| Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS)When the driver brakes hard on a slippery road surface, the anti-lock braking system prevents the wheels from locking, so that the vehicle can still be steered.
When the wheels lock up, they are no longer able to transmit cornering forces, meaning that the driver loses control of the vehicle. To prevent this from happening, the ABS control unit uses wheel speed sensors to monitor the rotational speed of each wheel. If it detects that a wheel is about to lock, a solenoid valve in the anti-lock braking system's central control element reduces the brake pressure applied at the wheel in question until it starts to rotate freely again. The pressure is subsequently increased to the lock-up threshold again. The vehicle remains stable and can still be steered.
With the latest anti-lock braking systems, as fitted in all Volkswagen models, this process is repeated several times per second. The driver can tell when the anti-lock braking system is working by a slight vibration of the brake pedal. Within the anti-lock braking system's operating range, the vehicle is still fully steerable and the driver can steer to avoid obstacles or collision with other vehicles, while still achieving the maximum vehicle deceleration. |
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