What does ABS (anti braking system) mean ?

Larry L

ABS does NOT stand for anti braking system; rather it is the acronym for antilock braking system. Sensors on each wheel calculate the velocity, acceleration, or deceleration of each wheel. If one wheel begins to skid (lock up) there is a proportioning assembly that changes the hydraulic pressure delivered to the brakes on each wheel. That is why you may feel a "trembling" on the brake pedal. You have none NOTHING wrong. That just means that your ABS is functioning for you. So you can press the brake pedal hard, yet the wheels will decelerate at a greatly improved rate compared to autos without ABS.

Mere Exposure

Rather than applying constant hard pressure on the brake and locking the wheel, which would result in a skid and therefore loss of control, ABS uses the computer to pulse the breaks very rapidly thereby avoiding the locked wheel and maintaining control.

Contrary to popular belief, they are not better at everything. It actually takes longer/farther to stop a car with ABS than locking all fours and applying the maximum friction but the advantage is in the control resulting in less accidents or damage (hopefully).

With ABS you do not pump the breaks when on slippery winter roads, you cram the brakes and let the ABS do the work while maintaining steering.

Dianne M

Antilock Braking System

SpartaBreda

it is anti braking system
its a computer that helps your car break better
like when you are going fast and trying to avoid something, if you don't have abs it will swerve out of control with abs one of the wheels will brake more than the other, vice versa and there you have it, safer cars

You da man, Idaho

ABS is actually Anti-Lock Braking System. It prevents the wheels from locking up and skidding. It pulses the brakes to avoid skidding and stops you faster.

Mahatma Coat

It prevents you from braking, so you have to put your feet through the floor, Fred Flinstone style. I don't know why it became so popular. Nowadays it is hard to even find a car with a braking system, almost all have anti braking systems.

Patrick B

What it does is break your wheels with multiple bursts rather then locking on the wheels. It would be like breaking a bicycle by pushing your breaks on and off super fast rather then just squeezing and holding.

anonymourati

ABS actually means Anti-lock Braking System and it serves to do just what the name suggests. Some while ago engineers determined that a car will stop faster if the wheels are not locked up (no longer turning at all) in a skid. Pumping the brakes manually, however, seems counter-intuitive to most drivers in an emergency situation. Moreover, there is no way a human can pump the brakes as fast a a menchanically designed system with sensors feeding the data to a computer can do it, and do, anti-lock brakes were invented.

A typical design involves a magnet or magnets spaced around the wheel hub with a magnetic sensor or pickup located in a fixed position that senses the magnet(s) passing as the wheel rotates. Now, this data is fed into a small processor that can compare the speed at which the magnets are passing the sensor with the speed of the car when you hit the brakes hard and if it determines that the car is in motion, but the wheels are not turning then it "knows" that the brakes have locked up the wheels, and it begins to rapidly open and close a relief valve to pulse, or effectively "pump" the brakes very rapidly on and off the end the skid.

Now not all ABS systems are magnetic. I've seen a few use optics, or other means to sense the wheel speed, but the principle remains the same. If the system sees that you have applied the brakes and the wheels are not spinning in relation to the speed of the car, the ABS system triggers.

blk99civic

prevents u from locking ur tires while slamming on ur brakes

Drew P

The theory behind anti-lock brakes is simple. A skidding wheel (where the tire contact patch is sliding relative to the road) has less traction than a non-skidding wheel.

If you slam on your brakes when you have ABS the brakes actually brake on and off at a high rate. This makes you able to not skid (or screetch) your tires and makes it easier to steer.

If you car does NOT have ABS and you slam on the brakes, your car will skid and you won't have any control.

See the link below for a more detailed explanation.

Good Luck!

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