Easy Way to Cycle / Test ABS

[Intuit]

Do a harder stop going in reverse.
The front will lock-up on nearly any surface.

Know of an easy (or cheap) way to do the rear brakes, feel free to chime in.

Had my car for about four years before I ever activated ABS... and it was only on one wheel for a split second.
As a part of regular maintenance, it might be a good idea to activate the ABS modules every now and then.
Ordinarily, this requires special tools. (the electronic kind)

EDIT: Then again, the rear likely get used with the vehicle's yaw-control features. Wore out my back brake pads long before the front. Hill-Assist, I turned off the first week I drove it off the lot.

 

[the duke]

buy a FORSCAN cable and modulate the pump as the factory intended.

 

[Intuit]

Good suggestion. There is a revision for PC.
https://forscan.org/download.html

Until I need the Forscan setup for something else, I'll continue to just activate them using reverse every now and then; maybe a half-a-dozen or less times a year.

 

[lowda9]

I just had to do this after hitting a curb. After I replaced the tie rod and got an alignment, I was getting a weird grinding/knocking sound from the brakes. I had no cel but hooked up Forscan and got DTC's for abs. So I did the abs reset, bleed, recalibrated it, and the sound is now gone. So I think the abs was engaging everytime I hit the brakes.

 

[FiSTerMr]

....Hill-Assist, I turned off the first week I drove it off the lot.

Curious why did you turn it off? Aside from personal preference, is there a reason? I only ask because my back brakes wore out much faster than my front, and I was 95% in sport mode since I had this car from 2000 miles.

Now I put it in complete traction control off rather than just sport mode, thinking that might have been the issue with back brakes... Maybe it has something to do with Hill assist, IDK.

 

[Intuit]

@lowda9 - That's very interesting. The system works by watching a "tone ring" or rather, counting bumps that pass by a sensor. When one sensor's bumps cease being counted and while the brake is being depressed, it interprets this as the wheel locking up. It then activates the ABS module to release pressure. The fact that this began to occur after hitting a curb, implies damage or contamination to either the sensor or tone ring. Perhaps there's some calibration to the process. Otherwise I'm surprised that a reset had any impact.

@babyivan - A few reasons, but none related to brake wear. It kept me from effectively learning the clutch friction point. It also holds slightly longer than I'd prefer. Third, I've been driving clutches since I learned to drive and don't have any issue with roll-back.

99% of the time traction control is left on, and are not in sport mode. Fortunately traction control is not very sensitive on my 2016 and takes awhile to engage. So I can have a little fun without the nanny stepping in.

 

[lowda9]

@lowda9 - That's very interesting. The system works by watching a "tone ring" or rather, counting bumps that pass by a sensor. When one sensor's bumps cease being counted and while the brake is being depressed, it interprets this as the wheel locking up. It then activates the ABS module to release pressure. The fact that this began to occur after hitting a curb, implies damage or contamination to either the sensor or tone ring. Perhaps there's some calibration to the process. Otherwise I'm surprised that a reset had any impact.

@babyivan - A few reasons, but none related to brake wear. It kept me from effectively learning the clutch friction point. It also holds slightly longer than I'd prefer. Third, I've been driving clutches since I learned to drive and don't have any issue with roll-back.

99% of the time traction control is left on, and are not in sport mode. Fortunately traction control is not very sensitive on my 2016 and takes awhile to engage. So I can have a little fun without the nanny stepping in.

The vid was cut short because of the size, but I did abs reset, abs system bleed, and the the hydraulic control unit valve calibrations. So far this seems to have worked. I thought to try this first because right after I hit the curb, it showed on the screen, hill assist disabled and Traction control disabled. Since these are all working with the abs module, I thought it wouldn't hurt to reset it. I'm surprised the sounds gone, it was so loud and embarrassing.

 

[FiSTerMr]

@Intuit thanks for the info!

I agree. Sometimes the hill assist can be invasive and another times not work at all when I think it might actually help... for example, when going up my 45° angle driveway that crosses a sidewalk where I can't see pedestrians until they are right in front of me.
FYI, honking doesn't help when people are engrossed in their phone walking blindlessly through life. [emoji848]

I never thought to turn it off, but I will now.

 

[jmrtsus]

I was driving the other day in our hill rich environment and realized that Hill Assist has become totally transparent to me and I love it. It took about a week to even remember I had it when new

@lowda9 - That's very interesting. The system works by watching a "tone ring" or rather, counting bumps that pass by a sensor. When one sensor's bumps cease being counted and while the brake is being depressed, it interprets this as the wheel locking up. It then activates the ABS module to release pressure. The fact that this began to occur after hitting a curb, implies damage or contamination to either the sensor or tone ring. Perhaps there's some calibration to the process. Otherwise I'm surprised that a reset had any impact.

@babyivan - A few reasons, but none related to brake wear. It kept me from effectively learning the clutch friction point. It also holds slightly longer than I'd prefer. Third, I've been driving clutches since I learned to drive and don't have any issue with roll-back.

99% of the time traction control is left on, and are not in sport mode. Fortunately traction control is not very sensitive on my 2016 and takes awhile to engage. So I can have a little fun without the nanny stepping in.

I am lost when you say Hill Assist "holds slightly longer than I'd prefer". Do you wait for it to release before driving? When I take my foot off the brake I'm off and running. I'm slow this morning I guess, LOL.