Good morning,

I drove the '87 yesterday.It's a beautiful car.Paint was almost flawless,interior excellent,engine compartment very clean.My hangup was with the brakes.They did not pull,the pedal did not go to the floor upon application,but the car seemed to take too long to stop.I did not slam on the brakes.I never felt any pulsating as some have spoken of with ABS.
So are the brakes "normal",or is there a potential problem with the system? Also can the ABS be switched on & off?

Thanks to all who reply

 

I've never had any issues with the brakes on my 87. Even with stock pads, they did a good job of hauling the car down. The car may have worn pads, a hard pad like a ceramic pad or some sort of high-performance pad that requires some heat in the pads to get them to work better.

You might want to find a deserted road and try some agressive stops to see if that changes how the brakes feel. Also, does the pedal seem "hard" in that it takes a lot of pressure on the pedal? That could indicate a failing or bad vacuum booster.

Any pulsation that you might feel at the pedal may be due to warped rotors. ABS typically does not provide any feedback to the brake pedal. The ABS pump modulates brake line pressure to the calipers resulting in a very quick application and release of the brakes when ABS is engaged.

The only way to "turn off" the ABS is to either disconnect the wiring harness at the unit (located in the compartment behind the driver's seat) or remove the fuse. IT is not "switchable" in that sense. But why would you want to?

 

Hello c4cruiser,
Thanks for the reply.I wouldn't want to turn the ABS off,I was just curious if there was a way to turn it off because I had read on one of my other posts that someone didn't like the pulsating of the ABS.I do see ABS as a plus.I'm leaning hard towards forgetting about the '85 & 86 I had looked at.

 

not trying to hijack the thread but my rear brakes (89) make a scrubbing sound when I apply them. Is that an issue of cleaning surface rust or something more? Thanks

 

I'm just a "shadetree",someone else will have to chime in.No sweat on "highjacking".

 

Tank - I know you can pull the fuse on the ABS on my 89 if you want to bypass it. I had brake issues last year - almost felt like there was no power brakes but a new master cylinder fixed that!

PS I wish I was shade tree but hurricane Ivan took all my tree's

 

When I first bought my '87, I thought the brakes felt a little heavy. Got used to it after a while. If it's real bad I'd suspect it's the type of brake pads on the car or the power brake booster not working as it should. Don't know why you'd want to turn the ABS off. The only time mine have ever come on was driving on ice. You've got to lock them up or close to it for the ABS to activate. You'll have better control if you can unlearn previous driving habits if you haven't had them before. I can see not wanting them if you're racing at the track, but for driving on the street I think they're a good thing.

 

Thanks again to everyone.I don't want to turn the system off.I was just wondering if someone else had turned the ABS off because I had read that the pedal should pulsate & during my test drive it did not.I would never take any chances with brakes.Sorry to hear about the loss of shade trees.

 

you might also want to have the ABS unit scanned for codes, i recall a thread on here not to long back, that clearing codes from the ABS caused the breaks to return to toe touch sensitivity

but also ceramic / High performance pads will do the same thing, heat is needed to get them to grab well

 

Thank you very much for the information.