I had to make and emergency stop today in my MN6 C6. I shoved in the clutch, and when I hit the brake pedal I also hit the gas pedal at the same time (wide foot). Even though I was "standing on the brakes". there was no shudder of antlock brakes as in my cars in the past, and the car kept rolling like it was on grease. The brakes did slow the car some, but unfortunately not enough. Has anyone else had experiences like this, and can anyone explain why the car did not want to stop?

 

Something is wrong or you were not standing on the brakes.

 

Felt the EXACT same thing at Spring Mountain during hot laps. Sometimes my foot stayed on the gas slightly and I was like WTF

Just go out and do some practice braking and literally SLAM on the brakes, making sure your not touching the throttle. Don't worry, you won't break the brake pedal. Got to fully engage it!

 

Not my experience at all. Recently on the freeway with moderately heavy traffic, I was ogling the babe in the car next to me and the traffic abruptly stopped in front of me. I got that sick to your stomach feeling that "I knew I was going to rear-end the car in front of me" but jammed on the "binders" (aviation term for brakes) as hard as I could.

It wasn't even close. I stopped a good three car lengths short of impact. Then I started listening for the screeching brakes behind me, but luckily the cars behind me weren't watching the same girl.

Bottom line--the brakes work great in this car. My dentures are still rolling around up front by the defroster somewhere.

Sweep and Smoke--Jimbo

 

I think you hit more gas than brakes and hence didnt stop... Ive engaged the ABS once and it worked as it should.. on the vette it actually is very noticeable when the abs kicks in but it takes A VERY HARD stop to engage it (or slick roads)

 

If you "shoved in the clutch," that should have disengaged the engine from the transmission. If you "hit the brake pedal," regardless of whether you also hit the gas pedal at the same time or not, the car should have stopped. The engine might have gone into a high rev condition but with the clutch in there was no power going to the rear wheels.

If you kept moving forward you either didn't shove in the clutch far enough, you weren't "standing on the brakes" or you were riding on a grease spot.

 

I recently had to make a panic stop in my C6 to avoid a young girl in a car who pulled out in front of me. The ABS did activate, but I did not retain steering control and slid into her car. I thought one of the benefits to ABS was the ability to maintain directional control. The road was dry, but I was not able to maneuver around her. I was a bit surprised that the car would not respond to my steering input.

 

You're correct, the ability to steer IS the POINT of ABS.

 

OK, I'm still trying to figure this out, so it hopefully won't ever happen again. I know what anti-lock should feel like, but it kept rolling smoothly while slowing down some.

It's hard not to be hitting the brakes with gusto when you are bearing down on the rearend of a Silverado 2500 quadcab. If I'm not pushing the brakes in far enough, I need to understand why.

As for the clutch being all the way in, the motor was still running as I sat there after alleviating the rear tires of the truck of their burden of holding up the rearend.

I was just wondering if others had experienced this phenomena or not. My son suggested that maybe by hitting the gas and brake together the computer thinks I am doing a "heel and toe" manoeuver instead of emergency braking. A mechanic has suggested that maybe the computer gets confused when both the gas and brake are pressed at the same time.

Maybe a change in driving position will be enough to stop the problem of hitting both at the same time in an emergency.

Maybe I just need narrower shoes.

 

Well that's just car physics... if you happen to be braking to the max of the cars abilities then your steering control is going to be greatly reduced whether you have ABS or not. With ABS you will still have some steering control, but it will be like 25% as strong as what you normally experience.

But if like you said - your car didn't have any steering control whatsoever- then yeah, that is weird.

...You weren't held at fault for the accident were you? If so it's time to move to a county/state where the local law enforcement has an average IQ over 3

 

The other driver was found to be 100% at fault. I was definitely beyond the cars ability. I was traveling around 35 to 40 mph. I would say 25% is about all I was able to get out of my steering input, but that’s about what I’ve experience from cars without ABS.

I was thinking the active handling might have kicked in forcing the car to maintain forward stability as opposed to allowing the back end to slide beyond a predetermined programmed setting. This is the only explanation I can think of. The ABS helped slow the vehicle, but I had very little directional control.

