RE: A4 brake problem in the rain

["Dan Sinclair" <sinclair@prospro.com>]

>Perhaps each a4 owner should send a complaint to NHTSA (I think you can
>do this at their website), so that a formal inquiry can be launched.

Can you say "Unintended Acceleration"?  If there is a truly unsafe situation
on these cars, then by all means it should be addressed, but I suspect that
there is a less sinister explanation here.

If you've ever driven through standing water with a 4-wheel disc brake
vehicle and needed to brake immediately thereafter you've felt this panic
before.  While driving an 80Q I had just such occasion after a torrential
rain and the lack of braking response was SCARY.  I think the effect was
aggravated psychologically because the 4 wheel discs on the 80Q are normally
ultra fast acting.

Dan's pet peeve editorial:

Modern technology and vehicle advances have vastly reduced the number of
"tips and trick" necessary to drive a car.  You don't have to set the choke
with the gas pedal, quattros and AWD have change the way you drive on snow,
but you can never forget the basics.  In Driver's Ed (where I come from
anyway) they taught us that:  if you've driven through standing water, or
suspect your discs are wet, you need to allow extra distance and apply soft
pedal pressure for a few seconds before applying full pressure.  The soft
pressure puts the shoes against the rotor, creating enough friction to dry
the rotor prior to full braking.  Drive according to conditions, don't
assume because you have AWD that you can STOP any better than anyone else,
and a lot of panic is alleviated.

This is not to trivialize the issue, and road salt, MgCl and other factors
may be involved here, but I for one think that many folks rely too heavily
on the technology of their cars (air bags, SRS, ABS, AWD, etc.).  You still
have to DRIVE!  The technology was designed to supplement safe driving
habits, but instead, much of the technology seems to have made people
believe that they don't have to drive safely because the CAR will save them
from themselves.  Good luck.  As for me, I watch the folks in the Lexus
LS400s and 5-series BMWs with greater scrutiny than all the others because
they seem buy into this false security in droves.  Sorry for the soapbox.

Dan Sinclair
1988 Audi 90, 67K mi.
Picture and details online at:
http://131.107.68.28/a4.org/registry/details.asp?car=761


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-quattro@coimbra.ans.net
[mailto:owner-quattro@coimbra.ans.net]On Behalf Of Brian Armstead
Sent: Friday, February 05, 1999 6:44 AM
To: Jon Linkov
Cc: Jeremiah Kristal; quattro@coimbra.ans.net
Subject: Re: A4 brake problem in the rain


Perhaps each a4 owner should send a complaint to NHTSA (I think you can
do this at their website), so that a formal inquiry can be launched.

Brian