hmm i'm rather worried about removal of the ABS system. It's actually there to help you brake better. How it works is that if you were to lock up your tires, it would cause heat to one portion of the tire, thus not helping it stop. It's designed to put wear evenly on the front tire, and thus helping you brake better.

All in all though, good write up for anyone trying to lose weight

 

Couple of things to consider / think about.....

For as long as I've had this car and even with twice the stock power I have only ever had the ABS come on one time, in the wet braking into a corner way too fast.

Think about how many cars on the road don't have it to start with.

If one is a half way sensible driver, in most cases, the ABS will never be used.

I'm not sure on this but it seems that I read somewhere that cars without abs actually have shorter stopping distances. The point of abs is to keep the wheels from locking up so that one can better steer the car under hard braking, not to stop faster.

Just some thoughts.

KC

 

Glad to hear your car is a DD. Where is the general location of the ECU?

 

My ABS comes on alot, you can hear it working. I used to not like ABS until I drove my SC. I love the system on the SC it is very smart and very useful. A world of difference better than anything Ive ever driven.

Ive worked all over the automotive industry. Mostly as a mechanic, but ive driven everything under the sun atleast once. On most every other car Ive driven the ABS doesn't act the way I want. Some of the undesirable qualitys of ABS systems are: coming on at too low a speed, coming on too soon, coming on too late, not coming on at all, staying on too long, not staying on long enough etc.

If you are suddenly surprised by a road hazard and cannot avoid the hazard you HAVE to brake or hit the object. On a wet road if you brake hard due to being surprised which is very human and very common. Your front tires will lock up almost instantly. Unless you have a really good ABS system.

I was recently riding shotgun in my friends SC. It had just started raining and the road was wet and oily. He had a brain fart and made a turn he wasnt supposed to make (he had a red light). He was about to run another red light until I called out "Dude watch out!!" he realized his mistake but all he could do was slam on the brakes. He didnt see the oncoming cars because he didnt check for them because he thought he had a green light. He had no forward way out. He had to stop.

He grabbed the wheel hard and pulled against it at the same time stomping hard and holding on the brakes. ABS kicked in immediately coming on hard and fast. We were not going fast but fast enough that had it been a car without abs the wheels would have locked sending us sliding into oncoming traffic. The car stopped and the wheels didnt lock. Ive been in alot of accidents in my life and I saw another one coming but good tires and ABS prevented it.

I do agree that on a dry road under controlled conditions a skilled driver can stop faster without ABS. If the maximum pedal pressure b4 tire lock occurs is maintained from the moment your foot touches the brake pedal until the vehicle stops it would be faster than doing a steering wheel grab brake stand in an ABS car on a dry surface.

But what about a wet surface? Traction constantly changes on a wet surface, if you were at maximum pedal pressure on a wet road and there was suddenly less traction the wheels would lock until you let up. Say it took you 2 seconds to react and let up then reapply the correct pressure at 50mph you just traveled 146.6 feet. If you are already braking to avoid something that loss of traction might have caused a collision. In an ABS equipped vehicle you can still lock the tires but it will readjust the pressure faster than you can say...ABS!

 

Good pro abs write-up.

I have personally only had it come on once with my car. Have never had it come on with any other car I've driven. Maybe just my driving habits, don't know.

KC

 

Weights added to first post!

KC

 

My car does not have the traction control option, but has ABS. Best of both worlds, IMHO.

 

Hardtop, no trac, cloth seats, and a 5-speed, v-8 all from the factory, to good to be true.

 

Rex Ruthor, you bring up an interesting thought. If one wanted to get rid of the TRAC but keep the ABS they could likely swap parts from a car that does not have TRAC. ECU's, hydraulics, throttle bodies, ect...

Not really sure it would be worth the effort for 14-15 lbs though, IMO.

over40driv, did you notice the weights posted?

KC

 

KC95SC400 Thanks for getting on that. I know most of our weight is in the front half of our cars, so thats where Im looking. I was expecting the numbers to be a little higher. Im not real good with brake lines, and would want to use as little additional parts as possible. My hat is off to you for blazing the path, if you have any redos of connectors be sure to update. Thanks

 

Dang, never seen this in a sc4, are you worried at all about being at the track and braking?

 

The factory design must definitely shed light for a TRAC delete while leaving the ABS intact. I don't know anyone with the capability to perform cadence braking better than a good ABS system. Not pissing on the thread; just emphasizing an opinion that the evolution of ABS is to braking what turbos are to acceleration.

 

Well honestly, on my MKIII before I had ABS, but after my 2j swap I no longer had it, I can definitely tell you that with ABS I stopped much much more faster than I can without ABS. To be perfectly honest, my skills have not be honed that well in braking. Every car I have owned has had ABS, but like 95silverSC said, all of them were; too late, too soon, too long etc.

But I can also agree, in the SC I don't think I've EVER had ABS come on, but I do know from my experience from my A70, that I'd like to keep the ABS in my A30.

However, dropping 43 lbs, in the front (where they really need it) is pretty good. That and I'm sure the engine bay must look a lot less uncluttered. I'm definitely not knocking you for doing this, for your purposes makes perfect sense, but I kind of wanted to play devil's advocate so other people would be aware of things that could happen.

 

I wasn't knocking, just wondering. I've never token my car to the track and saw that he had a time posted in his sig.
I did it awhile ago aswell!

 

Heres mine