follow as long as the tires are locked. with ABS you can brake as hard as even possible but the car will stay under control and you can run around obstacle swhile brakind and reducing speed.
especially in snow this feature is very neat as tires lock faster and the threat is bigger to loose control. when ever you have to brake for emergency, push the pedal as hard as possible. try to kick it through the metal sheet.
 

carcus

1000 Post Club
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#5
Wadula said:
adding to big daddys describtion, ABS (Anti lock brakes) keep the car steerable during braking. non ABS cars lockthe tires and you can steer where you want. the car will not follow as long as the tires are locked. with ABS you can brake as hard as even possible but the car will stay under control and you can run around obstacle swhile brakind and reducing speed.
especially in snow this feature is very neat as tires lock faster and the threat is bigger to loose control. when ever you have to brake for emergency, push the pedal as hard as possible. try to kick it through the metal sheet.
Just like Wadula said, with ABS, hit the brakes FIRM and do not let off, do not pump like old non ABS. ABS does the pumping for you and the computer does the rest. The pulsation is the ABS making the brakes work all they can on and off without locking them up and causing a skid. I have alot of experience driving in snow....it is a funny feeling with ABS.....makes weird sounds....but that is normal.[thumb]

I actually enjoy traction control for the wet weather, good stuff also, and I never turn it off.[thumb]
 
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Sea Girt, NJ
#6
Thank you eyedoll325is. You made a fine testament to the unbelievable performance of the BMW braking system when you left no skid marks on the side of the road. This way everyone will be like, "wait a minute, didn't a car brake really hard through there and it didn't even leave skid marks"

By the way, just a little side note. I believe it was back in 1983 BMW was the first company to incorporate ABS into their braking system. Unfortunately they didn't tell anybody about it and didn't sell as many cars as they could have. But BMW was the first company to have ABS. Just thought that was a fitting note for this thread.
 


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