ABS - how do you tell if a car has it?!

Well, I finally got my car... I love my 2003 Pontiac Grand Am. The 2.2 Ecotec engine isn't too bad, and it runs great. 140HP, 31mpg on the highway, peppy and handles well. I am really suprised how the engine is for a stock 4-cyl. Takes the DC highways and city very well.

However, I've driven my parent's cars and they have ABS, and it pisses me off. This car doesn't brake as bad, and I'm just wondering how do you tell OTHER than slamming on the brakes. My old Taurus had disc brakes and they where great.

when i start my car, an "ABS" light comes on briefly before turning off, showing me ABS is working...

I see a brake light... on my last car there was a light on the speedo for ABS, but since the car didn't have it, it never lit up.

A good way to test this is on slick surfaces like ice. You press the brake and rapid fires and you feel like you are going to crash. Disc brakes and ABS can be on the same car. ABS is anti-lock brakes. A car with ABS can have disc brakes, like mine.

If your car is from 2003 it is highly likely that it has ABS. I think they are required.

GM cars should have ABS.

my 05 Focus did NOT have ABS breaks as it was a BASE model with NO options or packages on it. Its still not mandatory but I would assume your car actually has it as I think GM has it standard on everything now. I could be wrong.

Just slam the shit out of the brakes and if they lock up then you know you don't have it or at least it is not working. It should have something that looks something like this.

http://www.modulemaster.com/original.../ABS_Yukon.jpg

I hate posting wiki links but they say they are standard on your model

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Grand_Am#1999-2005

yeah or "ABS" stamped into the break pedal? I know old GMs had that but that was eons ago. Also someone said you should have a light on the dash. This light will almost always (on every car I've seen) come on when you start the car for several seconds while the system checks itself and go off once passed. Just like the Air bag light.

I suggest asking your car if it includes ABS.

If it doesn't know, then tell it to get its shit together.

You could most likely call a dealer and ask them to look up the VIN to see if it has ABS.

If you don't want to do that, check the fuse box and see if there's a spot marked for an ABS fuse. If there's a fuse in there, you most likely have ABS.

Check the manual?

Just slam the shit out of your brakes and if you feel a grinding/vibration and a strange groaning noise, you have ABS.

I know cars can have ABS and disc brakes. I found non-ABS disc brakes to be the best in the winter where I live.

I think my Grand Am is the SE, but there's no badging for trim on the car, and it doesn't have traction control at all. It does have the 4-cyl.

With the dashboard all lit up, take a picture of when all the lights come on for initialize of the computer.

Perhaps one of us can spot a familiar icon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by David J.

I found non-ABS disc brakes to be the best in the winter where I live.

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I would generally tend to agree. It snows a lot where I live as well (Denver, Colorado). When you first try to stop on snow or ice with ABS, your general response is "Well crap, it looks like I am going to die. Oh well". But once you get used to it (it takes at least an entire season) you can compensate and not press the brakes so hard and make it work. Still, I think I'd rather have real brakes on the snow.

If you have ABS, take the car out late at night the first time it snows/ices when there is no traffic and practice stopping. This is essential!

Most 2003 Grand Am 2.2L's have anti lock brakes. If it is an SE1 it definately has, although it was an option on the SE model.

Still, the best way to find out is to try it out. Go to a deserted road, go up to about 40 MPH and slam on the brakes. Hey, I consider it routine brake maintenance.

It's worth noting that I've very, very hard on my brakes. However, I can swap out a set of brake pads in about 15 minutes, and (on my cars at least) the pads are cheap, even for the good stuff.