4-7Avoid needless heavy braking. Some people drive inspurts -- heavy acceleration followed by heavybraking -- rather than keeping pace with traffic. This is amistake. Your brakes may not have time to cool betweenhard stops. Your brakes will wear out much faster if youdo a lot of heavy braking. If you keep pace with thetraffic and allow realistic following distances, you willeliminate a lot of unnecessary braking. That meansbetter braking and longer brake life.If your engine ever stops while you’re driving, brakenormally but don’t pump your brakes. If you do, thepedal may get harder to push down. If your enginestops, you will still have some power brake assist. Butyou will use it when you brake. Once the power assist isused up, it may take longer to stop and the brake pedalwill be harder to push.Anti-Lock Brakes (ABS)Your vehicle has anti- lock brakes (ABS). ABS is anadvanced electronic braking system that will helpprevent a braking skid.When you start your engine and begin to drive away,your anti- lock brake system will check itself. You mayhear a momentary motor or clicking noise while this testis going on, and you may even notice that your brakepedal moves a little. This is normal.If there’s a problem with theanti- lock brake system, thiswarning light will stay on.See “Anti- Lock BrakeSystem Warning Light” inthe Index.
