Avoid needless heavy braking. Some people drivein spurts — heavy acceleration followed by heavybraking — rather than keeping pace with traffic. This isa mistake. Your brakes may not have time to coolbetween hard stops. Your brakes will wear out muchfaster if you do a lot of heavy braking. If you keep pacewith the traffic and allow realistic following distances,you will eliminate a lot of unnecessary braking.That means better braking and longer brake life.If your engine ever stops while you are driving, brakenormally but do not pump your brakes. If you do,the pedal may get harder to push down. If your enginestops, you will still have some power brake assist.But you will use it when you brake. Once the powerassist is used up, it may take longer to stop andthe brake pedal will be harder to push.Anti-Lock Brake System (ABS)Your vehicle has anti-lock brakes. ABS is an advancedelectronic braking system that will help prevent abraking skid.When you start your engine and begin to drive away,your anti-lock brake system will check itself. Youmay hear a momentary motor or clicking noise whilethis test is going on, and you may even notice that yourbrake pedal moves a little. This is normal.If there is a problem withthe anti-lock brake system,this warning light willstay on. See Anti-LockBrake System WarningLight on page 3-48.4-6
