Possible to switch off ABS?

I believe Advance or Autozone will read the codes for free. You can buy a cheap reader for around $50.

Worst case your ABS brakes won't work. You'll only have regular brakes.

You can take it to Autozone and have them read the codes for free. However, they may not tell you very much.

Sure, you can pull the ABS fuse.

If you don't know what effect ABS has on driving, you have no damn business driving with it. Take the car into a parking lot and practice some abrupt stops. Don't feather the brakes either, just jam down on them. When the ABS system engages, it will be very, very obvious.

My personal suspicion is that learning to feather the brakes properly is probably more effective than ABS, if it becomes a proper reflex and you remember to do it in an emergency.

--scott

R Mach wrote:

Anti-lock brakes work mostly in the rain or on snow...

On dry pavement the electronic-brake-balance and modern tires...will stop the car in emergency braking most often without wheel lockup.

If you pull the fuse out of the ABS the ABS light will be on...

You might try a drag-test. Drive by a sign on the Interstate at 70 MPH and see how far the car coasts down to 40 MPH. Try that when the ABS light is on and try that when the ABS light is off. And if the car coasts less distance with the ABS light off...then something in the ABS hydraulic system is possibly out of position. Then these oil change shops might have an ABS bleed service...

Actually the intermittent problem is probably a wheel speed sensor...near the wheel. Some people clean them and some people just unplug them and then plug them back in.

But you can read the codes with the new Innova 3160...it's already selling on the internet for less than cheaper same-brand models found in catalogs.

Oops...the Innova 3160 will only read the codes of a 2000 to 2005 LeSabre.

Thanks for the background info.

After 30 years of driving RWD cars, SOMETIMES with snow tires, ABS isn't as good...