ABS kicking in early

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CivicCanuck

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I have a 2012 4 door civic 1.8 with the 5 speed manual, and there are times where I have had to get on the brakes hard in the city, and have had the antilock kick in, but I am certain the tires aren't close to locking. This is usually with fairly warm tires and driving fairly hard.

The pads and rotors are well bedded together, they had a very light blue tinge to them when I had the wheels off last, and a nice layer of pad material deposited. I am still rolling on the stock 15" Continentals, and haven't ponied up for the 17" Michelin Pilot Super Sports yet. Is what I am getting a combination of tire as well as suspension bushing deflection causing the abs to kick in early? Anyone else have a similar experience?

I do have a bit more than 25,000 kms on the car and it seems a bit of movement in the motor mounts as well compared to new.
 
I have noticed that my tires make no noise before the ABS kicks on. I do feel it most in city driving though. I don't know if it is a combination of bumpy road conditions that triggers it or the tires/suspension/wear combination. I don't know what triggers the ABS other than some what I would guess is a set point in the system where it feels that the rotor should not be moving so slowly compared to current speed.
 
Thanks Nix... is your experience different with the new tires and wheels as compared to the stock ones?
 
Somewhat. I can definitely stop faster but it seems like the ABS hits even earlier to me. I think it has to do with how fast the rotor is decellerating. I can stop better I feel like. It's just strange to feel the pedal fall away sometimes when all im trying to do it push it harder. The new brake shoes made the most difference. They definitely grab hard. I think they get to the threshold quicker. If I'm on the brakes hard it only takes minor bumps now to activate the ABS. Before it took quite a bit.

PBR/AXXIS ultimates. I love the feel but they are dusty/dirty as heck.
 
There are some roads I can almost always get it to happen on, and it's usually because of small gravel on the road surface. I don't know if you're having that happen in your situation or not. Either that, or I'll get it on hard braking on uneven surfaces. If there are any bumps or whatever, I sometimes get the abs kicking in on hard braking. So, I guess you could say when the suspension is either under load, or rebounding.
 
I would call this normal. Honda may have a tight threshold on ABS activation. If the system sees your front tires running slower than your rears, which would be the case during hard braking, it will activate ABS to avoid wheel lock-up. This would explain your feeling of thinking the tires weren't close to locking up yet. Not sure where the limit is, but even as little as 2 mph difference between front and rear wheels could cause the system to kick on in attempts to prevent a skid. Better safe than sorry. I just recently totalled by beloved '94 thanks to lack of ABS. There is no doubt in my mind that if ABS was equipped I would have avoided the collision.
 
I have also found that on some Honda's that I have had over the years, that the ABS was very sensitive and would engage due to road irregularities when braking at lower speeds. The 2013 Si I have, I really haven't noticed that the ABS kicking in such situations.
 
I always see the same thing the ABS threshold is way too high from the real braking threshold but not much one can do about except for pulling the fuse. I just tend to brake to the ABS threshold instead of the real one when I drive more spirited. Not the best time but i do not track the car so I can live with wasted time :) I didn't pull out the ABS fuse yet to see how big the diff is but i definitely do not feel the tires making any i am loosing grip now noise when ABS starts to kick in. I would have to track the car to really test the w/wo fuse behaviour.

I once had a Corolla without ABS and you could actually threshold brake on that thing, not the fastest but still fun. New cars and their mandatory ABS obsession is not that much fun.

Proper braking is more efficient than ABS in my opinion but it takes some practice.
 
I know one of the guys who helped mainstream ABS systems. Made a frickin fortune. He is friends with one of my uncles who used to race at Watkins Glen a lot in the 80s/90s. Open wheel stuff, formula Ford and formula Mazda mostly. In any case.... its here and it won't go away... he owns Depac and is an insane physicist.


http://depac.com/
 
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