how does my sport trac truck warning lite detect an ice on the road?
I gather your truck (what kind, year?) has some sort of “ice detector” that lights when you are driving on ice? is it accurate?
The ABS (anti-lock brake system) has wheel rotation sensors on each wheel. These are used for anti-lock brakes, stability control, tire pressure sensors, and many other things, so I guess the computer could sense a wheel moving faster or slower than others, and thus indicate a slippery surface. If so, it only senses after a wheel slips, not before.
I didn’t know Ford made trucks that detected ice. You mean there’s a light on the dashboard that lights up and says ‘ICE’? If so, that’s one hell of a system. Well, sort of. A real good system would actually do something about it, since most driver’s figure if they’ve got 4WD then physics doesn’t matter.
The simple answer is the it doesn’t detect ice on the road. The truck simply has a temperature sensor behind the front bumper, and a temperature display inside the truck.
When it senses that the air temperature has dropped to around 34 degrees Fahrenheit, it displays the “ICE” message, rather than the temperature. Displaying the “ICE” message does not mean that ice is present, but that the potential exists for ice to be present. Mainly, the “ICE” warning is there for people who don’t know that water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit and can exist at slightly higher temperatures.
Once the temperature reaches 100 degrees Fahrenheit, if it displayed a message that said “Heatstroke”, that would not necessarily mean that you will suffer heatstroke, and when it displays the “Ice” message it does not necessarily mean that ice is present–just a potential for it.
or course! dumb of me not to realize that’s what it is.