Avoid needless heavy braking. Some people
drive in spurts — heavy acceleration followed
by heavy braking — rather than keeping pace
with traffic. This is a mistake. The brakes may
not have time to cool between hard stops.
The brakes will wear out much faster if you
do a lot of heavy braking. If you keep pace with
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 vehicle’s engine ever stops while you
are driving, brake normally but do not pump the
brakes. If you do, the pedal may get harder
to push down. If the engine stops, you will still
have some power brake assist. But you will
use it when you brake. Once the power assist
is used up, it may take longer to stop and
the brake pedal will be harder to push.
Adding non-Saturn accessories can affect your
vehicle’s performance. See Accessories and
Modifications on page 304.
Anti-Lock Brake System (ABS)
Your vehicle might have the Anti-Lock Brake
System (ABS), an advanced electronic braking
system that will help prevent a braking skid.
If your vehicle has ABS,
this warning light on the
instrument panel will
come on briefly
when you start your
vehicle.
When you start the engine, or when you begin
to drive away, ABS will check itself. You might hear
a momentary motor or clicking noise while this test
is going on, and you might even notice that the
brake pedal moves or pulses a little. This is normal.
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