Riding the Brakes

“When you step on the brakes your life is in your foot's hands”
-George Carlin

“I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder”
-Steven Wright (?)

Today I'd like to further investigate automotive braking. Proper braking is a skill that can be specific to your car. The rules for dealing with a skid is different for front-drive and rear-drive cars. Do you turn into the skid or away from it? How about the rule of "pumping" the brakes for an emergency stop to avoid skidding? Today this is the wrong thing to do in cars with Anti-Lock Brakes; you need to push the pedal to the floor and let the brakes automatically pump themselves.

There are many bad habits of braking. The most common is "riding the brakes." This means constantly or frequently applying the brake with many light taps. The worst case is two foot drivers with a foot on each the brake and gas. Don't do this! Hitting the gas and brake at the same time can damage your car.

The opposite of brake riding is a "brake check." This means hitting the brake very abruptly with a lot of force. "Brake checks" can cause serious accidents when the driver behind you is unable to respond quickly enough and rear-ends your car. Brake checks should be used only for emergencies when you're about to hit something or someone in front of you.

Do you brake while turning a corner? This can actually cause loss of control on a curve. The best practice 90% of the time is to apply the brakes before the curve or corner, make the turn, than apply the accelerator.

The properly amount of brake pressure may be more art than science. Or a bit like Goldilocks. Not too light (riding) but not too heavy either. You have to discover the amount of pressure that is just right for the situation. The most brake pressure is needed when you first brake because the inertia is greatest; you can and should lighten your touch on the brake as you slow down. Many people drive the opposite - start with a light touch on the brake and stop hard at the end.

Bottom Line

Like any skill you ought to practice braking. Just about everyone underestimates the distance required to come to a full stop. Visit an empty parking lot (e.g. a church and school that is closed), pick a line in the middle of lot that is clear of obstacles like light poles or curbs, and practise stopping before crossing that line. Try this on dry pavement, wet pavement after a storm and on icy pavement.

Resources

http://www.ehow.com/how_5893230_brake-properly.html
http://www.wikihow.com/Brake-and-Stop-a-Car-in-the-Shortest-Distance

Cars out of control

“Life's golden age is when the kids are too old to need baby-sitters and too young to borrow the family car”

You may have read recently that Toyota will recall nearly 4 million vehicles because the accelerator pedal can become stuck on the floor mat while driving. This killed a family of four and their tragedy was captured on a 9-1-1 call before they impacted a wall at 120 mph. The affected cars are:

2005 - 2010 Toyota Avalon
2007 - 2010 Toyota Camry
2004 - 2009 Toyota Prius
2005 - 2010 Toyota Tacoma
2007 - 2010 Toyota Tundra
2007 - 2010 Lexus ES350
2006 - 2010 Lexus IS250 and IS350

If you own one of these cars, immediately remove the driver-side floor mat and contact your dealer.

Because of this recall, Consumer Reports decided to look at the problem of stuck accelerators. What can you do?

They tested two cars, Mercedes-Benz E350 and Volkswagen Jetta Wagon, with German “smart-throttle” technology. These cars disable the gas flow when the brake is depressed. “Smart-throttle” cars have no problem stopping even with the gas pedal on the floor.

The next two cars they tested were not so lucky, Toyota Venza and Chevrolet HHR. Like most cars, the brake pedal does not stop the gas so the engine is fighting as you try to brake. With struggle and strength they managed to slow the cars from 60mph to 10mph at which point the brake pads were worn down and would not slow the car any further.

Bottom Line

The conclusion of the Consumer Reports for a stuck accelerator is to shift your car into neutral. The engine will rev like crazy but the power won’t go to the wheels and you can brake safely. Shifting to neutral is quite easy. A few weeks ago my wife accidentally hit the gearshift pushing it to neutral while I was driving and it took me a moment to figure out why the car would not accelerate.

Consumer Reports does NOT recommend turning off the car while driving with a stuck accelerator. Yes this will stop the runaway engine but it will also stop your power steering and power brakes. I found this out the hard way years ago when I tried to move my parked car a few feet. It was pointing downhill so I figured, just shift to neutral and coast – no need to turn the car on. The coasting part worked well but stopping – no so great. Without power the power brakes required a LOT of physical strength. I was pushing hard but couldn’t stop before bumping into the car in front of me.