anti lock brakes suck.

skipow

skipow

New member
so- i hate my anti lock brakes.

all the vehicles i've driven prior to my new to me wrx have not had abs and i've never had a problem.

but since i have less than awesome tires on my wrx right now- when i step on the brake pedal in the snow- its a traumatic experience of the ABS kicking in and me not stopping.

so what i'm asking you- is it common for people, or rally drivers to disable the ABS when driving in snow? i hate them.

yes im getting new snow tires asap.

what are peoples opinions?

 
Like you already said... get some new tires... My wife had quite a time in her 98 LGT with well worn all seasons.... got some "new to us" used snow tires on and haven't had a problem since!

 
rally drivers in a rally car, yes. otherwise, no. You can threshold brake an ABS equipped car on ice/snow.

 
im pretty sure you can just pull the abs fuse and it wont work anymore....abs light will be lit all the time.......dont quote me on this one.....

 
most people do not need it.

I laughed at the title to this thread.

my old sube not only had no abs, the master cylinder was improvised inbetween a self bleeder and a valve removed to allow it... guess what?

it had the old style cylinder, no self bleed, and a casing with no bleeder...put in by subaru. (the only years that did it that I know of were 1985-1987)

I just changed it last year at 23 years old to a true self bleeder... the old one, it never self bled, hardly any rear brakes. I may have been the first to change the pads at 21 years.

amazing.

all these years in snow and ice and 13 inch wheels...some cars and peoples history make a butt of the whole abs thing.

ask your average trucker.

 
Subaru ABS is pretty bad. Bugeye ABS is TERRIBLE. I hit a bump while braking and my abs goes off, yet when I'm slamming around sideways it keeps quiet.

You can pull the fuse to disable ABS, if you get in an accident you are indeed screwed. Some people wire up on/off switches to the abs fuse, I'm sure the insurance companies frown upon it.

I pull my fuse for rallyx and leave it the rest of the time.

Honestly, just get snow tires. Tires should be the first thing anyone gets for their car.

 
in response to the pulling of the fuse, why not put in a blown fuse? that way theres a fuse there

 
hmm on/off switch to the fuse sounds appetizing.

i dont mind the light on the dash, honestly the ABS is SO sensitive im honestly frightened to drive my car in ANY slippery conditions.

 
I threshold brake my abs. Hate it when activates cause stoppings distance is insane even with new grabbers. But I don't disable it. To get it around corners when abs has failed at slowing I practice the "When in doubt, flat out" technique

 
I wouldn't leave it without a fuse, or put a switch. If you get in an accident and hit someone else, and they get loking around and find that you intentionally disabled the ABS, whether it is better or not, they will go after you and say that you messed with the safety feature of your vehicle. If you really want to disable it, do as Ray said and put a blown fuse in. I have had many friends that have done that with success. Oh and yes, anti STOP brakes suck

 
hey all, if u are getting heavy ABS action you are simply braking too hard for conditions and your equipment. when it's slippy you need to brake earlier and easier. ABS on or off is a personal choice, again depending on conditions, there are times when it's better to have a bit of lockup so tires dig down to more solid surfaces underneath but it's infinitely variable surfaces out there.

. good tires make a HUGE difference. all the ABS wheel sensors know is if one (or more) wheel is locking up...crappy tires mean you have no grip which means easy lockup which means heavy ABS intervention which means you feel like you canna stop....blame the tires and technique not the ABS

 
Nigel Prodrive said:
hey all, if u are getting heavy ABS action you are simply braking too hard for conditions and your equipment. when it's slippy you need to brake earlier and easier. ABS on or off is a personal choice, again depending on conditions, there are times when it's better to have a bit of lockup so tires dig down to more solid surfaces underneath but it's infinitely variable surfaces out there.

. good tires make a HUGE difference. all the ABS wheel sensors know is if one (or more) wheel is locking up...crappy tires mean you have no grip which means easy lockup which means heavy ABS intervention which means you feel like you canna stop....blame the tires and technique not the ABS
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^^^^ Listen to this man people!

I will say that I have driven cars with a seemingly better ABS implementation. But the Subary ABS is no where near horrible. It works as intended for an application where the majority owners are overzealous hooners. If you are getting immediate ABS activation you are either driving on wholey inadequate tires, or stabbing the brakes far too hard.

I drive more miles per day in my WRX than most of the people on this board and in similar or same conditions. I have not once thought that ABS has caused any problems for me when stopping. You can still pump the pedal to stop the ABS action and re-engage the brake pedal with a softer touch as to not lock up a wheel (same as with no ABS). I do this on my respective off ramps whenever it is slippery.

 
I wouldn't say the ABS is that bad, especially when the OP is driving on tires that are not suitable for snow driving.

Not sure about turning off the ABS...never thought about doing that.

 
SWPWRX said:
I wouldn't say the ABS is that bad, especially when the OP is driving on tires that are not suitable for snow driving.

Not sure about turning off the ABS...never thought about doing that.
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SWP, in your 2011, turning off the ABS by pulling the fuse creates all sorts of other problems (like diabling the VSC and other stuff) so the tradeoff is NOT worth it. OP has an older car without stability control so the issue is a bit simpler.

still, if OP had better tires and a more educated braking foot (and probly planed ahead and reacted to prevailing conditions and slowed down a bit before mashing the brakes) there would be way less whining about "ABS SUX" Heh, he asks if rally drivers disable the ABS...well yes they do, but they are the smoothest brakers and planner-aheader's you ever saw. they speed up in winter conditions by slowing down first. if ppl don't get this, no ABS is gonna save their bacon for them.

 
Nigel Prodrive said:
SWP, in your 2011, turning off the ABS by pulling the fuse creates all sorts of other problems (like diabling the VSC and other stuff) so the tradeoff is NOT worth it. OP has an older car without stability control so the issue is a bit simpler.

still, if OP had better tires and a more educated braking foot (and probly planed ahead and reacted to prevailing conditions and slowed down a bit before mashing the brakes) there would be way less whining about "ABS SUX" Heh, he asks if rally drivers disable the ABS...well yes they do, but they are the smoothest brakers and planner-aheader's you ever saw. they speed up in winter conditions by slowing down first. if ppl don't get this, no ABS is gonna save their bacon for them.
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Interesting stuff. I never really thought about doing something like that because I thought it would only be beneficial in a racing environment and the sad truth is I use my car as a daily driver with some occasional spirited driving.

Good analogy there with Rally drivers. Tampering with stuff like that is for the pro's.

 
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