abs killswitch - advise against?

[greenleg88]

when i stop hard, i hate the way abs comes on.

 

i want to make a abs kill switch. would anyone advise against this?

is it bad to just shut it on and off?

i would probably keep it off most of the time...

 

and no im not feeling like superman with my brakes..

i just feel like with good pedal feel, the car can stop in a shorter distance without abs.. which i know it does..

 

and if not anyone know what fuse off hand? and if anythign else important is hooked up to it?

[backwoodsboy]

We had a thread on this last year I believe.

 

For the record... I am not a fan of ABS either.

 

It does ONE thing very well, and that is to allow a driver to maintain the ability to steer when they dont have the ability to control the brake pedal.

 

It does NOT always allow you to stop FASTER. :-\

 

In NY state... your abs does NOT have to work to pass state inspection...

 

Unhook it if you want... IF you are the only one who GUARANTEED will ever drive your car.

[CNY_Dave]

The potential downside (I have never heard of this actually happening) could be

 

a) your insurance refusing to pay a claim if they found out you had the switch, regardless of switch position at the time of an accident

 

another individual/insurance company suing you if they found out you had the switch, regardless of switch position at the time of an accident

 

 

Just tossing that out for consideration.

 

 

Dave

[bheinen74]

The potential downside (I have never heard of this actually happening) could be

 

a) your insurance refusing to pay a claim if they found out you had the switch, regardless of switch position at the time of an accident

 

another individual/insurance company suing you if they found out you had the switch, regardless of switch position at the time of an accident

 

 

Just tossing that out for consideration.

 

 

Dave

 

same could be said and argued about having a cell phone in the car....

I just don't think that will be an issue.

[greenleg88]

eh, assuming theres nothing else hooked up to that fuse i planned on just butting a blown fuse in there...

 

and anyone else driving my car.. wont be a fan of abs either. heh

 

thanks for the tips.

[CNY_Dave]

The fuse method maintains plausible deniability, as long as the god-rotting computer doesn't keep track of how long the warning light has been lit.

 

 

Dave

[johnceggleston]

We had a thread on this last year I believe.

 

 

there was a thread on this recently, and from that:

 

let's be clear, ABS was not designed to stop you faster, not on dry pavement, not on wet or icy pavement. it was designed to give you steering ability in slippery / brake lock up situations. if you can do that without the computer so be it. but i would ask these questions:

 

can a 16 year old new driver do it without the computer.

can you do it without the computer if you have had 2 beers? how about 4?

 

these cars a designed for the multitude of average (and below average) drivers, not the relatively small percentage of above average drivers. it's my car and i can adjust it as i see fit.

 

now, my abs kicks in only occasionally, why does the op's kick enough to annoy him? anyway, mine kicks so rarely, i just don't care.

 

each to his own.

[greenleg88]

why does the op's kick enough to annoy him? anyway, mine kicks so rarely, i just don't care.

 

each to his own.

 

true to all points. and i suppose it realyl doesnt kick on all that much for me. its just there have been a few times recently where i feel like abs has almost caused me to crash because it was working.

 

ive followed two cars recently that didtn have any brake lights.. and therefore have recently experienced the abs.

sure you could argue i was too close. but thats not wat the threads about, plus in slow traffic it wasnt that close.

 

 

there are moments when because the abs is working, im anticipating my car crashing into something at liek 2 mph purely because of the abs. and had i just stopped based on my pedal feel, i know i could have stopped in time without having to get that anticipating a pitifully slow crash feeling.

 

hope that made sense.

[Gene J]

When i took my race driving classes we were told to use the ABS as hard as we could even in corners. The difference in braking distance on less than optimal surfaces is negligible.

 

Use the ABS and learn to enjoy it. The difference in control is amazing compared to locked up wheels.

[ericem]

You have no clue you need that ABS till that emergency situation comes up. I do not see the issue with ABS. Yes really sucks being able to steer and slow down in a emergency situation. Stupid automobile engineers....

[Manarius]

I've mashed the brakes in my heavy SVX many times and NEVER gotten the ABS to come on unless there was snow on the ground. The one time I was afraid with ABS, it was because I made the mistake of going too fast when there was a very small amount of snow on the ground the ABS kicked in. I would have locked if I didn't have it and probably would have hit a tree or a parked car if I didn't have the ABS.

[zyewdall]

I guess the biggest argument against ABS is for those of us not used to it. I can lock up the wheels on my Justy in ice (even with 4 studs) but I have a pretty good feel for when it will and when it won't. Plus it tracks amazingly straight when skidding (doesn't fishtail... still can't steer of course). When I drove a newer subaru with ABS (and summer tires) in the ice, it kept activating the ABS, and freaked me out every time because the pedal started vibrating -- not something I expected, and I kept backing off on the brakes because it felt like something was broken. I'd rather have a predictable car, not one that my instincts tell me is broken and cause me to back off on the brakes every time I touch them on ice. If it had had good tires, maybe it would not have been that bad.

 

I admit that for most people, the ABS buzzing might have felt normal, and skidding tires would have felt abnormal and scary. But that's not the way it felt to me.

[CNY_Dave]

There are definitely a few conditions where ABS is a genuine liability.

 

One is offroading,

 

another is the way on a steep downhill some ABS systems will actually prohibit you from stopping,

 

and another is those conditions where you will actually stop much faster if you lock up the wheels as compared to ABS braking or threshold braking.

 

 

In most cases ABS is a very useful tool. There is a goose walking around here that owes its continued existence to it, one rainy night around here.

 

 

 

Dave

[carfreak85]

Just a couple suggentions/opninion on my part.

 

1) I autox and the ABS in our STI and even in our WRX allowed me to brake later and under more control than in my EA81, especially in the rain, but also on a dry track.

 

2) If you enjoy rallying or spirited driving on gravel, deactivating ABS will allow you to stop faster.

 

3) I'm a Vehicle Design major and can tell you that while ABS might be annoying to some drivers, in most cases it is benificial, and isn't going away any time soon, so get used to it guys and gals.

 

its just there have been a few times recently where i feel like abs has almost caused me to crash because it was working.

 

ive followed two cars recently that didtn have any brake lights.. and therefore have recently experienced the abs.

sure you could argue i was too close. but thats not wat the threads about, plus in slow traffic it wasnt that close.

 

4) Don't follow so closely that you need to slam on your brakes. That is the easist way to a) avoid an accident and to not activate the ABS.

[Log1call]

The ABS is great in bad conditions like gravel roads or ice.

No matter how carefully we apply the pressure, there is no way for us to ease off the wheel that is starting to slide without letting off all the brakes... ABS can apply optimom pressure to each wheel under all conditions.

 

I drive on winding gravel roads all the time. On gravel roads, my ABS subaru out brakes my non ABS subaru in safety, with no fuss, in less distance. When you see that school bus coming around the corner and theres no where to go and your wheel are only inches from the drop off into the river, it's nice that the wheels dont skid!