ABS system. improve or remove!

Post Wed Jul 13, 2005 8:51 pm

i have ABS on my 325i touring but i'm not overly keen on it! i suspect some malfunctioning as it often pulses under light braking when pulling up to a stop.

when pushed it can get a squeal out of the tyres but only just. it doesn't inspire confidence... almost feels like i will be able to drive into the back of someone at speed but while getting my right foot tickled!

it's got ATE powerdisks and Mintex M1144's (all pretty fresh) on the front with standard Febi-Bilstein rear diss and pads (nealy new).

the wierd bit is it's just been in for an MOT test and the brakes passed and were spot on.

is this just a wierd effect of ABS? has anyone tried removing it? has anyone found any improvement?

Post Wed Jul 13, 2005 8:52 pm

Might be worth cleaning the sensors on the struts and traling arms

Post Wed Jul 13, 2005 8:55 pm

all scrubbed up and lovely!!!

may have one faulty though... what are the syptoms?

Post Wed Jul 13, 2005 9:15 pm

Get hold of a sensor and swap them one at a time until the fault dissapears

Post Thu Jul 14, 2005 12:08 am

DC resistance tests usually show up a faulty sensor. Should all be the same, at about 1000 ohms.
ABS isn't tested in the MOT, just that the ABS warning light comes on with the ignition and goes out when the engine starts. There's no road test in the MOT, so a faulty sensor wouldn't show up even if it lights the fault light when the car moves.
I wouldn't remove it if I were you. When the computerised MOT system is up and running, I think the computer will know that your car has ABS, and insist on the warning light doing its stuff.

Post Fri Jul 15, 2005 9:31 am

i wish i had ABS last weekend when I had to brake from 75mph cos some fool rolled his focus on the M11 1 car in front of me, now I have lovely flat spots on the front tyres, but the brakes did their job. Oh yeah, i'd leave the ABS on, just get it sorted, check if there is a gap between the sensor and the ABS rotor, or if the rotor is slightly twisted, the sensor should be pushed to "mechanical stop". when you spin the wheel the rotor should not wobble.

Post Sun Jul 17, 2005 9:44 am

Brianmoooore wrote:ABS isn't tested in the MOT, just that the ABS warning light comes on with the ignition and goes out when the engine starts.

hmm, that's a point. my car never light up an ABS light... could be a fault with the bulb removed to hide it?

i have noticed one of the ABS sensors had a dent in the cylindrical part of the casing... looks suspicious to me and may be causing the problems.

the problem with the abs system is the way i usually keep track of brake performance/operation between mot's.... what point the wheels lock! they don't any more! i may have equally siezed calipers all round so keeping perfect brake balance and passing the mot but being fairly pants at actually slowing me down!

EDIT:
just thought, is it possible to somehow disable the abs entirely to see how the brakes feel without it?