So what are the options available as far as dealing with bigger brakes and the ABS system? Would one be better of ridding themselves of it? Or is there a way to let the system know what is actually happening?

 

Its a non-issue with our ABS. The C5 upgrade works fine with the ABS system, so do the other upgrades to my knowledge.

 

so are our ABS systems able to "learn" that the force applied is different and compensate for it?

Been reading alot about ABS and most cars don't have the ability to adjust to say a 6 piston caliper

 

ABS doesn't care what type of brakes that are used, it just looks for wheel lockup. It's not leaning anything -- when it applies the brakes, it applies enough force for the wheel to start locking up again, then it releases it (and does it repeatedly, very quickly).

I guess there could be an issue if the caliper required enough volume that the ABS couldn't apply enough force, but if that's the case, then you've got bigger issues. I would think that once the volume of the pistons is filled up with brake fluid, it wouldn't take much more than the original calipers to apply the force.

 

I had read a rather long article over at corner carvers that had shown that larger brakes messed with the cars ABS systems, because of some preset amount of pressure that the ABS system was suppose to be applying for wheel lock up. When it applied the amount of pressure it was suppose to the wheels locked up too soon, it then releases and tries to aplly pressure again only to find that it locked way too soon etc......

So is this not the case? Does it look for just apply pressure till it senses lock up (doesn't have a preset amount of fluid it's suppose to displace) and then release?


I have the whole service manual for the ABS system, I ought to read it sometime

 

Nov,
I believe that the info you are talking about originated at the Stoptech site: http://www.stoptech.com/whitepapers/...ake_122701.htm
There is definitely *some* truth to their contention, and on some cars it may even be significant. So far, I haven’t read or even heard a rumor that someone thinks they may be experiencing this effect on an Fbody. The ABS EBCM certainly has software that determines cycling rates dependent upon assumed rates of deceleration. It is either rather non-critical on our cars, or is adaptive.

Think about it. People have greatly altered the front/rear break balance with much larger front rotors; 14” in some cases. The increase in leverage effect is very large going from a 10.8” rotor to 14”. Sometimes they also go to very wide, sticky tires which has an even greater effect that the larger rotor diameter. Even the coefficient of friction of racing pads has some effect, especially when people use a lower friction pad on the rear. Another variable is suspension related. A stock suspended (softly sprung) car with serious brakes, and sticky tires will experience considerable brake dive. On all-out stops, it could require the front brakes to do as much as 85% of the braking. This additional weight on the front tires increases their grip and therefore the rate of deceleration they can obtain before locking up. Of course, that reduces the available traction for the rear tires, increasing their likelihood of locking and invoking ABS cycling.

These are just a few of the variables we have thrown at our Fbody brakes, yet the potential problem Stoptech describes seems to remain only potential, not real. Even the problem with LS1 rear ABS cycling (and the resulting axle oscillations) doesn’t seem to be much affected by our un-scientific brake swapping practices, and that is where we are TRYING to affect the function.

Just my thoughts,
Bob Bishop

 

that would be the article, I couldn't understand why I hadn't heard of complaints from others about this, it would seem to be something that would be talked about , but you never know, so I had to bring it up.

As always, thanks for the info guys!

 

While there is a "little bit" of science to back it up, it's about 80% "Buy our brake systems because we take this into account with special piston sizes and nobody else does" advertisment.

Like Bob said so correctly above, simply putting race pads on your stock brakes would completely ruin the effectiveness of your braking system according to that article.

Luckily, in the real world, that doesn't happen.

My big brakes work perfectly with the ABS.