Disabling ABS temporarily for safety

[elnevio]

Given that the product demo for stability control was "maintaining control in snow/ice" I have a feeling it's probably worth keeping - certainly it's yet to interfere with my car control.

Although, no doubt Mitsi were using mud & snow tyres, at least!

[Turbo_Steve]

LOL Don't trouble me with your "details"

[GalantOnly]

And to the guy whos car stepped sideways braking wit6hout ab downhill...

yes your fronts braked more..but you unlaoded the back in the progress.. causing them to lock up..thus making the rear overtake the front.

And the tires with less grip lock up first anyway.. meaning if the tyres in the back are more worn,theyll lock up first .

Got VR4 with non working ABS. The friend of mine was looking at the wheels from the side, while I applied brakes on snow/ice yesterday, and all the wheels seems to lock simultaneously. Rear locks at the the same time as the front and started to go uncontrollable sideways as soon as front locks (quite soon)

But then I thought: isn't it because of 4WD? Rears will always lock at the same time on 4WD and make the car go sideways!

So how do you ppl even consider running without ABS on our cars?!

[Turbo_Steve]

Rears will always lock at the same time on 4WD and make the car go sideways!

Not if your diffs are working properly!

And the Rally Cars don't run anti-lock brakes in the snow.

[GalantOnly]

Not if your diffs are working properly!

And the Rally Cars don't run anti-lock brakes in the snow.

That's might be a reason...

[Klasman]

So you can use winder tyres in England if you want or?
And most people don't or?

I'm using studded winter tyres on both of my cars that's kinda standard here.

Cant you just get non studded winter tyres they do kinda suck on ice but pretty grippy on snow.

I'm not really having any problem with the ABS at least not the tyres im using.

And thats on plenty of snow and ice at -10c seems the winter is here to stay

[Nick Mann]

There are no tyre laws in the UK regarding type of tyre on your car. It needs to be department of transport approved, I think? And speed rated for your car. But most people in the UK don't know what a winter tyre is!

[miller]

Here you go guys, just read this. Made me think too and i agree with an earlier post from Nick Mann stating 99.9% of the time ABS is best left on.....

until that 0.01% of your life when you go to an Ice track day in Norway!

http://www.bridgetogantry.com/2/inde...id=80&Itemid=1

[nuster100]

I have found that 99% of the time when going down hills in my VR-4 your better off avoiding the brakes all together and just selecting a low gear (1st if needs be)

A lot of people dont understand how the tyres work and that if you using 80% of your tyres available grip to try and stop you only have 20% left to steer with.

If all else fails, take your feet of everything and just steer

JR

[Nick Mann]

Yep - low gear and feet off everything is good advice for any vehicle in slippery conditions. In an auto VR4 though, you'll need to use tip to select the right gear.

[jayp]

just thought i would but my few pence in.

last year i was driving 325i estate with traction control, abs and rwd in Germany, it was fantastic never lost control or had problems stopping, but then i bought dedicated winter tyres because that's the law over there, its all about your driving, you need to plan ahead on the road and slow down generally, stopping takes longer and you cant go into corners as fast no matter what car you drive! yes I turned the traction control off because it was a pain in the proverbial's, but the abs wasn't so bad if you didn't slam the brakes on.

I now drive a legnum (see below) I've had it on near enough sheet ice the other day and it wasn't overly bad, that's running on m+s tyres again traction control off so i can control the slide if i have to, but then i didn't expect it to handle like its on rails, who would?

winter tyres in uk are perfectly legal, however they arent allowed to be studded because there isnt enough snow on the roads for long enough (they just chew the tarmac), snow chains are brilliant if you're struggling but by law they have to be removed when no longer required, ie. when the plough or gritter have been round. if you dont you can be liable for the costs of road repairs if caught!!

moral of the story here i think is yes we drive 4wd cars, yes they have a lot of technology on them to make them fast as hell in straight lines and round corners on a dry or maybe wet road. but in the ice everyone is equal even that chav in the nova. so long as you drive sensible you should be OK most of the time, but sometimes accidents are unavoidable, but if you've tampered with your car ie, removed the abs, even temporarily then your car is deemed not roadworthy at that point in time, yes an MOT is only a snapshot and valid only briefly, but don't forget vosa can do snap inspections any time any where, and as mechanic I'm supposed to know better.

sorry its a bit of rant but nothing annoys me more than people driving beyond they're limits, in cars that aren't roadworthy, either by law, or by common-sense (its there, it does a job. car designers look at every eventuality they know more than we do about their systems, if it was dangerous it wouldn't be there, or it has a fail safe built in)

[dalestewart]

Not sure if its my driving or a legnum just being a legnum? Or is something wrong? Wife & kid won't get in car when it's snowing or Icy - It's just all over the lpace. Wee skittery cars overtake me, I have no control HELP Is it just me?

[sharkie]

For some reason the legnum is extremely difficult in snow and ice and I,ve seen many ,many standard cars operate much better ,in fact I,ve driven loads before , but the legnum is really bad .
The only solutions are winter tyres ,been living in Sweden for the last eight months and last winter took my galant there on roads with 6" ice ,and snow everywhere , 60mph no problem .
The only problem is getting them in the UK ,rare and very expensivebest look on Ebay for secondhand ,thats what I did as long as they have a good amount of tread left
All the best

[Nick Mann]

I've always found my VR-4's to be well above average in the snow. But I tend to have deep tread on my road tyres as the tyres with low tread get demoted to track day jobbies!

[Confused]

I drove up and down the country last year in the snow in my VR-4 and have to say that, even with Falken FK-452 summer tyres, it handled everything I threw at it with ease.

[Ghost_2008]

I have driven the Leggie in good snow coverage with both all season and winter tyres, I would say that the winters were marginally better, but it handled well on both. Controlable even if the back did step out, the worst experience I had was with a patch of deisel on the road, still managed to correct it eventually........

The right pressure in the tyres, maybe a touch less to give a little more surface area and traction and good tread is a good start, being respectful of the road conditions and you should be home dry and safe hopefully........

[pezza]

on a similar note .........

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12...e_engineering/