Massive instability under braking & spin. Oh dear.

[jonrb 0]

0.80 leptars

you what??

You don't use the leptar as a unit of measurement of speed then? :)

 

Generally not a good idea to work in mph on a public forum, hence slight obfuscation. If you think about the national speed limit and the fact that I was travelling at or near it, then I'm sure you can work out what 0.8 leptars is. :D

[dinkus 10]

Now that makes me think further. If the car was turning right, the rear left would be compressed (effectively lowered);That might have affected the brake bias valve into allowing more braking to the rear, perhaps overbraking that wheel and causing a rear slide.

 

...but that would still have caused him to spin the other way...

[Roger Blassberg 0]

Er, yes you are right !! I have just re-read the original post and had mis-understood it at first.

 

Mmm very curious.

 

Leptars are now installed into the vocab too Thanks.

 

Best wishes

 

RB

[2cc 0]

With the conditions as you describe I have two thoughts.

It is very easy to twitch the wheel (unknowingly) when the other guy surprises you, and combined with heavy braking this can produce unexpected results, ie 'opposite spin'.

You say you have an ABS problem (and we don't know which corner) so, without getting in to a discussion about how much steering control it actually gives you when braking hard (one of its selling points in the adverts), I would have to point to that being the most likely cause.

I would definitely get the system checked out rapido.

Glad you are OK.

[jonrb 0]

The ABS sensor problem is well-known on the Corrado and Golf. It causes the ABS warning light to come on but doesn't necessarily compromise the ABS system.

 

I replaced the N/S/F ABS sensor earlier in the year but the fault has come back, suggesting it could be the O/S/F although VAG-COM isn't telling me what the fault is at the moment. I may check it tonight in the light of this discussion.

[jonrb 0]

Well, I went back to the road in question this evening, parked up in a nearby lay-by, and went and had a good look at the area.

 

I feel slightly vindicated. The road in question is a medium right-hander, a short straight which from the roadside is pretty damn straight but from the driver's eye (I drove it as well) might be construed to bear ever so slightly to the right, followed by another right-hander further up. So you could almost call it a very long double-apex right with a straight between the apexes.

 

The skid marks on the road clearly show that the entirety of my incident took place on that straight between the apexes.

 

I've also ascertained that the handy entrance I ended up in is the locked, gated entrance to some water works thing. That would explain why it was asphalted yet not a lay-by or side road.

 

The skid marks and gouges in the N/S verge show that I mounted the kerb and cut the corner into this entrance which is where I sustained the damage to the fuel line. The gouge marks are from the underside of the car near the o/s/r wheel and correspond to scrape marks under the car and are right where the fuel line is.

 

So given all this I can only surmise two theories now:

1) Problems in the braking system (ABS, front-rear bias, binding calliper, etc. as already put forward by various people both on-line and off-line) or

2) I instinctively swerved away from the other driver and managed to put either or both o/s wheels onto the grass central reservation (or crud just before it) and therefore lost grip and spun.

 

I feel slightly vindicated inasmuch as I didn't pass on a bend, but that doesn't help that much and still doesn't alter the fact that I had already observed that the driver was erratic and had poor lane discipline yet still chose to pass him. With hindsight I should have either sounded my horn before passing to make sure he knew I was there or, indeed, not passed him at all on account of the fact he clearly couldn't be trusted not to run me off the road.

 

Ho hum. :)

[dinkus 10]

I'm gonna move this to General Car Chat now, unless you do find a Drivetrain related cause :)

[HiAsAKite 0]

Jon- just found this thread-

 

Glad you came off ok- hope you get the car sorted soon and would be v. interested to hear if anything was wrong with the car set-up so we can all check ours out to try and avoid future similar occurances...