My son is to do an advanced driver training course in the family Liberty soon. His car doesn't have ABS, and I'd rather he learn to threshold brake without it. I've heard that the ABS fuse can be pulled to disable it. Does this have any other side effects, or is there another reason why we shouldn't consider it?
Clifford Heath.
Personally, I hate ABS and would love to have more control over the braking. I was told not to pull the fuse because in the event of an accident if they discover the fuse is missing it could cause major problems in a lawsuit. We get a lot of snow and ice around here, and I hate it when the ABS kick in, and it kicks in a lot. You have to assume, however, that the vast majority of drivers don't have the skill to master threshold breaking, or even want to learn.
Since the vast majority of cars have ABS these days, it might be a good idea to talk to whoever is running the training course and ask them what to do.
Yes, I'm aware of all that. I just wanted to know what else in the car might lose power if the fuse is pulled...? Or what other side effects there might be.
Good call.
The thing is, there is one pedal but two sets of brakes: the rears are easy to lockup as the subaru magazine was quick to point out an issue or two back.
Another minor system could shutoff. If it does and it won't do for the school you can pull ABS relay or disconnect any/all abs sensors. Another option is removing ABSCM & H/U
Chassis manual is your friend. That's where the wiring diagrams for ABS are.
Good luck and remember to put most stuff back the way you found it :-]
Interesting you mention that about lawsuits. With some insurance companies (in Victoria, Australia), your insurance is void if it's discovered at the time of an accident that a car with ABS had its ABS disengaged.
...Ric
Hmm, I guess cars with ABS don't need to pay as much attention to brake balance...
Ok, I'll try to find a diagram (98/99 Liberty RX). I had found an '01 Impreza/WRX manual, but they're probably not similar enough.
In any case I won't do it unless the school recommends it. The insurance company is actually *paying* for my son to do the course, so if the school thinks it's a good idea, who are they to complain?
Wonder how ric_man knew I was in Victoria :-) - Cheers, man.
Clifford heath.
Actually you do. The brakes are more heavily biased to the rear in an ABS equipped car than a non-ABS car. Consequently, if you remove the fuse, the rears are likely to lock up first; bad for threshold braking.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Btw why is that?
Therefore disconnecting just the two sensors on the front wheels seems like a good option.
Not what I meant, but interesting. I expected as much - if the ABS can counter over-braking, there's less reason to worry about balance.
I don't _even_ want to get into the arguments (again) over the moral, ethical, and legal aspects of doing so, but if you pull the ABS fuse, 'bout all that happens, other than returning control of your brake pedal, is that the ABS lamp will illuminate.
ByeBye! S.
Steve Jernigan KG0MB Laboratory Manager Microelectronics Research University of Colorado (719) 262-3101
Cheers, and thanks all - that's what I wanted to know.
While on the tour of ABS wiring diagrams I run into a g-sensor of some sorts that probably increases the system involvement in case some moron is breaking and turning at the same time. I did not dig deep though to see how exactly it's supposed to work.
Not really, because in case of abs failure you're back to basics and, as it was already pointed out, in case of rear bias the likelihood of spinout is higher. I don't think FHI engineers are idiots and hope they have a balanced system in the absence of ABS. I suppose your son will find out soon enough. Keep us posted, will you?
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