Originally posted by erobbins:
??? Why would you want to disable these warning lamps? Even if they come on, they "reset" when the car is restarted. If you disable them, you'll never know if a fault causes them to come on.
EDR
If one disables the TCS and/or ABS by pulling the proper fuses, then their fault indicators will light up on the dash, which is annoying if you are planning to drive that way for a while. If the systems are unplugged at their control modules the units are disabled and their indicators do not light up on the dash.
In my case and driving style, the TCS (’92) seemed to do more harm than good at the track and on the road. Plus I was always forgetting to hit the TCS button before hitting a track session, which meant that I had to disable the TCS while trying to negotiate the car at the limit by try pushing the stupid TCS button (3 times to disable when it’s been activated recently) while strapped into my harness—it’s not a pretty sight and is the reason that I finally unplugged the unit.
After a few years of hard work keeping my ABS unit functioning, it finally let me down two times in a row at the track and nearly caused me to spin off the track at a pretty high speed in a not-so-good spot. When a solenoid sticks, the ABS stops working and if you’ve been relying on ABS and suddenly it’s gone…goodbye.
Anyway, these are the reasons that both my ABS and TCS modules are in my basement instead of in my car.
Disclaimer: My car is not stock in terms of brakes and wheels/tires, which may be the reason that I was having problems with these systems. I would not advise anyone to permanently disable these units.
.02
DanO
