Absolutely correct. As a matter of fact, doing nothing will have the same effect. ABS only works when the brakes are applied…
Frankly I have to agree with you on this whole thing. You live in Alaska, yes? Not like there is a ton of traffic. And you’re not going to go through the over-confidence CAUSED BY HAVING ABS. I go through that all the time, drive faster because I know it’s there, along with my new traction control stuff, which only helps me go faster. In any case, the point about insurance companies looking for disabled safety equipment is a valid one, so leave the solenoid and put in a burned out fuse and you should be good to go. Cheers, and enjoy the fishtails.
The ABS still works?!?!?
You can safely disable it…it’s the driving that could be dangerous.
I believe there is a video available of Consumer Reports test of the current technology for braking and handling under poor conditions. I believe it will change you mind. Al least I hope you are open minded enough to realize that there are times when machines are better than humans.
Check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR1SSxpKitE&feature=relatedProfessional Driver
Safely disable a safety device could be an oxymoron.
So I read through all of the replies. We have learned that the ABS can pump the brakes 100 times per second. We now know that ABS is useless on ice (it’s not).
We know that Peacefrog should knock on wood after telling us that he hasn’t had an accident in thirty-five years!
We learned that there are civil liability considerations, and in fact (not mentioned), should an accident result in a fatality or serious harm as a result of disabling this system, criminal charges are likely. Especially since the system was intentionally disabled.
Finally, at least where I live, you wouldn’t stand a chance of passing inspection after disabling the system.
I hate this system too. It feels as if I have lost at least some control of the car when it activates. But you can still steer the car while the system is working. If you lock up the brakes without this system, you will just go straight ahead unless you let off the brakes and drive. Most people just lock them up and crash.
Peacefrog, leave it alone. Make it a personal test to drive the car as to never activate the ABS.
Bet you’re sorry you asked this question by now. What is this, response 86?
it’s has been documented that ABS are worse than non-ABS brakes on gravel roads…i.e. standard non-ABS brakes work better in that the vehicle will actually stop in a shorter distance with equal control on gravel roads than ABS does. This doesn’t have anything to do with the driver or vehicle type…those two factors are completely irrelevant under this specific condition…this is a little known fact that the industry and government doesn’t want widely distributed to the public.
Neal
Documented where?
Also I live on an extensive network of gravel roads and none of my three abs-equipped cars has had any problems stopping (ABS never even activates on gravel for me).
Maybe if you absolutely slam on the brakes on gravel it will activate and cause you to go further than without abs but that’s such a rare situation that would require incredibly stupid driving to begin with.
If this specific situation i’ve described describes the testing environment that produced those results than those results have nothing to do with how ABS would actually perform in the real world, that is unless you’re trying to crash.
In summary, I own three-vehicles with ABS and one without and I cannot tell the difference in performance of the brakes on gravel roads.
Back in the 1970s the Federal Government mandated "121’ standard ABS brakes for tractor trailers while raising the gross weight for 18 wheelers on the interstates from 72000 lb to 80000 lb. They worked so horribly and caused so many accidents that they rescinded the mandate a year and a half later. If there was just one of the 18 brakes on a rig that was out of adjustment the system could stop all the rest of the brakes from getting any air.
I went through one of the toll booths of the south Grand Island bridge at full speed with my brakes cycling on and off rapidly on dry road and stopped about 200 feet past the toll booth. It was only luck that there was an empty toll booth.
After I retired from trucking after 40 years, I started driving school bus part time. We had 3 or 4 Chevy Impalas and a like number of surburbans for light runs. every year for several years our driver-trainer would line up the drivers in the parking lot and demonstrate how grreat the ABS was. The results were the same every year, The vehicles would obviously take a long time to stop no matter how hard the brakes were applied. One of our mechanics would be called out from the shop and after a few more runs the ABS would let the car stop properly and the mechanic would disappear into the shop mumbling something about having to burn off the crud.
It became so embarrassing that they stopped the demonstrations. I was assigned a 2002 Suburban one year that had an odd habit. On dry road if you made a light brake application below 15 mph the ABS would start buzzing and pressing harder on the pedal didn’t help and I would stop in the middle of the intersection rather than before it. Every time it happened I would write it up and the shop would replace the offending part but a few weeks or months later the problem would reoccur.
ABS. I’ve heard a lot of different opinions about this, but one of them is that ABS does not really work on a really slippery surface, like ice. Also does not work really well on extremely slippery condition is traction control.
I’m 43 Been driving since I was 13 and I’m in my first car with ABS and have driven many winters with no ABS and this is the only car I’ve even had issues stopping … and sliding through intersection… it’s also the second winter that its messed up and I can’t drive my car cuz it locks up on me … I can’t stand ABS I feel like it is taking away my control of the car … it breaks when I don’t want it to and locks my brakes up … I’m done with it and want it out of my car !!