Ford ABS - 80's - 90's

[Fireball]

As mentioned previously, my Fiesta has the optional ABS fitted.

Everytime i hear the word ABS mentioned with a 80's/90's Ford people make a wincing face. Why is this? Can we have some opinions on here, and experiences maybe? Time's its shown its age and just been poo. Or, time's its saved your bacon? I am genuinely interested to know.....

[cozmeister]

My Saff had ABS as standard equipment, and it's saved my ass several times in the wet, and the dry!

I think it's because back in the day, ABS diagnostics was a bit of a black art.  With old Fords, it kind of still is, particularly to those who don't know how the systems work (in general, or in detail).  LAziness also has a certain amount to answer for; how many times have you heard someone say "the ABS had a fault so I just disconnected the bulb", when surely the better way to put the light out was to fix the issue?

Believe it or not, I miss having ABS around when I drive 'lesser' machines - it actually lowers my confidence in the brakes of whatever I'm driving, even though I know regardless of whether or not ABS is present it's my own talent that determines what I crash into, if anything!

Personally I wouldn't drop the ABS on my Saff - I've always loved my Cossie's brakes, especially as it has 150 bar of hydraulic pressure on tap to bring the nose down, rather than some dreary little servo.

You'll find that some garages will wince more than enthusiasts when you say your old Ford has an ABS problem, simply because they don't have the diagnostic equipment to do the job for them - connecting a car to a computer just to interrogate it's fault list has become too easy in my opinion, and I think it can also lead to false remedies, as proved with my manager's Passat at work.  It keeps cutting out and hesitating, but the diagnostic computer says there's nothing wrong, therefore, there is nothing wrong!  Know what I mean?

[Fireball]

An awesome answer thanks Chris! That is my thinking - surely it must be worth cleaning up and keeping?

The Fiesta/Escort ABS is not that bright tho, and is not electronic. It's all mechanicial, so might be not so good....... Anyone played with that?

[Daz-cos]

the escort S2 abs ran off a belt attached from the pump to the driveshaft so shows how far things have come. abs is awesome but can be pretty useless in ice and snow. so drivers skill definately plays a part. however i wouldnt want to be without it even if it never really gets used, its the knowledge its there just in case.

car looks awesome by the way! escort gti alloys suit mk3.5 fiesta Si due to the rounded front and rear bumpers, but im biased as mine had them on and looked sexy.

[Fireball]

the escort S2 abs ran off a belt attached from the pump to the driveshaft so shows how far things have come. abs is awesome but can be pretty useless in ice and snow. so drivers skill definately plays a part. however i wouldnt want to be without it even if it never really gets used, its the knowledge its there just in case.

car looks awesome by the way! escort gti alloys suit mk3.5 fiesta Si due to the rounded front and rear bumpers, but im biased as mine had them on and looked sexy.

Maybe I'll keep the Escort GTI alloys then..... still not sure what to put on it, but they would look awesome in black 

[cozmeister]

There were some old style "flat" MOs on ebay the other week - I think those in gold would be the way forward.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/230624916033

[RST-Steve]

Not gold, BLACK

lol, flat 5 spoke comps in the old style would look awesome tho, darren has a set on his Mk3 Fiesta beast


btw steve, i've replied to the other thread already, but head over to the www.fiestaturbo.com forum, you'll get lots of inspiration for this new project there

As for the ABS, it wasn't great on my Series 2's but would never disconnect it, would rather have it than not!

[Fireball]

ABS to stay then! THanks guys for the input.

As for alloys, those mo's do look awesome, especially on darren's red fiesta. I'd like to stay original ford tho, which is hard. Warming to the GTI wheels now, or those less seen escort wheels - not sure the name but they're normally diamond cut, have a blue ford badge in the middle and have about 8 spokes. Sure one of you will know!

[cozmeister]

You mean the 7 spoke RS7's . Also known as alloy porn

[RST-Steve]

These are my alloy wheel porn 







I need a set on my fezza!

[cozmeister]

Not gold, BLACK

Gold MOs for a White car Steve lol

[RST-Steve]

Chris, behave yourself........ you know its black!



lol!

[cozmeister]

Dare to be different gold FTW lol

[Fireball]

You mean the 7 spoke RS7's . Also known as alloy porn

Thats them!! Not sure they'd look good in black tho. Ill leave gold and white to churchy. Not my bag on a fiesta, but looks good on his.

Went to Modified Nationals in peterbourgh yesterday. Whole thing reminded me of the VW commecial with the crying cars - they were DIRE!! Poor saxo's and corsa's had more fibreglass and plastic stuck on them then original bodywork LOL.

Anyway, Adrian flux had a stand and gave me an annual quote of........£290 for the fiesta! I nearly bit his hand off. SOO tempted to delay the dismatle and drive it about, but if i do that, it's never get done.

Black GTI's it is BTW.


Right, back to the thread topic 

With belt driven ABS on the front, i suspect it'd be unwise to perform a rear disk conversion and have disks on the back with no ABS? i can only imagine that in the event of a skid, the car wouldnt know what the hell was going on, and the back would more then likely spin out........? Unlikely to lock the back with low bias, but still a risk. Discuss??

[RST-Steve]

RS7's can still look good in black steve, i had Dan's old SOFT SPOKE wheels on my first red Series 2 (see below) and they looked rather good Just a shame that in 17", they were too big and too wide for the car without rolling the arches................ oh well!


















With the brakes, do the rear disc conversion and disconnect the ABS.......... simples

[Fireball]

RS7's can still look good in black steve, i had Dan's old SOFT SPOKE wheels on my first red Series 2 (see below) and they looked rather good Just a shame that in 17", they were too big and too wide for the car without rolling the arches................ oh well!

With the brakes, do the rear disc conversion and disconnect the ABS.......... simples

Wow, yea they look the tits. 17" is HUGE tho, you struggle to get much over 15" on the standard fiesta without rubbing. It's the width that becomes a problem.

As with the ABS i want to KEEP it, but I don't think thats gonna happen with rear disks added into the equastion. I'm getting cosworth 4x4 calipers for the front (sadly the sexy 4 pot 2wd ones dont bolt straight on), so hopefully that'll be enough and i wont need rears. We'll see. Long way off

[cozmeister]

... It's the width that becomes a problem....

That's what she said