Do Brake upgrades affect Downhill braking and ABS?
Q: I experienced a situation on track where I think my ABS brakes locked up on me. I was going downhill, slowing from 100mph down to 30mph mph to make the turn at the bottom. I did my usual deep-into-the-turn-hard-braking and suddenly my front brakes locked up into a hard skid for what felt like a full second. They then let loose but then did it again. Fortunately I had already scrubbed off enough speed so I didn’t end up going into the woods at the end of the braking zone, but this was certainly an unwanted thrill. I have heard that this is a “known” problem for big brake kits on my car. What is going on? Is this the brakes, the ABS, or something else? A: This is a question that is asked of every brake component manufacturer – OEM’s included. From this description, it appears the car was being asked to do more than it was capable of doing. First, if the yellow ABS lamp never came on, then there was not an ABS failure. ABS lights (for hardware-related failures) do not ‘go out’ until af
