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Car Forum / Ford / Ford Falcon / April 200494' NC Fairlane ABS problem
I have a '94 Ford Fairlane and the ABS brakes system has let me down twice now with the last time causing me to have an accident. What happened on both occasions, which were a year apart, was that I braked but the ABS decided to release the brakes even though there was no lock up of wheels. The first time was at a very low speed coming up to a round about but I had time to change lanes to avoid rear ending a car. Scared the hell out of me as I had my foot pressed hard on the brakes. Only pulled up after pumping the brakes a few times. There was no indication of air in the brake lines but I had them bled anyway. I'd only bought the car a few days and had never had ABS before. I thought it may have been my fault somehow. No warning lights for the ABS ever came up either. The second time was over a year later when I braked coming up to a "T" intersection at a higher speed and the same thing happened. Just sailed right on through the "Give Way" sign and had the front bumper, radiator etc ripped right off my car. Could have been killed if I had been a couple of feet further into the road way. I'm in the process of repairing the car now and what I want to know is how to completely disable the ABS system? I can't find a fuse for it. So if anyone has an idea please let me know, thanks in advance. email only enquiries to :- zarbz@westnet.com.au The ABS does not activate unless it detects wheel slippage. At low speed it is highly unlikely that the ABS activated on youe vehicle. You can feel when the ABS activates as you can feel a pulsation through the brake pedal and you can hear a noise from under the bonnet from the hydraulic modulator when it is working. I can't provide an answer for the second incident. As the ABS in you vehicle is a Bosch system I strongly recommend that you speak to one of the Bosch service agents who are experts for this product. You can locate your local Bosch service agent at the following site: http://www.boschservice.com.au/. I would not waste my time going to anybody else. As to disconecting the ABS I would strongly advise against this. Insurance companies will not pay claims if they find that the primary safety system on the vehicles (ie the brakes) have been tampered with. In addition to this deactivating the ABS brakes will not give you the same performance as an equivalent non-ABS equipped Fairlane. This is because even though the electronics may have been disabled, the hydraulic fluid still travels through the hydraulic modulator which has the effect of making the brakes spongy. FF > I have a '94 Ford Fairlane and the ABS brakes system has let me down > twice now with the last time causing me to have an accident. What [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > zarbz@westnet.com.au You can use the handbrake in emergency situations, its failsafe cable operated drum brakes on the rear wheels only, so it wont stop aswell, but it will stop - you don't just yank it all the way out either otherwise you'll lock up the rear wheels and probably loose control. are you sure its the abs? im sure on that version of abs there was a special method of bleeding the brakes when changing the fluid, wasn't there?? > I have a '94 Ford Fairlane and the ABS brakes system has let me down > twice now with the last time causing me to have an accident. What [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > zarbz@westnet.com.au You are aware that ABS only works when you; a) have the pedal to the floor pan b) Slowing from higher speeds ABS doesn't work @ low speed. I think it's 20kph and lower it doesn't work. Which would mean a low speed slide. Brenden > I have a '94 Ford Fairlane and the ABS brakes system has let me down > twice now with the last time causing me to have an accident. What [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > zarbz@westnet.com.au >You are aware that ABS only works when you; > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > >Brenden There was definitely no slide. It happened at slow speed and at a high speed as I said. There is definitely a fault. Another thing I failed to mention is that the modulator pump often keeps running for up to a minute and a half after stopping the engine and exiting the car. Now that can't be right! I just want to have NORMAL brakes and not leave my safety in the hands of a faulty computer system. >> I have a '94 Ford Fairlane and the ABS brakes system has let me down >> twice now with the last time causing me to have an accident. What [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] >> >> zarbz@westnet.com.au Cheers No Spam Please rogdon2004@NOSPAM.hotmail.com Remove the obvious spamtrap Hi, have you considered that the master cylinder might be faulty. I had a similar incident with a non-abs system. Brakes worked fine, but occasionally the pedal would drop to the floor and need pumping to get them going again. Turns out that bleeding them by pumping the pedal is a good way to wreck it - which I had just done. Changed the master cylinder and had no more problems. James. > >You are aware that ABS only works when you; > > [quoted text clipped - 43 lines] > > Remove the obvious spamtrap Pull the ABS fuse for normal brakes till you gte the ABS system sorted. Brenden > >You are aware that ABS only works when you; > > [quoted text clipped - 43 lines] > > Remove the obvious spamtrap >Pull the ABS fuse for normal brakes till you gte the ABS system sorted. > >Brenden That's what I'm trying to find out. Where is the fuse??? Just want to be able to drive the car safely to a ABS service center. >> >You are aware that ABS only works when you; >> > [quoted text clipped - 44 lines] >> >> Remove the obvious spamtrap Cheers No Spam Please rogdon2004@NOSPAM.hotmail.com Remove the obvious spamtrap It's under the bonnet. It's been awhile since I've seen the ABS fuse but I do think it's near the battery. Last time I saw and ABS fuse was when I was doing an advanced driving course about 8-10 years ago. The instructors disabled the ABS and had a laugh as all the ABS car drivers were doing well till they had no ABS. Brenden > >Pull the ABS fuse for normal brakes till you gte the ABS system sorted. > > [quoted text clipped - 59 lines] > > Remove the obvious spamtrap My 93 NC used to do this when I first got it but new tyres and brake pad and a system bleed fixed it. No faults came up using the self diagnostic test either and I suspect the wider than stock tyres with a near slick type tread pattern was the cause. I 'm not sure the 20 k/hr ( I think it is 5 km/h) minimum applied to the early LC5 Bendix system in the NC. Mine certainly started with the application/ slip at low speeds tricks and it does seem overly sensitive to tyre and brake pad wear. Another thing to watch for is mud cemented in the tone wheels windows giving the sensors false readings ; I have also had this problem with similar symptoms. The LC5 system certainly isn't as good as the later systems.  SignatureRegards Blue Remove Z from email address to reply directly. >My 93 NC used to do this when I first got it but new tyres and >brake pad and a system bleed fixed it. No faults came up using [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > >The LC5 system certainly isn't as good as the later systems. Thanks for that info. I've done a search on the net and have come up with a lot of very scary stuff relating to ABS. Insurance companies in the states no longer give discounts to vehicles with ABS because of the many problems and accidents. One States police highway patrol had their cars ABS disabled. There was talk of class action suits as well. I'm thinking of ripping the whole thing out and replacing it with standard brakes. Thanks everyone. Cheers No Spam Please rogdon2004@NOSPAM.hotmail.com Remove the obvious spamtrap > I have a '94 Ford Fairlane and the ABS brakes system has let me down > twice now with the last time causing me to have an accident. What > happened on both occasions, which were a year apart, was that I braked > but the ABS decided to release the brakes even though there was no > lock up of wheels. This was a "silent recall" issue with Fairlanes and LTD's of the era, and I'm surprised your one slipped through. Apparently there was a number of LTD's that displayed the identical faults to yours when the cars were near new, and Ford decided to do a "hush-hush" fix on the things by changing rhe ABS module while they were in for routine servicing. Only a small number of cars were supposedly affected, but Ford decided to change the module on every LTD and Fairlane then in service, and updated the new module on the production line. Falcons weren't affected for some reason. If you don't know a good mechanic, get your car to a Ford dealer and have them go through their old technical service bulletins for you. Regards, Noddy.
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