Why does my car skid when i brake

If you find yourself in a skid, take your feet off the pedals. Stop braking and stop accelerating. Then, quickly turn the steering wheel in the direction you want to go. Accelerate, brake, steer and change gear as smoothly as possible to reduce the risk of a skid.

A higher gear may be more appropriate to aid grip on packed ice. This helps manage engine power delivery, making it easier to find traction. Turn your front wheels in the same direction that the rear of the vehicle is sliding. These both mean the same thing.

For example, if the back of your car slides to the right, turn the wheel to the right. Most automobile safety experts agree that hydroplaning is most likely to occur at speeds greater than thirty-five miles per hour. The three-second rule is recommended for passenger vehicles during ideal road and weather conditions.

Slow down and increase your following distance even more during adverse weather conditions or when visibility is reduced. Also increase your following distance if you are driving a larger vehicle or towing a trailer. Overcorrection puts your car in danger of fishtailing. If you accelerate too early, you can begin to skid.

Another cause of skidding is poor tires. Improve this question. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Adrian Howard Adrian Howard 8, 3 3 gold badges 14 14 silver badges 28 28 bronze badges. If the wheels are not rotating and the car is moving then the car will be in a skid.

Farcher Farcher Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Front wheels being out of alignment also can cause a skid by pulling the vehicle one way or another when the brake are applied. Tires should have good tread, and preferably the front and rear pairs should be well matched, and the tire pressure should be correct. If there is a different pressure in one tire from that in the opposite one, the effect can be similar to that of unevenly adjusted brakes because one tire will drag more than the other tires.

Steering wheel — sudden steering action on a slippery surface. Brakes — panic stops and applying your brakes too hard — especially on hills, curves, or wet surfaces. Clutch — sudden engagement of the clutch when on a slippery surface. Does your car have ABS brakes? If so, you should not be able to lock the wheels…Have an outside observer or two observe the cars wheels as you perform the brake tests….

Caddyman makes a good point about ABS. I would think your car does have ABS. A somewhat similar situation that came to me turned out to be a poorly machined rotor.

An otherwise perfect brake job at a local franchise shop left the owner with a wheel that would often lock when braking hard on wet pavement. I puzzled over the situation repeatedly before pulling the rotors off and comparing them side by side. When I switched positions of the rotors the locking followed the somewhat rough cut rotor. My training in using a brake lathe included finishing up turning by running a disc sander over the surface to remove the tracking and that minor polishing took care of the locking brakes.

During a previous visit to the mechanics he mentioned something about uneven wearing of the tires due to the tires having been under inflated but I did not fully understand what he meant. As per jtsanders suggestion I took a second look at my tires and I definitely see signs of uneven wearing.

And there are certain stretches during my commute when the drag on the wheels seems more pronounced. This could certain be due to the dry pavements. So if the problem is uneven wearing of the tires then whats the solution? Do I need to replace the tires? Is the car safe to drive in the current state? Like I said, I have experienced this problem for several months now.

Make sure that they are dynamically balanced by the tire shop. Get a 4 wheel alignment. And, make sure that in the future, you rotate the tires on a consistent basis, such as every 5k miles or every 7.