Disabling ABS

disabling ABS for snowy (not icey) conditions.

When I'm driving on fresh snow, I'd rather be able to lock my tires up and build up some snow ahead of the tires than to let the ABS pulsate and cause the tires to slip along on top of the snow.

Would pulling a fuse or unplugging the module work to turn off ABS? Would this hurt my 96 Accord?

Reply to
joe
Loading thread data ...

maybe buy some winter tires instead, or some that have some traction so the abs can work.

Or failing that just keep driving on your bald tires, and perhaps disconnnect your break lights while your at it

Reply to
James

Sorry to say this, but you are an idiot.

G-Man

Reply to
G-Man

Are you really contimplating disconnecting the ABS? Why would you want to defeat a system that has great benefits?

Professor

formatting link

Reply to
Professor

how to disable abs comes up on this group regularly. google is your friend.

Reply to
jim beam

it has benefits in some circumstances for "average" drivers, but the situation the op described is /precisely/ the kind of situation where abs is indeed undesirable. read the owners manual for weasel worded disclaimers about abs not being ideal for all situations.

Reply to
jim beam

I am not an average driver. I'm a control freak. I like being in full control of my vehicle. In addition to wanting to be in full control of my brakes, I like to be in full control of my transmission. One of the main criteria I look for when buying a car is that it must be a manual transmission.

So, If you think I'm an idiot, that's fine. I know that I have the skill to handle a car in an emergency stop without ABS.

So, does anyone know: Is there an easy way to disable ABS without causing any damage to the car?

Reply to
joe

so how does that make you different from the rest of us on this ng???

google this group!!! it's been posted here many many times. and check tegger.com for the faq's.

Reply to
jim beam

Ok! Will do... Thanks Jim!

Reply to
joe

No... I don't think you're an idiot. I just think that maybe you may be misinformed. If you think you have superhero skills... and can outperform the ABS in an emergency situation... then I question your rationale.

Professor

formatting link

Reply to
Professor

And, as everyone else who actually knows what they're talking about has said, ABS is NOT the best thing in all situations. On loose ground, locking the wheels is preferable to cadence braking (manual or ABS-automated) as it packs material under the tyres, shortening the stopping distance. As others have said, read what the manufacturers say about ABS - even they say its 'not ideal in all circumstances'

Reply to
flobert

It's nice to know that there are so many people responding to this thread that are much smarter than the automotive engineers that designed the ABS system. Thanks for all your invaluable knowledge.

Professor

formatting link

Reply to
Professor

niec to see there's people like you who don't read what they ACTUALLY say either. You take the Cliff-notes route through life, and thats fine for you, but don't profsres knowledge in any areas when you do so.

As many have said, including myself, read the caviets for the ABS systems one of my vehicles says in its owners manual "ABS system may not provide optimal braking in all conditions"

I have an old rally handbook from the early 70s too, for new drivers comming into the sport, it says pretty much the same, that on loose surfaces, locking the wheels is a more effective braking method.

In short though, material packs in front of your wheels, and you dig yourself in effectively, and rearranges the forces being dissapoated differently to standard tarmac braking. Its hard to explain without good deal of diagrams and calculus. Suffice to say that this is another subject, where high school educations are the basic generalities, and not the actualities.

Reply to
flobert

I completely agree with you, and I too took the time to actually read my instruction manual and noticed that little caveat about ABS. My manual actually specifically said that in snowy conditions, ABS would INCREASE stopping distances. Also, in extention of what you were saying, a simple way of demonstrating how it works is to say that basically, the material being packed in front of the tires acts in a similar fashion to a door stop.

Sean

Reply to
Sean D

Sounds like the best solution is to have a toggle switch to turn ABS on and off as appropriate. Does anyone know of an easy way to do this without damaging the car?

Reply to
joe

That would be tricky since I think the fuse for the ABS system is under the hood as opposed to in the dash. I would also be a little concerned about the legality of disabling a safety feature that the car came equipped with. I think some jurisdiction forbid the disabling of standard safety features. This became an issue when some people wanted to disable air bags for personal safety reasons. I've been told for example, that in many Canadian provinces, disabling the air bags is illegal since they came with the car as a safety feature. ABS may also fall under that category. In addition, if you were to have an accident and your insurance company discovered that you disabled your ABS, they could technically refuse coverage by arguing that the missing safety feature was a contributing factor in the accident. Just a little food for thought.

Reply to
Sean D

You are all overlooking a key feature of ABS... that nobody has mentioned. It's the ability to steer after you stomp on the brake in a panic situation. This steering ability could be key in crash avoidance...

Professor

formatting link

Reply to
Professor

dude, you can /only/ steer if you have sufficient adhesion. just because you have abs doesn't mean you can steer. all that abs achieves, and my grandmother is a great example of this, is some hope of crash-avoidance in a situation where a panicking driver locks the wheels and won't release them again. /you/ seem to be overlooking the key disclaimer of the owners manual.

Reply to
jim beam

I think you better sit back and have another whiskey... Jim Beam

Professor

formatting link

Reply to
Professor

"you can /only/ steer if you have sufficient adhesion."

Exactly, it's anti-LOCK brakes, not anti-skid brakes. If you are doing 30 miles per hour on an icy turn and you slam on the brakes, the wheel may not lock but there is a decent chance the car's inertia will make you slide on the ice because of the sudden deceleration, front tires without traction don't steer, even if they are turning.

Mr. Professor seems to assume that all people slam on the brakes with full force in a panic situation. There are some of us who have had driver training and learned "threshold braking". It's basically the manual way of doing what ABS is doing. There's called skills. ABS was invented to protect the people who don't know that technique. As for the professor's question in an earlier post about some being able to outperform the computer, properly exacuted threshold braking can stop a car in a shorter distance than ABS.

No computer system will ever be able to outperform a skilled driver. The key word being "skilled". Not everyone is. This is why ABS exist.

Reply to
Sean D

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.