Before you start saying its irresponsible to disable abs, hear me out. Right now my abs triggers when I’m driving normal, slow speeds. 2008 xterra. Its not a brake problem. Its abs. I’m not driving on snow and ice. I know how to pump my brakes. I’ve taken it to two mechanics (who don’t necessarily agree on what to replace.). I’ve been told i need new sensors, that I need a new wheel bearing (cause it was a little rusty and claimed that would mess with the sensor), and that I need a new control unit, and a new pump.
Now I find it scam-y that all of a sudden EVERY element related to the abs suddenly needs replacement. Maybe its one of those things, maybe it is all of the above. But right now, I can’t afford all of the above. Dealer says replacing the bearing and sensor will stop the problem. Other mechanic says no, need the pump.
I need to disable my ABS because its triggering when, say, I’m stopping at a stop light and its doubling my stopping distance randomly. I’m no fan of drifting into an intersection while the abs goes haywire. No, I can’t park the car and commute another way. I want- need to [temporarily] disable ABS in my 2008 xterra until I get the funds to play a game of musical car parts worth a couple of boat payments. I have access to no other cars.
There are 2 fuses under my hood. ABS MTR, and ABS SOL. Do I pull one, or both, or is there a better way I can tell my abs to take a lunch break until I get 3 grand?
Have the ABS system fixed. If you think you can’t afford this, wait till you’re on the wrong end of a lawsuit because you got in a wreck and the plaintiff’s attorney finds out you disabled a safety system.
Should you disable your abs your brakes should work just like the brakes on a non abs car. I am not a big fan of abs, I have had two friends, one with a Blazer and one with a Silverado who rear ended someone at low speed on a dry road because their abs acted just as yours is doing. I also experienced this with a Chevy full sized van. Not the accident part, I never follow closely.
Some safety system.
I cannot answer your question, but if it was my car, I would pull one or both of those fuses. Say in a big empty parking lot where you could stop with your parking brake.
All I’ll say to that is that whether it works the way you want it to or not, if you disable it and get into a collision, you’re going to get sued, you’re going to lose, and your insurance company is not going to pay because you disabled a safety system that the car is supposed to have.
I’d rather end up with slightly longer stopping distances (and compensate for it since as any good driver would, I know my car) than end up being financially destroyed.
By the same token, if it gets to that level, they could probably find out the owner knew it was failed and drove anyway since it was taken in for diagnostic. Same result. If I was in the position where I really could not afford to repair it right now, I would disable it because I would prefer a system that reacted predictably over one that did not.
I am not a fan of ABS, but Shadow made a good point about liability. If it were mine I’d fix it.
However in my opinion (based on experience) you’re more likely to hit someone with ABS than without.
ABS is designed to allow you to keep steering control of the vehicle when stopping on slippery surfaces, but the tradeoff is longer stopping distance. In my driving environment there’s generally nowhere to steer TO, and the increased stopping distances can cause you to hit the rear of the car in front of you.
We here have debated and argued the benefits vs. problems of ABS numerous times in the past. The bottom line is that it can drastically increase your stopping distance. Some are willing to trade that for maintaining steering control. I’m not. But I won’t disable mine either, because of our safety inspections and liability issues.
Your problem appears to manifest ifself as ABS which engages at a wrong time, not ABS which does not engage, so I would vote it is about sensors, not pump or ABS unit.
I would imagine that ABS computer is having trouble interpreting signals from the sensors, which might be affected by rusty bearings, as these are sold as one unit, at least on Pathfinder I have and it is a sibling of your Xterra.
@Tester has a great advise on how to disable it, but once you go for repairs, I would start from sensors and possibly bearings having a wheel with teeth for sensor to read.
You have a problem waiting to get worse, are you about due for new brakes? Saw some ABS rings earlier this week, captain crunch, and the rotors were pitted beyond repair,
I’m not sure what you are suggesting, @Barkydog, but ABS speed sensor is reading speed from the teeth on the bearing/hub assembly, not from brake disks:
The recent vehicle I was talking about comes with new ABS rings in the rotor assembly, not saying yours is the same, but chunks of the ring were an issue, Sure we all have band aids and work arounds but fixing it up correctly is my preference to disabling something that should work,
agree, OP is better to fix it right, rather than looking for ways to put it for some unknown time in the future “when stars align right”
for me the suggestion to replace ABS module or pump look fishy and expensive
inspecting ABS rings might also help to decide which ones are likely to be at fault, especially if clear signs of rust are present per OP statement
warning: I’ve read in Nissan forums people tend to break sensors when [re]installing, if they do not align them correctly and start tightening the holding screw
