> > I really don't understand why you don't just fix it. It's a safety > > system with proven worth - why not repair it? > > Except on loose surfaces, where ABS can actually do more > harm than good. (Such as fresh snow or slush, or gravel, > or [like the road immediately outside our driveway] a steep > gravel road often covered in fresh snow or slush!) > > ABS is nice enough, but once it starts acting up so that > you can no longer trust the brakes, and the easy/obvious > repair attempts don't work, then I say that I'd rather > disable it than mistrust the brakes, or dump thousands > for new ABS parts into a car that cost less than that > in the first place. > > -- Jim.. > I'm going to have to disagree with this and here's why.
I am now on my fifth ABS equipped Mercedes since 1985 and it's value under 99% of low traction conditions has been proven to me let's say, a time or two. The ONLY malfunction I've ever seen was a one time failure in my '89 190E 2.6 on a twenty degree morning after a big snowfall the day before. The ABS light came on, indicating a fault caused shutdown, which cured itself later that day, never to return. If one reads the road tests of new cars in the German magazines and look at their braking test categories, they test on dry and wet surfaces plus snow and ice if available and under split mu conditions. They publish numbers for these tests with the brakes both hot and cold. ABS can really pay off when you might have a road surface with sand, loose gravel or snow/ice on part of it (near the edges, usually) with the rest wet or dry. The stopping distances between makes can be substantial. It's true that some Audis used to have an ABS shutdown switch for stopping in loose snow or gravel (who drives in loose gravel, really?) and the value of pushing a wedge of something ahead of non-rotating tires can be seen. My 26.5 year old Porsche doesn't have ABS and when I drive it in the rain (almost never if I can help it) I have to keep in mind that it just can't stop as fast on wet pavement as my MB at freeway speeds. After an episode of locked and sliding front wheels and not much speed reduction, I got the message. A car with full traction control must have working ABS because it's part of the whole package. RLE _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
