ABS bad?

[RedRum240]

I was thinking I was talking to a friend today at work and he was telling me that he was going to buy a S14 but it has ABS and that is bad for drifting and makes the engine bay more crowded with the ABS system and you have to disable it when you upgrade to Z32 brakes or somthing similar, is this true? what are all of the downsides to having ABS on a SE 1995 (S14) 240SX?

Thanks in advance.

[cdlong]

it may be bad for drifting, but it only works when the brakes are applied (unlike VSC) so i don't know if it would ever come up. but it isn't very big and it is out of the way so it doesn't crowd the engine bay; and it works fine with 300zx brakes.

downsides? extra weight and expense, and i guess being able to steer your car in a skid could be annoying.

[Bronze MFP]

Another good thing about an ABS equipped s14 is that it came as a package with a LSD. I'd get it for sure.

[4felix20]

i think ABS is only bad for when those silly FWD cars try to drift.

[Red coupe]

ABS helps prevent lock up, so some people who can brake very well and not lock up the tires on their own preffer for the braking to be left to them rather then having a computer kick in and start changing what they are telling the car to do, just kinda a preference thing I guess...

[ILikeMy240sx]

I know ABS saved me (possibly my life) once and I will probably never drive a car without one.

I have not heard any Z32 swaps and disabling ABS... The abs sensor is that attached to the calipers so it shouldn't really matter...

If you really don't want ABS activated just pulled the ABS computer from your trunk. It isn't too hard.

[crzycav86]

No.. it's not bad for drifting.

And the abs gets disabled when you use a z32 vlsd, not with z-brakes. This is on an s13, I'm not sure about s14, but I would guess that it would still work.

It doesn't really clutter up the engine bay either. The abs unit is in an area where you don't have fitment issues with things like turbos and downpipes.

The only downside I see is that it adds a few extra pounds. I'd guess it adds 15 or so... nothing ridiculous, but every little bit adds up.

Your friend seems misinformed.

[98s14inaz]

The abs sensor isn't in the calipers. It is attached to the spindle and that reads the hub spinning. All z's had abs so why would you need to disable the abs on your 240. That guy you got this info from needs to get his facts straight. My 98 got totalled because it didn't have abs, wheels locked and there was nothing I could do. My 95 is abs equiped and I love it, especially when it gets wet out.

[Cyberkreig]

the ability to lock one tire ( not pulsate all four) is a must for agressive driving.

That said, no abs in the rain sucks.

[bcar240]

I remember a chart I saw once, it compared drivers with ABS and without. It went something like this

Braking distance:

==============] Professional Driver without ABS

===================]Driver with ABS

=========================]Amatuer driver without ABS

If you know what you are doing ABS can be a hindrance, but so can remembering to threshold brake in an emergency. ABS does get you an insurance discount though.

[slow s13]

modern abs owns because of the advances in cheaper computer controlls. But I dont think that s14 abs is new enough to take advantage of them.

[C-Kwik]

If you understand what ABS does, you will know it can stop you faster than a non ABS stop. First off threshold braking on a non-ABS car is limited to the threshold of the first wheel that locks up. This can very with corner-weights, brake bias, and available traction at each wheel. And unless the conditions remain optimal at every turn at every moment, then it will not surpass the braking ability of an ABS equipped car.

ABS allows each wheel to be at or very near it's own lock-up threshold. 4 tires being near it's lock-up threshold will stop a car much faster than only having 1 tire near it's threshold. Not to mention because of the nature of how it works, it can adjust to situations that change the traction distribution between the tires. Even allowing you to brake deeper into a turn where a non-abs car might lock the outside front tire, where the ABS car will be able to distribute more braking to the other three tires by not allowing the outside front tire to lock-up so early.

Race teams with cars that allow for brake bias adjustments are always trying to search for the best brake bias set-ups, even during the race. Many auto magazine writers are enthusiasts who spend plenty of time at the track and behind the wheel of many cars. ABS cars consistently turn in better braking distances than their non-abs counterparts.

As far as drifting is concerned, it can be a hinderance particularly when you needa moment of lock-up. But all you need to do is pull the ABS fuse and it should then act like a non-ABS braking system.