Diagnosing and repairing car safety features

Most up-to-date vehicles contain a number of advanced car safety features. You may have seen them referred to with acronyms such as ABS, TCS and ESP®. Although those terms seem a little confusing, they are essentially technologies that try to help you recover from skids or prevent skidding in the first place.

The whole process of intervening in dangerous situations on the road is, of course, computer controlled. Sensors at the wheel and within the power train work provide a processing unit with data about the current situation, upon which a program will determine the best course of action almost instantaneously before sending commands to brakes, engine and other components.

So, as you can imagine, diagnosing and fixing problems with your vehicle’s safety systems requires advanced equipment that can interrogate the sensors and processing units involved. Fortunately, Bosch has been at the forefront of developing these workshop tools, so Bosch Car Service facilities are extremely well equipped and trained for this kind of work.

People sometimes get a little confused over the terminology for different technologies designed to give you a safer ride.

ABS: The advanced braking system is a technology that helps to stop you skidding when you brake. If a sensor detects that a particular wheel is skidding because too much braking pressure has been applied for the surface conditions, the ABS will release the pressure on the brake in rapid bursts. This will stop the skid and restore your ability to steer the vehicle.

TCS: The traction control system deals with loss of traction due to acceleration rather than braking. If you pull away too quickly on a slippery road, the wheels will spin. The TCS will respond by reducing the amount of power sent to the wheels that are slipping.

ESP®: The electronic stability program is an advanced technology that uses ABS, TCS and engine management to ensure a safe and comfortable ride. It detects steering movements that are too extreme for the surface conditions, intervening with corrective action before a skid can occur.

We are proud to say that all these technologies were innovated by Bosch.

The first you may know about a fault with car safety features is when a warning light appears among the controls in your vehicle. Depending on the vehicle, it may well be that a light comes on whenever your ESP® system intervenes to correct a dangerous situation. But in those cases, it will only stay on briefly. If the light stays on for a long time, or if some other abnormal indication associated with the car safety features can be seen, you should contact Bosch Car Service.

Some problems with car safety devices – problems that call for an ABS pump repair or ABS module repair, for example – may manifest themselves in a more obvious way, such as a brake pedal that no longer works or works only with difficulty.

It may also be the case that a potential problem with car safety features needs to be investigated during a more general transmission repair.

Systems such as ESP® and TCS work very closely with the transmission (also known as the drive train or power train) to deliver the right level of power to the wheels for any given situation.

Having taken careful note of the symptoms reported, our workshop staff will use advanced methods and equipment to determine exactly what type of problem exists (if any) and will advise you of the steps required to fix it.