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0 pointsuserbinator3y ago0 comments

No, those are not "sudden stop" situations either.

In fact the worst thing to do is to stop suddenly.

Even if a wheel falls off, you do not slam on the brakes unless you want to lose even more control.

0 comments

If a wheel falls off, the driver doesn't have to apply the brakes... A quarter of the car is digging in and melding itself to the asphalt.

If the differential fails catastrophically, it applies more braking force than the brakes do, so you'll have brief period of being airborne and then at least 1 rear wheel will sheer off (seen it).

If the driveshaft or trailing arms fail the wrong way, they result in a steel shaft digging into the roadway at a downward angle in front of the wheels and the driveshaft will stop the differential as above, until it sheers off.

jjav3y ago

> If a wheel falls off, the driver doesn't have to apply the brakes... A quarter of the car is digging in and melding itself to the asphalt.

That's not necessarily true. I've been in a car where the rear wheel parted ways with the car and passed us. For a few seconds we wondered where that wheel came from until realizing it was from our car. The car was balanced just fine on three wheels, there was plenty time to lift off the gas and make way to the breakdown lane safely.

Even if it's a more heavily loaded wheel (e.g. front wheel on front engine front wheel drive car), it'll slide on the brake disc or the disk cover (whichever is lower, varies by car). A good amount of sparking but you'll have enough steerage to pull over.

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