Tiburon Brakes

Greetings, I am very concerned about my new tiburon and was wondering
if any one else has had anything similar. I have been in 2 fender
benders with my v6 tiburon and have never before even come close to
hitting anyone in my other cars. Both times the antilocks were firing
away and even though I was on warm asphalt the car did not slow
dramatically. I am going to have mine permanently disengaged, I
believe them dangerous.

 

It sounds like they are malfunctioning. Have you had them checked at
the dealer? Anti-lock brakes certainly aren't inherently dangerous,
especially on pavement.

Matt

 

Anti-lock does not mean they cure all problems. They may have, in fact,
lessened your troubles. I'd have the brakes check out by a competent
mechanic. There may be other problems such as faulty master cylinder, wrong
pads, etc. Maybe you should slow down a bit?

 

It's even possible this is an issue with anti-lock education. When I
purchased my first car with anti-lock, I tended to hold the pressure
steady where I had it when the anti-lock kicked in. But since we're
talking about four channel (separate control of each wheel) ABS, that's
exactly the *wrong* thing to do unless you're satisfied with the vehicle's
stopping rate. Even though you can feel the ABS engaging through the brake
pedal, if it's not yet engaging all four wheels, you can continue to press
harder and get more braking action.

I'd suspect one of the wheels was on dust or leaves. But it's still a
good idea to get the system checked. If there's a problem, you'll want it
fixed.

 

Yes, in general in an emergency you want to mash the brake pedal hard
and hold it down.

I generally like ABS other than in snow. In snow, sand and other soft
ground, optimum stopping distance is actually achieved with the wheels
locked rather than at incipient lock-up as on pavement and other hard
surfaces.

Matt

 

I have to disagree here. One of the reasons I like ABS is that on snow, you
don't become a 3000 pound mass of metal on a set of four skis with no
resistance. Not to mention that you even have some steering control.

 

You can disagree all you want, but this is a well-known exception to the
"don't skid the wheels" recommendation. It is fairly simple physics.
When you can plow through material, it effectively widens the area of
influence of the tire and causes more resistance than does a rolling tire.

I drove non-ABS cars, trucks and tractor-trailers for 20 years in PA
winters. I'm well familiar with driving in virtually all conditions
that this area presents. I nearly put my first ABS vehicle into a ditch
braking for a turn in deep snow (6" or so) as it simply felt as though
there was no braking action at all (which with the ABS working was
basically the case). I could have easily made the turn in my non-ABS
equipped vehicles by sliding the tires for 30 feet or so prior to turing
the wheels (I was traveling maybe 20 MPH at the time).

http://www.cars.com/carsapp/boston/...atures/mvp/vpedia/antilock_braking_popup.tmpl

Get a friend with a non-ABS vehicle and find an empty parking lot next
time it snows and try this for yourself. The ABS vehicle will lose the
braking contest every time if you both mash the brakes.


Matt

 

I've yet to be in a situation that ABS was a hindrance. Of course, I've
only had it for the past 9 year and I've only been driving for 45 years so
there are probably situations I've not seen yet.

 

**Well, I've only been driving for 22 years but have been driving cars
with ABS for 12 and I have to concur with Matt. For the most part, ABS
is quite handy as long as you remember to keep steering and let the
car do the braking. However, on snow, especially thick snow, it felt
like my car just turned into a rocket. With one particular car, it
felt like there wasn't one iota of braking in those conditions. In
subsequent cars, the ABS has been better in snow but I take it far
more carefully (as everyone should anyway) with those past experiences
in mind.

kaboomie

 

some kids just don't learn

;-)