Brake Assist

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timk

Active Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2009
Messages
759
Location
Wiltshire
Car
VW Passat Alltrack, E39 BMW M5, Mercedes C55 AMG Wagon
Frightening experience on the M6 this afternoon - overtaking a truck, I was in the middle lane, came up behind another car and dabbed the brakes slightly to shed speed. I merely tapped the brake pedal and it seemed to shoot to the floor and full braking force was applied. I can only think the BAS somehow activated, but the pedal pressure was incredibly light so it clearly shouldn;t have happened. Gave me the shock of my life - from travelling round a corner at the national limit, on the raised section of the motorway (past Birmingham) the violence of it literally launched me out of my seat and made be headbutt the sun visor, and I was wearing my seatbelt btw. Anyone had a similar experience of BAS coming on when it shouldn't? Very worrying!:eek: Not to mention dangerous partway through a corner on a damp motorway with HGVs all around...
 
No, and if it did, I'd be straight to the garage.
 
My belief is that the BAS system learns what your normal braking habits are...

1 How quickly your foot moves from accelerator to brake
2 How quickly your foot depresses the brake and to what extent

I think it also pays attention to the speed you are tavelling at.
If it detects behaviour outside certain parameters then it will initiate BAS.
I suspect that you moved quickly (1) and this triggered the system.
I also can't see a full description of how the system decides to activate on the net.

I have on rare occasions seen BAS in action.
All I can say is that it works very very well and ABS kicks in too if necessary.
 
I had a similar incidence... though as part of controlled experiment.

I wanted to see how BAS worked. So, on a road where it was safe to do so, I 'blipped' the brake pedal - i.e. depressed it very quickly, but using only very short travel.

Sure enough, the car nearly 'locked' and braked very very hard.

You may have blipped the brake pedal too quickly, albeit only briefly. If you did, then that's the BAS. If you didn't, then you may have a problem with the brakes....
 
I had a similar incidence... though as part of controlled experiment.

I wanted to see how BAS worked. So, on a road where it was safe to do so, I 'blipped' the brake pedal - i.e. depressed it very quickly, but using only very short travel.

Sure enough, the car nearly 'locked' and braked very very hard.

You may have blipped the brake pedal too quickly, albeit only briefly. If you did, then that's the BAS. If you didn't, then you may have a problem with the brakes....

I did move from light accelerator application to very light brake application relatively quickly, however I've done similar before and not had the BAS kick in, in 16 months of ownership. I will say that the brakes are astonishingly effective when BAS kicks in. Very lucky that nothing was on my tail at the time because it would have been a nasty rear-ender.
 
BAS saved us on two sperate occasions. We were on the M25 and my partner was driving-I was in passanger seat and noticed a Land Rover minus a near side wheel. It had clean come off and we eventually saw the driver walking back with it. I said this and she had taken her eyes off the road-my fault perhaps...?-for a second. We were closing in on some slower moving traffic and had to hit the brakes-it shocked us how quickly and severly the BAS retards speed. The car was fully loaded too!
 
Yes, BAS has done this to me also on a few occasions. It has however saved me from mowing down a group of mindless children who darted out into the road from behind a bus with no warning so i'm thankful for that.
 
The only time I experience BAS I was in my first C43 (the saloon). I hadn't had it for long and was braking sharply for a traffic light camera - I decided it was too risky to continue so slammed on the anchors sharpish.

Imagine my surprise when the thing stood on its nose and my laptop slammed against the rear seats, bursting the folding backrest down (I hadn't locked it properly). I genuinely thought I'd been rear ended.

I've never experienced BAS since. Thankfully. Rather disconcerting.
 
I've done similar before and not had the BAS kick in, in 16 months of ownership. I will say that the brakes are astonishingly effective when BAS kicks in. Very lucky that nothing was on my tail at the time because it would have been a nasty rear-ender.

+1. I had no idea how much braking there was in reserve till the one and only time it kicked in. The C43 had a shorter stopping distance than one of the Fezza's of its day.
 
+1. I had no idea how much braking there was in reserve till the one and only time it kicked in. The C43 had a shorter stopping distance than one of the Fezza's of its day.

I can well imagine. It has to be experienced to be believed, but I hope I don't have call to use it again! Can only liken it to having a crash but without the actual metal crunching impact.
 

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