ABS Yes or No?

[Jez 0]

Anyone who thinks abs is just a gimmick for idiots is too far up their' own arse. Id like to see someone stop a car from high speed faster by pumping the brake pedal manually than abs would do it in. Lets not lie, most people on this forum are going to drive enthusiastically sometimes and thats going to increase the risk of running into unexpected corners/roundabouts/cars pulling out/cows in road etc..In which case would you rather that little orange warning light was on or off?

[CoxyLaad 0]

ooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo........

[mr.ots 10]

There is no doubt that abs will reduce stopping distances particularly in the wet and maintain steering control under servere braking. I would rather have it than not.

 

After all, who can pump the brakes manually at 50 times per second!

[A20 LEE 0]

Interesting you saying you are ditching your ABS Lee (312mm brakes thread), do you not like the ABS? I am in a situation where I have all the kit but I am not sure whether to fit it or not.

 

There's a few reasons why i want rid of it. First one is for clearance on the turbo conversion, it really gets in the way. I'm trying to declutter the enginebay to make it easier to clean and yes, i'm not a big fan of ABS which incidently doesn't work on my car at the moment and i'm not bothered.

[Jimjam 0]

I can't understand why anyone would want rid of it on a daily driver.

 

Even the best driver (by which I mean professional) couldn't even hope to cadence break as effectively as ASB does the job.

 

I'd be inclined to leave it in place. You never know - one day you might be pleased you did.

[conleycrew3 0]

abs is a good thing i can tell you, its saved me and my precious corrado a few times in the wet, living in a city people tend to not care how they drive or where they drive so a few near misses are always going to happen who ever you are!

i didnt have abs on my mk2 golf gti and i no if i was driving that down here i wouldnt be driving it now because it would be in the scrappers with a decent front end shunt i reckon ha ha

[CorradoVR6-Turbo 0]

When I had my crash over roundabout,I would have been better off if the ABS had worked at the time, it was screwed and on a few occasions its a very good piece of kit.

people who pump the pedal on near crash situations are talking rubbish :-P ...I mean what happens when it all goes wrong? AAAAGGGGHHHH.arms locked straight bending the wheel and pedal hard down locking up.the Human brain cant cope in situations like the ECU of the ABS 8)

As for snow ect,ive mounted switch on dash to knock it off,but on all other occasions it will always be on. :wink:

[dr_mat 0]

The human brain/right foot can't cadence brake for each individual wheel whilst keeping the braking force on the other wheels, either ...

[MADDUB 0]

i like the abs and would never get rid of it i think you will be nuts to take it off

[Kevin Bacon 5]

The human brain/right foot can't cadence brake for each individual wheel whilst keeping the braking force on the other wheels, either ...

 

I beg to differ..... I four "Track and field" arcade switches rigged up to 4 electronically actuated master cylinders ;-)

[CoxyLaad 0]

eh?

[dr_mat 0]

Clearly Kev used to play the church organ's bass notes for a while so has no problem with four brake pedals.

Or were you planning on using four very small brake pedals and pushing each one with a different toe? ;)

[Kevin Bacon 5]

LOL...my poor attempt at humour didn't work there :-)

 

4 pedals, now that's an idea :-)

[dinkus 10]

At the place I used to work, we made a driver training video for track use and one of the sections was how to brake properly.

 

We set up a fixed camera and got the guy to do 4 braking excercises (the guy was an ex-F1 driver and he can do mind-boggling things with a car, so not just some numpty).

 

We super-imposed the pictures over each other and they came up as follows in order of longest-shortest braking distance.

• Jam your foot down and lock up til you stop - the longest by about 6 car lengths[/*:m:cf171]
  
• Cadence braking (3 car lengths shorter than locking up, but still [/*:m:cf171]
  
• Jam your foot down and let the ABS sort it out (2 car lengths shorter than cadence)[/*:m:cf171]
  
• Brake at the optimal braking point of the car, i.e hold it at that point just before the ABS kicks in and modulate the pressure minutely with your foot to stay there - can be done with lots of practice and was the shortest by another 1/2 car length.[/*:m:cf171]

 

If you're taking your car on a track, then you don't want the ABS on, because if you're braking properly (i.e. not like a pansie) then you'll be setting the ABS off all the time and it'll overheat the pump. If you keep at it then you'll actually cook the pump and boil your brake fluid.

 

But if you're using the car on the road at all then ABS should not be a regularly used thing - think of it more as a seatbelt - you don't need it all the time, but it's nice to have it there when you're in a 'oops' situation

 

The questions you need to ask yourself are - how good is your braking? Can you get to max braking and keep it there? Really? Or are you just saying that? :) Even in a panic "oh balls that idiot has just pulled out in front of me and it's wet" situation? Would you rather have piece of mind that you're not going to lock the wheels up and slide into whatever it is you're trying to avoid?

[Sim16v 0]

Just a note for people removing your ABS.

 

Hope you have friendly MOT testers as the new computer linked MOT test gives the full specification for the car.

 

If it was fitted at the factory and you take it for MOT without, there is a possibility that it will never pass another MOT again. :shock:

[CoxyLaad 0]

sh*tter lol

 

I believe I am pretty good on the brakes. Where I live there is a slip road I pull off the main dual carriage way and I usually have to brake from 80-90 to 10mph in a pretty short space. I have got it down to an art form in my bora, and I can scare the sh*te out of passengers and the back end drifts about a bit - but no abs comes on as of yet. One day I will balls it up and smash into the central reservation lol :lol:

I have first hand proof that you stopping distances are vastly increased in the wet. :roll:

[CoxyLaad 0]

p.s. my car didnt come with abs from the the factory so ner ner ne nerr nerrrr!