I searched and found some threads mostly on road racing though. I wanted to get some input on my situation. About a month ago i was driving and my ABS light came on on my dash. So i pull over and pop the hood and the ABS is going crazy. The entire unit is making this loud buzzing noise, so i shut the car off. I go back under the hood and it is still doing it even with the car off. So i unplugged it, checked to see if it had a wire shorted to power or something to make it stay on and everything looks fine, i think the actual unit went bad.

So for the past month i have had no ABS and have had no problems. Drove down to the beach, around town, on the highway, basically everything with no problems. Didnt lock up the brakes once. I drove it in the rain a few times with no problems as well, i try not to drive it in the rain though.

So my question is, is it a good idea to just remove my ABS and clear up some space in my engine bay or should i try something else to fix it? I can have some one look at and pay them to tell me that i need a new unit or that im an idiot and it is something simple. Or i can get a used one from someone parting their car and put that in, but there are special bleeding procedures and so on.

Just lookin for some input.
Thanks,
Austin

 

FIX IT. Removing ABS on a street-driven car is just dumb.

You can probably pick up a used working ABS off the forum for not much money...Fritz probably has one.

 

i would fix it as well

i have never owned a car with abs

but i certainly wouldnt take it out if it already had it in there

 

I didnt think about fritz, i will send him a pm now.

Thanks,
Austin

 

You may not notice a lack of ABS in normal driving, but it helps where it counts, emergency stops. It could be the difference between a fender bender and a close call. I'd fix it for sure.

 

If it works or is easily fixable, keep it.
I've wrecked my FB due to no ABS. Just lock up the brakes in a panic situation. It can and does happen especially on the street.
I removed mine cause it leaked and didn't work at all. Oh yeah, and I couldn't get the turbo out w/ it still there.
Lost 22lbs doing it.
Was on a 87 t2

 

I got the ABS light & massive front brake lock up after the finish line at a autocross event.

When I opened the hood I could hear the ABS Motor running. Even after I shut engine off & the ABS Motor continued to run.

I pulled the ABS fuses (40 & 15 amp) from the box near the left strut tower. This shut the ABS Motor off, but I still had the light & some serious front brake bias.

When I tried to put the fuses back in the ABS Motor started running again. After a while 1/2- 1 hr I tried again & all was back to normal. It stayed that way for a couple of months.

Then, during a lapping day, I got the ABS light again. This time I was under heavy braking & got massive front brake lock up (the right front taking the brunt). I flat spotted my R compound tire to the cord. Back in the pits, with the hood up, I could hear the ABS Motor running once again.


The ABS Hydro Electrical unit was two relays under the plastic cover. One is for the Pump Motor & the other is for the Valve.

I tested both relays with voltage & a meter. They operated normally.

I then heated the Pump Motor relay up to 250' F & tried again. The damn thing stuck closed. After it cooled down it snapped open again.

That's why the system would return to normal if I waited to put the fuses back in.

During normal street driving you don't get into the ABS much, if at all. On the track it must be cycling on & off a bunch.

Summary? Replace both relays in the ABS Hydro Elect unit. They cost around $60 for the pair.

 

Having no ABS isn't that bad, you just have to learn that you can't just slam on the brakes without modulating the pedal. As long as you get the feel for the car w/out the ABS, driving around, even in the rain, is no problem. You just have to be careful.

 

You, my friend, are a dumb ***...............

That is like saying. "You don't need rear brakes, all the weight is transferring to the front anyway. Just learn how to stop your car by gently applying the brake."

Cars with ABS are heavy front brake bias.

If you remove the ABS system from the car you will need to add a proportioning valve. Then you figure out how to properly adjust it.

Most people can't even figure out how to adjust the rebound on their shocks, they just twist the **** & say "That should do it!" , let alone balance the braking force.

Are you going to set it up for street or track? Gonna swap pads for the track?

Yea, just don't stomp on the brakes so hard. "That should do it!"

 

Sled Driver is right. The brake system in our car was not designed to work without ABS. With no ABS, the front wheels would lock up. One of my sensors went bad at a National event in Washington DC two years ago. I removed the fuse hoping I could modulate the brakes with some care. No way! The car was undriveable. If you remove the ABS you have to install a proportioning valve to balance F and R. My suggestion is you fix the ABS right away. Without it, it's very dangerous.

 

All else being equal, a car with ABS can stop quite a bit faster / in less distance than a car without. That can save you from being in an accident. It doesn't matter if you're Shumaker, you can't modulate as fast or as well as the ABS.

 

Not all together true...........

Insurance companies predicted a decline in rear end accidents with the introduction of ABS in cars. The opposite has actually happened.

For one people think they can stop shorter so they follow closer (less reaction time). Then the majority of people have never panic stopped hard enough to engage the ABS.

Of those that did, many felt the brake pedal pulsate & ABS chatter, they literally lifted their foot off the brake pedal to stop the noise. If your not pressing on the brake, your not stopping. BAM.

One of the 1st exercises in any advance drivers class is to perform repeted max stop from 70-80 mph. Non ABS car to the point of lock up. ABS car to the point of ABS engagement.

Contrary to popular belief brakes don't stop cars, tires do. The better the traction the tire offers the shorter your stopping distance.

You can install the latest & greatest 6 piston caliper with 14" rotor & actually take more distance to stop. Don't take my word for it, check out

http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp...rakekits.shtml

You can see an example of stopping distances compared to rotor temps in this test.

http://www.zeckhausen.com/Testing_Brakes.htm

 

Like I said, all else being equal. Noting can make up for stupid drivers.

 

I'm sorry - I just gathered that the car in question is an FD, although it wasn't specified in the original post. Mine is an FC, which didn't have ABS to start with. However, in terms of the FC, I wasn't aware the brake balance on the ABS and non-ABS brakes were so different from each other.

In any case, my apologies for my ignorance. I was merely stating my own opinion on the matter, not spreading misinformation....