Posted on 11/22/2021 2:36:00 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT
It's a user-operated fallback braking device coupled with a valve that lowers tire pressure. In cases of emergency braking, the tires will go flat to help slow the car down if the braking system fails.
If the drive-by-wire system fails, the results can be catastrophic. Ford recently had problems with six Mach-E models in Norway. The regenerative braking system kept on recuperating energy, overheating the batteries.
To work around this problem, Daimler came up with the new fallback system. It only comes into play when the actuator master unit fails or even has a simple error. In this case, the brake pedal is connected to the fallback unit, which is a basic friction system. The main new feature is the air release valve, which can reduce tire pressure.
(Excerpt) Read more at carbuzz.com ...
An ancient and faithful IH Travelall that I gave my brother, had a wheel cylinder fail and it kissed bumpers with another vehicle.
Can happen.
Useful if you get stuck in deep-sand banks on backroads (e.g. Grand Staircase-Escalante, Utah).
Down shift, get it in neutral and find a grade or some thickets if need be. There are ways! Be as safe as you can be!
Just what I needed - a complex automobile expensive to maintain with even more CRAP to go wrong. 🤪
Great for rush hour on the freeway where every one is going 70+ with 10 feet between vehicles. Gotta love those pile ups in the morning, in the dark as the hits just keep coming ...
Lol. And when the sensor glitches while you are doing 80mph?
Steered hard into the curb and slowed down just enough that when I contacted the car in front of me I was only going about 10 MPH. Everybody was okay, just a little shook up.
I'm not sure that having the tires go flat would have helped much.
I once drove a friend’s Pontiac Bonneville on its final trip to the wrecker, because nobody else would. Drove it with absolutely no brakes (not even the parking brake), clear across a medium-sized city without hitting anyone. When I had to stop, I’d downshift the automatic into low, then slip it into reverse to stop completely, then into park or neutral until the light changed.
Today, I’d tell her to call a tow truck, but I was 44 years dumber then.
>the tires will go flat to help slow the car down if the braking system fails.
You have violated the limits set by your VaxxGreen Social Score, citizen. Your tires are now being deflated remotely to prevent you from exceeding your carbon and/or social limits.
Very scary, but you kept some control of the vehicle.
Other folks may have frozen in helpless shock of the brakes not working.
New cars in the US 1968+ have dual master cylinders, so if you lose a brake line or cylinder you still have one front and one back brake; the BRAKE light will come on. Pay attention to it! But before then, you lose one line or brake cylinder at the brake, you could lose everything!
Another reason brakes fail these days is people don’t change their brake fluid. if you live in the flat Midwest, you don’t care that the fluid is hygroscopic and water eats through the inside of your brake lines, because the entire rest of the car will be a pile of rust before failure. If you tow a trailer in the Rockies, you will care, because water boils at a lower temp than brake fluid does. Boiling brake fluid = no brakes!
It’s pretty much beyond the ability of the average mechanic to troubleshoot this sophisticated electronics without the factory equipment.
I had the brakes go out on me in a ‘50 Ford…there’s a reason they’re called “emergency brakes.”
Ah, you beat me to it.
The Lincoln line of MKVII (1988-92) had a hydroboost braking system with no redundancy.
When it fails, usually daily driving symptoms (increased stopping distance) gave you a week before total failure if one had not crashed before then.
I changed out mine ('90 MKVII HO) to a '95 Mustang GT vaccumm booster, any '90's V8 Cougar master cylinder, machined the proportioning valve to mate new brakeline connection.
Looked and drove factory when completed.
By the time it stops you the car will be on fire. Friction is a real thing.
—”Useful if you get stuck in deep-sand banks on backroads”
Also for situations that require lower total vehicle height.
Like a garage door that gets stuck midway.
—” a complex automobile expensive to maintain with even more CRAP to go wrong”
I stayed with hand crank windows for many years because of a bad winter experience.
Windows I can deal with, this one will be illegal to modify.
https://nypost.com/2021/08/05/drunk-driving-alert-hot-car-monitors-may-be-required-under-1t-bill/
—” going 70+ with 10 feet between vehicles.”
In Chiraq it is closer to 17mph and maybe a foot or two?
Someone spits out the window and you sit for ten minutes...
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