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I have a Nissan Primera P12, which is equipped with anti-lock brakes (ABS).

When I normally brake, wheels don't lock and car comes to a stop as expected with any ABS system.

Although if I'm travelling a bit fast and hit the brake hard (want to stop in a panic) car seems to forget about ABS and lock the wheels then slip. This happens especially when it's raining and the road is wet and a bit slippery (where ABS supposed to be more useful).

There are no warning lights flashing on the dash.

Is this normal behaviour? Or should I check the ABS?

dlu
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Madushan
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2 Answers2

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If you can get all 4 to lock at the same time then systems that detect differences between wheels won't activate. The system would have to be smart enough to detect exceptionally fast stopping of the wheels in order to work in that circumstance. My MR2 and Eclipse are definitely not that smart. Both are very capable of locking all 4 at the same time and skidding. However, get one wheel on ice (or unloaded, such as hitting a large bump) and the rest on tarmac and then the system activates (which is rather unfortunate as it seems to extend the stopping distance instead of reducing it).

Brian Knoblauch
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The newer the car the better ABS tends to be, but you can lock up even the best ones if you try hard. On sheet ice it is safer to disable your ABS entirely unless you have a system which is designed for these conditions.

After seeing a bad crash where a long slide into a collision was caused by ABS not allowing any grip, I remove the fuse for ABS each winter when the snow starts to turn to ice.

Rory Alsop
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