Auto: Understanding The ABS Sign On Your Dashboard
Many motorists are daily inflicted with the psychological pain of seeing the ABS warning light perpetually lit on their vehiclesb’ dashboards. Albeit, many of them don’t know the meaning of the signage. A friend told me, “Kunle, I don’t know the meaning but I know any permanent amber or red-coloured light on my dashboard is warning me of a system failure and impending danger that can occur.” Kunle Shonaike writes on Punch.
An anti-lock braking system or anti-skid braking system (ABS) is an automobile safety system that allows the wheels on a motor vehicle to maintain tractive or firm contact with the road surface, according to driver’s input while braking, preventing the wheels from locking up (ceasing rotation) and avoiding uncontrolled skidding (especially on, say, a wet road on a rainy day or when a driver has to stop/brake suddenly on a treacherous stretch of track.
It is an automated system that uses the principles of threshold braking and cadence braking which were practised by skilful drivers with previous generation braking systems. It does this at a much faster rate and with better control than many drivers could naturally or instinctively manage.
ABS generally offers improved vehicle control and decreases stopping distances on dry and slippery surfaces. However, on loose gravel or snow-covered surfaces, ABS can significantly increase braking distance, although still improving vehicle steering control.
Since initial widespread use in production of cars, anti-lock braking systems have been improved upon considerably. Recent versions not only prevent wheel-lock under sudden and sharp braking, but also electronically control the front-to-rear brake bias. This function, depending on its specific capabilities and implementation, is known as electronic brake force distribution (EBD), traction control system (TCS), emergency brake assist, or electronic stability control (ESC).
Like my friend, who’s rightly quoted above has stated, the permanently lit ABS sign is a warning sign, which indicates that the safety supplementary system to the conventional braking system of the vehicle is no longer working! Many wonder what the relevance of the vaunted ABS system is if, with its said warning light-supposedly advertising its failure or inactivity-on, “my brakes”, as my friend queried as a follow up to the quote above, “works?”
The lit warning ABS sign does not mean that the vehicle’s conventional brake will not hold. But if the brake in such a vehicle were to be suddenly applied in an emergency situation, or on a dodgy track, then the importance of the ABS, which stabilises the vehicle and prevents it from skidding or flipping off the road, can be felt.
“What then should I do when I see the sign on my vehicle’s dashboard?” my lawyer friend further asked. Like all warning lights, any lit sign is primarily telling you to take the vehicle for diagnosis to specifically laser in on, in this particular instance, what’s wrong with the ABS system. Once the particular problem has been identified, then the auto technician working on it (using the vehicle’s manufacturer’s workshop manual’s protocol or recommended repair procedure for the scan code/s pulled during the diagnosis) can solve the problem.
An anti-lock braking system or anti-skid braking system (ABS) is an automobile safety system that allows the wheels on a motor vehicle to maintain tractive or firm contact with the road surface, according to driver’s input while braking, preventing the wheels from locking up (ceasing rotation) and avoiding uncontrolled skidding (especially on, say, a wet road on a rainy day or when a driver has to stop/brake suddenly on a treacherous stretch of track.
It is an automated system that uses the principles of threshold braking and cadence braking which were practised by skilful drivers with previous generation braking systems. It does this at a much faster rate and with better control than many drivers could naturally or instinctively manage.
ABS generally offers improved vehicle control and decreases stopping distances on dry and slippery surfaces. However, on loose gravel or snow-covered surfaces, ABS can significantly increase braking distance, although still improving vehicle steering control.
Since initial widespread use in production of cars, anti-lock braking systems have been improved upon considerably. Recent versions not only prevent wheel-lock under sudden and sharp braking, but also electronically control the front-to-rear brake bias. This function, depending on its specific capabilities and implementation, is known as electronic brake force distribution (EBD), traction control system (TCS), emergency brake assist, or electronic stability control (ESC).
Like my friend, who’s rightly quoted above has stated, the permanently lit ABS sign is a warning sign, which indicates that the safety supplementary system to the conventional braking system of the vehicle is no longer working! Many wonder what the relevance of the vaunted ABS system is if, with its said warning light-supposedly advertising its failure or inactivity-on, “my brakes”, as my friend queried as a follow up to the quote above, “works?”
The lit warning ABS sign does not mean that the vehicle’s conventional brake will not hold. But if the brake in such a vehicle were to be suddenly applied in an emergency situation, or on a dodgy track, then the importance of the ABS, which stabilises the vehicle and prevents it from skidding or flipping off the road, can be felt.
“What then should I do when I see the sign on my vehicle’s dashboard?” my lawyer friend further asked. Like all warning lights, any lit sign is primarily telling you to take the vehicle for diagnosis to specifically laser in on, in this particular instance, what’s wrong with the ABS system. Once the particular problem has been identified, then the auto technician working on it (using the vehicle’s manufacturer’s workshop manual’s protocol or recommended repair procedure for the scan code/s pulled during the diagnosis) can solve the problem.
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