I used to work on ABS and stability control as a development engineer. Testing on gravel, ice, and various pavement as the driver. I circuit raced an ABS equipped car in the 1990s and I currently do trackdays in an ABS equipped Ford.
I do know a bit about this subject.
nofyby must have had a bad experience once upon a time, many years ago with one Ford. I have over the years owned cars from GM, International, Chrysler, Jeep (AMC), and Ford. Got my first Ford around 1986, an 84 T-Bird, V6, used with 50K miles. That T-Bird was so good I have owned nothing except Fords since then.
The only problem I ever experienced was an Escort with a bad carburetor.
That would be wrong on all counts. If one moment the tires are spinning indicating speed and the next moment they are not, then the ABS releases the brakes to allow them to start spinning again. When they start spinning again, the brake re-apply. If they again stop, another release gets them spinning again. That is how ABS works and no amount of you shouting about it changes that.
As far as worked for Ford, No, I worked for a GM division, which is why I drive a Ford and I don’t feel bad about it at all. Every Ford product I’ve owned have been good cars.
Yikes! Just kinda winging’ it, eh?
It’s mid feb in Minnesota and there is not a spec of snow anywhere so I am unable to do any further testing until we have a real storm again. However on braking I simply brake cautiously and very rarely will the abs ever activate. If it does it means that I should have braked a little sooner. Braking abs is just a non factor for me.
Like I have said before, driving in heavy snow I will turn the traction control off. With it on I have found if the wheels spin, it will drive me to the side of the road instead of going straight. I have much better control with the traction control off with me determining too much or too little acceleration. I’m not an engineer and don’t care about why, just what actually happens. Fed, never had enough snow to test awd.
ABS can increase stopping distances on some very slippery surfaces but it allows you to still ste4er the car , so hold the brake pedal down hard and if it looks like you are going to hit something in front of you, steer around it if you can.
Go “up north”, drive on a lake to test your ABS😀
Have to go way up north. When we first moved to NH, all the lakes in our area would freeze by mid Jan and last to early Mar. This is the first year in the last 15 that one of the lakes froze enough for people to walk on. And because of the warm weather in the past week…not any more. Our big Lake Winnipesaukee has a ice out contest where you guess when the ice will have melted in the middle of the lake. They haven’t even announced Ice On yet. Still not frozen over. Buffalo gets a lot of snow - mostly lake effect snow form Lake Erie. Syracuse actually gets more snow. Again most of their snow is also lake effect snow, but theirs is from Ontario. Buffalo’s lake effect snow usually shuts off by mid to late Jan because Erie freezes over. This year however - Erie isn’t freezing over. This is happening all over the country and even in Europe.
ABS helps 90+ % of the time, and most folks aren’t able to distinguish when some other approach would be better. So if it’s anyone other than an expert, just nail them hard and steer.
Yeah I don’t know about way up north but this has been a bad year for lake ice. Not much driving and I wouldn’t even walk on the ice here. Fish houses already have to be out. We have been above freezing for weeks. Been a few people rescued when the ice they were on broke away. Cold swim though.
As a [former] Mechanical Breakdown Inspector with nearly 20 years in the field behind the belt, I’ve had PLENTY of bad experiences with ford. Fortunately, YOUR ford, not mine. But once - 30+ years ago - with my mother’s in law. She bought a brand new Probe (ford/mazda masterpiece). The darn thing refused to start the very next day - the dome light switch failed. It took the stealer two weeks to figure out where the relay was - ford and mazda were playing the blame game. A month later, the brake pedal sank to the floor. Instead of replacing the master cylinder, the stealer just topped it off so a few days later, it happened again. Next day she was driving a Civic. She put 200K+ on it over the next 15 years without a single issue. But - again - that case is NOT the reason I feel so “highly” about fraud. My professional experience is.