ABS delete. Who's done it, do you regret it?

[Shoota_77]

Hi guys, I see a lot of kits available to delete ABS.  Has anyone done it and regretted it or is it that bad in original form that you don't miss it at all?

Tossing up getting rid of mine to tidy up engine bay. It's been that long since I drove mine and don't recall ever activating ABS to know if it was any good!

Thanks guys!

[The Bogan]

Is the car registered and street driven?

[Shoota_77]

On 14/01/2022 at 6:15 PM, mlr said:

Is the car registered and street driven?

It's been on a hoist for 9 years but yes, it is registered and it will be street driven albeit incredibly infrequently....

[The Bogan]

On 14/01/2022 at 6:22 PM, Shoota_77 said:

It's been on a hoist for 9 years but yes, it is registered and it will be street driven albeit incredibly infrequently....

I would be wary about removing a safety feature, mainly for future inspections as well as insurance liability 

I hadn't driven a car without ABS for years, it was an eye opening event when I locked up my old non-abs MX5 mid corner because a car cut infront of me, where the ABS would have cut in and I would have been able to turn hard and still be on the brakes hard, the car just locked wheels and I was a passenger, I almost T-boned the other car 

Whilst the ABS might not look sporty, it's great when you hammer the brakes mid corner

[Shoota_77]

On 14/1/22 at 6:35 PM, mlr said:

I would be wary about removing a safety feature, mainly for future inspections as well as insurance liability 

I hadn't driven a car without ABS for years, it was an eye opening event when I locked up my old non-abs MX5 mid corner because a car cut infront of me, where the ABS would have cut in and I would have been able to turn hard and still be on the brakes hard, the car just locked wheels and I was a passenger, I almost T-boned the other car 

Whilst the ABS might not look sporty, it's great when you hammer the brakes mid corner

Yeah I’m sure I’d miss it if I needed it.  However some of the 80’s ABS systems which were in their mainstream infancy back then were horrible and in some cases dangerous! 

[Unzipped Composites]

Yeh, 80's/90's ABS really just an elaborate system of wheels and pulleys, not actually all that functional. To be honest, you are much better off learning what to do in that situation than relying on old-tech ABS to save you, as it's reasonably likely to let you down. 

 

That said - legal repercussions of removing it on a street registered and insured vehicle is worth looking into properly. It certainly isn't a good look from an insurance perspective to be removing safety items, they probably won't care how useless those items were in the first place. Best speak to your relevant authorities and do what they want you to do.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Keep it, even though it's a slow clunky system you're still going to stop quicker than your foot during an emergency situation.

FWIW I find at Wakefield I'm able to stop much later into the last turn before the main straight with ABS, compared to my mate's S13 where I need to plan ahead and gradually slow down. In the R33, I see the 100m sign and it's bury my foot into the brakes.

Another option is a Bosch Motorsport ABS unit 😎

[GTSBoy]

No. I have not. Because the R32 didn't ever have it. But I have very successfully threshold braked and maintained control in an event that would have activated ABS. So I think I wouldn't miss it if I had removed it from a Skyline.

But, no, you cannot remove it from a street driven registered insured vehicle, so the question is moot.

The other thing about ABS is, that without stability control, it is often useless. If you are in an extreme manoeuver where you need to break at ABS activation levels and make a severe direction change, the transfer of weight to the front wheels is very likely to cause you to just spin anyway, as the rear end goes all light and decides to beat you to the accident. Stability control will help recover from that imbalance. Not that I'm campaigning for either technology. I don't like either of them and happily drive a car with neither.

[Shoota_77]

All good points thanks guys. 

@Dose Pipe Sutututu at $10K and some, no thanks!

The best option (which I'm not doing because slippery slope....) would be to remote mount it somewhere and retain it. Neat, functional and Kigali!

I think I'll just live without the real estate and tidy it up as much as possible.

[r32-25t]

For being road legal it depends if your car was built before or after the ADRs made it mandatory. Considering the N1 GTRs and most gtst skylines don’t have it says that it’s fine 

I’ve been on the fence about doing the same to mine 

[Shoota_77]

On 15/01/2022 at 11:18 AM, r32-25t said:

For being road legal it depends if your car was built before or after the ADRs made it mandatory. Considering the N1 GTRs and most gtst skylines don’t have it says that it’s fine 

I’ve been on the fence about doing the same to mine 

Yeah it was still optional on 96 33's to my understanding. 

I've got to pull it out of the car regardless which got me thinking about it in the first place....

[Old man 32 GTR]

I’ve removed mine as it was no longer functional with the motec controlling everything. Brake feel was basically the same, but I didn’t drive the car enough and never in anger so can’t really give proper feedback. My only option for abs at this point is the Bosch motorsport system, but that is $$$! 
but for day to day driving, no difference in pedal feel. 

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Just leave the OEM ABS system in place, bleed it properly so it doesn't feel shit and you don't complain about spongey brakes due to having ABS.

One thing I often hear from Nissan owners is that their pedal felt better after deleting ABS, where in fact it's actually their inability to bleed the system properly thus the rubbish pedal feel.

[MoMnDadGTR]

if i had a factoryish skyline i would leave it alone and service as needed. however one of the best mods i did to my black gtr was getting the GKtech delete kit and removing all that shinanigans. cleans up the fire wall, makes some room, shaves some weightish. i really like that it gets rid of the hard lines along the firewall. the soft lines are way nicer to deal with. also you can sneak a nice catch can in that spot if thats your thing. 

Edited January 15, 2022 by MoMnDadGTR

[alexj]

I have a gtst which came with abs and that started to give an inconsistent brake feel so i took it out. And switched to the smaller non abs master cylinder to reduce the chances of snatching the brakes and locking up. I haven't driven it hard enough to really notice the difference other than that pedal is the same every time now.

My 32 gtr factory abs worked well on track until it didn't. Failed in the wet on track and put the car in the tyre wall. I took the abs out and couldn't build any confidence in the brakes unless it was totally dry. So i put the bosch m4 system in and its immense, unlike any road abs i've tried. The bosch m5 is now way too expensive. But there is the option of retrofitting the bmw mk60 system which is available in three and four channel versions and the right model can be reflashed to the vehicle parameters of your choice.

Edited January 15, 2022 by alexj

[r32-25t]

An issue people are having now particularly with the r32 is the abs pumps are starting to leak and can’t be rebuild and no longer available, which makes deleting it their only option 

[alexj]

I had one r32 abs pump leak. Vacuum bleeding seemed the trigger for that but the seals get cooked from the heat and age so it probably in the post for everyone. There should be a decent supply of not so cooked abs pumps though if you want to replace like for like, just get one from a z32 and deal a little some wiring. The z32 has the pump in the boot so doesn't get cooked.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

When's PRP releasing a BMW ABS pump kit? Lol

[Shoota_77]

On 16/01/2022 at 10:11 AM, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

When's PRP releasing a BMW ABS pump kit? Lol

Surely only a matter of time! 

[joshuaho96]

This thread makes me want to buy an R33 ABS pump before they go NLA.