Sorry…did not mean to hijack this thread. I was going to post an ABS question and then saw this thread and posted my own experience.

 

Have you had a chance to ask the dealership to check the computer to see is an ABS malfunction occurred? I had an Alfa Romeo 164 LS and had frequent ABS malfunctions, but have not experienced the same in my C5 or C6.

 

I've had the car towed to a local quality body shop, and they have contacted GM I believe about some of the mechanical work that will need to be done. For some reason the clutch is sticking near the floor and there is a bad sound coming from the drivetrain when the car was moved under it's own power. I will inquire as to whether they can check for ABS malfunction. I can tell you that it is a horrible feeling when you are trying to stop in a hurry and the car just keeps on rolling on down the road.

 

I understand. My biggest concern driving my C6 is the possibility of finding myself under the rear of a SUV or large truck. I've seen too many accident photos of Vetts underneath Cadilacs and other large vehicles. Sorry to hear about your experience.

 

In my '93 RX-7 and subsequently my '03 Subaru WRX the ABS was tested a few times, on some occasions purposefully and sometimes in panic mode. The RX-7 was OK but would, what I call, "skate" if the wheels were bouncing over bumps or irregularities. The WRX's ABS was not well designed. In fact, the NTSB even contacted me (I had complained about the ABS to their website) and wanted to come visit to see, in person, what was happening. As it turned out they never did, but I recently received a letter from Subaru advising me to go to a dealer and have the computer reprogrammed. All that to get (finally) to the point... In researching it on the WRX I found out that ABS has a lot of complicated stuff going on with sensors reading rotation speed and applying algorithms and other stuff that is very complex. I mean very complex. In the case of the '03 WRX the stock tires were so poor they bounced too much and the computer was too slow in releasing and got fooled into thinking things were OK and let off on its own. I exchanged the 205/55-16's for 225/50-16s and it was much better (or less bad). Now, really finally, the only solution for the '03 WRX (and it was MUCH discussed) on the WRX forums, was to let off and reapply. Not a good solution and I'm not saying the Corvette is the same way, but I tried it a few times when traffic wasn't involved (that is, on purpose at a time I chose) and proved it correct. Due to the complexity of the software and the fact it isn't really reacting to the real world but actually reacting to what it has been programmed to interpret as reality, even a correctly designed and operating ABS can go bonkers in certain conditions. Another solution was to push the pedal really hard. So, regarding the skate, if that happens, one thing that might work, assuming you have the time and remember it, is let off and start over. I have "tested" my ABS on my '06 coupe and found it superior to the Subaru in every way. I tried it on the same road, same speed, same bumps, and it works way better, however, it was still not optimal, it just skated much less. I suspect the bigger tires help. But, it did help to let off and reapply. In a panic situation we sometimes can't do that, but, who knows, my experience may come to mind at some point for somebody and might help, so there, my $.02.

 

I haven't had the same experience, but have had the ABS activate on my car.

It DOES feel exactly like the ABS on 99 Eldorado, and on my daughter's Saturn - so I think you're correct in feeling you would have felt the ABS engage. (Actually, I've noticed it engages very easily, and I've assumed this is due to the massive front rotors.)

I think if you didn't feel it through the sole of your shoe, it didn't happen - and it sure sounds like it should have. Pretty scary - malfunctioning ABS.

 

I used my brakes hard today and came to a clean control stop.

Doing about 65 down to 34 in nano seconds.

 

I think that the problem seems to be that when I lift off the gas and apply the brake, I'm hitting the brake but also hitting the gas with the right side of my foot at the same time. You wouldn't think that would make much difference in a manual trans. car with the clutch in, and the motor revving up. But perhaps when that happens, the combination of hitting both at the same time, prevents me from pushing the brake pedal down as far as it needs to go. Again, just trying to understand so I can remedy the situation. If only one other person has experienced this same thing, then it must be something that I am doing, and once I get the car back, I'm going to do some serious static testing to see what that is and what I can do to stop it. No pun intended. Thanks for all of your responses.