brake pad problem

[vwluv10338]

Well I needed new pads for the front of my 92 240. I bought the non-ABS pads and when I went to install them they were too small. I went to another store thinking I was given the wrong parts and when they pulled out the ABS and non pads it was clear that my car needed the ABS pads. The wierd thig is I dont have ABS. I am sure of it. My mechanic friend had the car on the lift and checked to see if I had it. Why would the ABS pads fit as opposed to the non?

Eric

[quiksilvia]

the mechanic put the car on a lift to check for abs? kill him now. the abs pump is at the firewall on the driver side isnt it? right on top, pop hood and look, is it possible u got a brake upgrade and forgot it

[vwluv10338]

In the manuals I downloaded from zilvia.net it looks like there is some sort of ring on the hubs which my car doesnt have. Also it doesnt look like there are any speed sensors on the wheels either. I guess when I get the car back from being inspected tomorrow I will just have to do the old test... slam on the brakes and see what happens.

Eric

[D-UNIT]

The u.s. abs unit is on pass. side. The right hand drive one is on the pass. side too right between the firewall and the strut tower look brake lines running along the firewall from the master to the abs unit. Try tirerack.com. I got a good set of ebc brake pads for non-abs ($80+shipping)

[trpower7]

It's possible that someone swapped your brake calipers for ABS ones sometime in the car's past. I believe you can use ABS calipers on a non-abs car by unhooking the sensors, etc. It also may be possible that they mixed up the front and rear pads??? I've seen worse happen.... And any mechanic that needs to do anything but pop the hood to check for ABS is WORTHLESS.

[vwluv10338]

The reason my mechanic friend looked under the car for the abs was because we had it on the lift and were replacing the test pipe with a cat and he just looked at the hubs and saw that there was no speed sensor and told me I didnt have abs. I had only had the car a few days at that point so I hadnt realy checked out the car fully.

Eric

[NISTECH]

easiest way to tell if a car has abs is to sit in the drivers seat,turn the key to the on position and look at the instument panel. a lite will illuminate for 5 sec's that say ABS.

[vwluv10338]

I did that, no abs light

Eric

[NISTECH]

no abs then.. perhaps your parts supplier has miss information in his computer. it happens at the dealer ship too. trpower had a good point about a possible caliper swap. they would bolt right on.