 Earl Glanchot, Foreman here at Township Chevrolet for another edition of Tech Talk. You guys did a vote again and voted for a quick rundown on the ABS and how it works and some things you guys can watch for. So the basic gist of how the ABS works is years ago before ABS brakes or any lock brakes system was developed. They would tell you to pump your brake pedal in icy or conditions where your wheels would lock up, snow, water, ice and that would you could you could slow the car down and brake, but you'd also have some steering stability and steering control over the vehicle. So what'll end up happening is if you lock your brake up completely you can turn your wheel all the way around the other way and the car is going to keep going in the direction where that you're headed in when the skid started. So they put any lock brakes in there, so essentially what it does, there's a few obviously pieces of the puzzle here, but the layman's kind of term for it would be it's gonna pump the brakes for you. So you're applying your foot on the brake pedal and it's going to apply brake release brake pressure on the brakes that are locking up and it usually does it in like a duty cycle. It applies on and off, on, off, on, off. So I guess we should go over just kind of how that does that. So on every one of the vehicles on a car today will have wheel speed sensors, which is this wire here on this particular vehicle. So on the back of the wheel hub where the wheel bolts on and behind the brakes, there is usually a tone ring or a magnetic ring, excuse me, that sends, that has it spinning. There's a sensor here that will pick up on it and it will generate a voltage and give a digital signal and depending on how tight that signal is or how frequent that signal happens will determine how fast the wheel is spinning. So when you're going on the road and you're heading straight and you're driving and you've got all no brakes applied, everything's going good. Each one of these wheels, let's say, is reading 35 miles per hour. Something comes up, something pulls it in front of you. You have to apply your brakes really quickly. Let's say the roads are snow-covered and you apply your foot on the brake pedal. It squeezes the caliper and all of a sudden this brake now becomes locked up. The ABS brake module sees a brake signal coming from their pedal so it knows you've applied the brake. It also sees that one or more wheel has stopped turning. So what it is, it will actually let off some brake fluid pressure through the line here in an accumulator. So there's basically a reservoir that will allow a bit of that fluid pressure to release. As soon as it does, this wheel starts to turn again. When the wheel turns, it may apply some of that pressure back and to see if it locks up. If it locks up, it'll let back. So it'll do that repeatedly. So if you've ever been, had your foot on the brake in a snowy condition and that's happened to you, you usually hear some, you know, people describe it as kind of a loud ratcheting noise. And you almost feel your brake pedal move up and down underneath your foot underneath you. Now as ABS systems become more advanced, you hear less noise and you feel less, you know, pedal movement underneath you. But it's essentially doing the same thing. So if you've felt that before, that's what's going on. It's releasing and then reapplying the brake pressure to each one of the wheels individually so that you can still maintain stability and steer the vehicle. So some of the myths are ABS brakes help you stop faster. They don't. They potentially could, but that's not why the main function is there. Another thing is, too, if you have any locked brakes, you shouldn't pump your own brake pedal. You just you're just confusing the system. You should just apply if you've got any locked brakes in your car. You just apply the brake pressure, maintain your brake pressure, steer your car around the object that you may be, you know, going to hit if you don't get stopped in time and let the ABS module do its job. Another thing, if your ABS light is on for a fault for whatever reason, the ABS system is deactivated, meaning it can't trust something is something is a fault has happened and it can't trust its own data it's receiving. So because of that, it knows that it can't safely release brake pressure or apply brake pressure. So when the light is on, the system is completely disabled. I'm going to say most vehicles, almost all, there's very, very few out there and probably none left, you know, on the road today. But years ago, some of the ABS modules and the brake master cylinder were integral of each other. They were together. So if you had an ABS issue or concern, there was an issue with your base brake system or your actual hydraulic brake system. On cars today, you don't get that anymore. If your ABS lights on, you still have regular brakes. If your light is on and you have a problem and you're waiting to get it repaired or you're waiting for parts or you're saving up some money to get that system repaired, then you can go ahead and pump your brake if you have to. But if that light is out, then obviously you don't want to. Like a lot of the systems in your car, a lot of people don't know this. When you first turn your key on the opposition and you see all those lights illuminate in your dash, nine times that and that's that system performing a self check. So if you're like, you want to see if your ABS brakes are functioning properly and maybe you don't know if your ABS light works, you turn your key on and that light comes on in the dash and then goes out. Your ABS system is working normally. It's sent voltage out through all these lines, seeing a certain amount of voltage go back to the ABS module so it knows everything's good. The main issues we have with ABS brakes, usually most of the time, is usually the wheel speed sensors or the hub bearings or sometimes they're together, meaning on this vehicle here, you can replace just the sensor and you can replace just the bearing on some of some vehicles. The sensor and the bearing are together, so when you buy one, you're getting both. So the two main things are either A, the magnetic ring on some of the back of the wheel hubs will become brittle after a while and that little piece of magnets will fall off and then it sees that as if it doesn't, if the patterns go and the digital signals up and down and all of a sudden there's a a piece of that magnet missing or a piece of the reluctor ring, it's going to see a gap and the gap will show up to the computer as the brake is locked up. Obviously, and it doesn't see your foot in the brake, so it knows there's something wrong. So that was one fault that can happen and another fault is too. Obviously this wire here, the suspension is moving up and down and as it's moving up and down, this wire is constantly moving. Sometimes the wires are looped like this, sometimes they go along the control arm here and either way there's constant movement every time your suspension moves that wire is moving and after a while those wires can become brittle plus the wheel is doing the turning so they can become brittle and you can have a broken wire. So that's kind of the two of the main things either the sensor itself be because of wiring or the sensor gone bad or the hub itself just because of wear and tear driving or the hub becomes loose. I'm sure everyone's had a wheel bearing at one point in their life that's gone bad usually creates noise and with that noise there's a bit of play. Well that play will allow that reluctor ring or the little magnetic wheel in the back to move farther away from the sensor and there's a certain ring air gap that should be there so that can cause a fault as well. Usually the modules are pretty good don't give too much trouble so if you've got an ABS light on it's not too bad to check guys here the techs will put the scan tool on it we'll get a code up it'll be a C code for a chassis code it will give us a four-digit number we can look that number up and it'll tell us which wheel is having the issue and then we can kind of pinpoint it and get it coded out for you that you know to be to fix that and get that working because as far as safety system goes any lock brakes are one of the best things that are on a car and when you're dealing with something especially that's four wheel drive sometimes they use those sensors to apply the the rear wheels they also use it for the trash control system to keep the car straight if it starts to crean at a at a control on you so system is really important it's usually not too bad to diagnose and realistically usually the parts aren't too bad for it so if you have a light on you want to check it out definitely bring it on down to see us and we'll put our scan tool and we'll see even get you fixed up another edition of tech talk and don't forget to vote in the next topic thanks