Offroad-Express

Anyone know how, or even if the abs and airbags in my safari can be disabled?


Cheers

I know the ABS can, but not sure if you'd want/need to.

The airbags are a whole nuther can of worms.....supposedly un-WOF-able without them?

GQTROL wrote:I know the ABS can, but not sure if you'd want/need to.

The airbags are a whole nuther can of worms.....supposedly un-WOF-able without them?

Wasn't sure about the abs, mate thinks his is a pita offroad, and doesn't slow him down well off road, but I guess I will wait and see myself. Was more worried it was something else to go wrong.

Will have to look into the airbag thing, want to change the steering wheel, and keep having the thought the a knock on the front end at the wrong angle might set it off (or while I'm playing with the dash wiring )


Cheers

HI Dave- they will take quite a knock to set them off, bumping a sensor will be ok.

Like GQ said - they are a warrantable item.When working under your dash - all vehicles have the same wiring and it is Yellow wiring with yellow plugs and yellow stuff that the wires go inside - you'll know what I mean when you find it.

Simply pulling the fues stops the ABS & airbags, just the light stays on, on the dash.

I found ABS good and and bad off road, the main bad thing is you sort of loose the feel on downhills etc. Remember if it does go wrong, all your left with is normal braking. It was on a Mazda Ute I had and when I pulled the fuse, it seemed worse as it would lock the back wheels, so the ABS was doing more than I thought.

ABS is a nightmare on loose surfaces. The reason is simple, the sensors look for one wheel going slower than the others, and release the brakes to that wheel to try and keep the braking even across all four wheels.

On a gravel road, for example, your braking comes from breaking through the top gravel and having the tyres bite into the hard surface below - ABS won't allow your vehicle to do that, so with it enabled you simply skitter across the top of the loose shingle - bad news.

ABS can be simply disabled by pulling the fuse in most vehicles, but I'd take some advice from your local agent for your particular vehicle before you do it in case its tied into something else.

Airbags are a different story, they can be disabled individually but take advice from a reputable auto-sparky on that as people get killed playing with them - I've heard of guys having their knecks broken messing with the steering wheel ones. Personally, air bags scare the shit out of me... I know they are there for safety but working on a 4WD with them gives me the willys...

Steve

Most of the sensors for Airbags are designed to not operate under certain speed limits. The reason is to avoid them going off when not wanted (i.e. slow speed bumps). My understanding is that on some offroaders, when you select 4L, it also automatically disables them (will have to check for your make). Sometimes they have a redundant fuse (i.e. airbag can still go off). Peugots and Alfas and Jeeps (mostly in US) come with factory switches that disable the airbag at driver's (or key holder's) will.

Having said all of that, if you impact is big enough to trigger the airbag, chances are that airbag would be saving your life. I have had a few large bumps and still my airbags are intact. Once I fairly confident I would deploy them, but nothing happened (and this was offroad).

This is all based on my personal knowledge and reading of things on the net, please check and seek professional advice for your own make and model. Your life is too precious to risk on unqualified advice. Safety first.

Thanks for the info/advice guys.

I've never liked tinkering on the misses car due to airbags, and hate the thought of playing with the safari because of them.

Went for a play on a steep loose climb yesterday and just about $hit myself on the way back down, felt like I was driving a manual with my foot on the clutch , and when braking, the abs made it feel even worse, must be what supralux described where it would allow the tyres to bite in.

Will probably put a smallish lift in and a few other bits and keep this as an every dayer, and get something cheap for the gnarlier stuff I think.


Cheers guys, as always, great advice, and a big help.
Off to the sparky today to get advice.



Dave

One thing I do do when playing under the dash is to take the negative terminal off the battery. Wait for two minutes for built-up charges to be discharged and then play. This is the safest way as there is abosulety no power available anything.

You should really wait as long as you can, up to 10 minutes for some vehicles for the airbag capacitors to discharge.

When working near the steering wheel you need to take precautions when the vehicle is live to ensure that if the bag was to deploy that it would not injure you, that means not placing your head close to the wheel etc.

If you disconnect the yellow cabling this will usually trigger a fault code causing the abs light to come on and stay on often.

As mentioned the airbag light is a wof issue, there test should check to see that the light comes on then goes out a short period of time after a self test. This can obviously be rigged....

Matt.

Yeah, checked today when I went for a wof, and the guy checked the light, and said if I change the steering wheel, I need to get it certified

Didn't think of disconnecting the battery, will make sure I do this before I tinker. Just need to figure out how to get the centre consol apart now so I can take the tv out

Cheers

Why are you taking the tv out, just buy some cheap cameras and hook them up to the tv. Cameras can give you good view of the rocks being covered.