In my 2005 S2000, there's a fuse for "ABS F/S" (20 amp) and one for "ABS Motor" (30 amp). If I want to disable my ABS and make my brakes work the old fashioned way, which of these two fuses should I remove? (And what does the F/S stand for?)

 

??????- Yikes!!!!

 

ABS can be dangerous on packed snow and ice. It acts by "pumping" the brakes very fast. That's great on dry and even wet pavement, where the tires recover grip on the pavement as soon as the brakes are released, but it can cause lockups on packed snow and ice, even with snow tires.

I've been in one scary lockup because of the ABS. I'd prefer to trust my 30 years of winter driving experience to use threshold braking instead.

 

"ABS Motor" (30 amp) does the trick for me. When competing on loose surfaces, this is a must!

 

[QUOTE=Warren J. Dew,Nov 22 2009, 01:25 PM] ABS can be dangerous on packed snow and ice.

 

lock ups huh? with the abs system activated? If your abs system is working fine, then your tires never "locked up"

and threshhold braking is still possible with the abs system intact, just have to lower your threshhold.

and good luck steering without the abs system in a lockup condition.

 

FWIW, my S2000 is not rear-biased. I've been without ABS for two years/10 track days now, and it always locks the fronts first.
That's on Kumho V700 VictoRacers and on Kumho Ecsta V700s, pretty sticky tires but not the absolute stickiest...
Pads used include Carbotech XP8's, stock, and Hawk HP+'s, generally same front and rear, but on some occasions with grippier pads in front and stock in back.

I know some cars do have rear bias with ABS disabled (which is absolutely absurd, not FAILSAFE!). But my S2000 is most definitely FRONT biased.

I personally prefer to drive in the snow and on the track without ABS, but I didn't disable mine on purpose. One of the sensors got damaged when a rear wheel bearing was being replaced. Rear bias was one thing I was VERY worried about, but I found this wasn't a problem.

 

even pro rally cars drive with abs.

 

My 01 S2000 is very rear biased. My ABS failed recently and it confirmed what I felt on the track with ABS functional--the rears lock up much earlier than the fronts with Nitto NT01s or Hoosiers. When ABS is functional the rear of the car will move around as ABS works the rear tires without the fronts getting into ABS.

Skip has a nice video of me locking my rears and spinning into Summit Main's Turn 5 while running sans ABS during last Month's NASA time trials. Even pushing that hard I was more than a second a lap slower without ABS because ABS does a great job of covering up the rear brake bias and makes trail-braking much easier.

ZDan, you might be too abrupt on the brake application to get the rears to lock before all 4 lock up.

The S2000 is very difficult to drive fast without ABS--leave it enabled. But if you do want to experiment with it be very cautious, especially on the track around other cars.

 

Nost sure what the F/S stands for, but i think that is the fuse for the actual control unit. Someone chime in if I'm wrong. Me personally I wouldn't disable to ABS just due to it may cause insurance complications if it's disabled and an accident occurs. Yes it is true, that ABS does cause a lot longer braking distances on snow and ice. But in terms of the average driver, if something was to happen, and it's determined you were at fault and they see that you disabled a safety feature of the vehicle, then thats a lawsuit ready to happen. Just my .02

But yeah pulling just the motor fuse will disable the ABS, but you may still get the ABS light on the dash, so pulling them both will disable all of it.