well..it had to happen..playing in the snow for the first time in his bloody impreza and leaving a car park...YEP you can guess the rest
1)hit the gate..popped the drivers door window(safety glass? i can vouch that it works...it safely stuck in my head/face)

2)tw@ted the door skin at the very least

3)...erm ..left a gash through the drivers side front wing(a bit like the one on the titanic!)...

Thankfully never hit my new 17s i got about a week ago..(But the car was booked into a garage on tuesday to have my eibach springs
fitted..erm maybe not such a priority "me thinks now"?)

Please someone tell me i'm not the first to do it??
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this post is sponsored by Stella Artois.

 

so what caused you to bump it? what did you think of the brakes? Sorry for the bad news.

 

Been there, got the t-shirt. Thankfully though it was when I only had a fiesta not my scoob.

 

abs in snow .errr..and slopeing camber to drivers side (after investigation)..i wasnt even going quickly
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ABS in snow mean sweet FA

last snow flurry we had i couldnt even get out of my road!!! could move but not stop

 

boing

 

Take the fuse out of the ABS at least you will stand a fighting chance of stopping eventually.

 

Get sensible snow chains like me - no trouble at all in ploughing through 24" of snow blizzards last night!

To all SISI club members .... rule 12a states that this is NOT classified as a modification - carry on!

Pete

 

Yep, I think I'll stick a post it on the dash to remind to pull the fuse when it snows

Nothing worse than starting a journey and then get to the first junction and realising I've forgot to pull the fuse - doh!

Bad luck about the door though, as you said it could have been worse and could have knakered the wheel, tyre, lower arm, wheel bearing, and even the rack (hope that makes you feel a little more lucky ) - It was something I did many many years ago (which hurt my wallet even more).

 

First came across the power of the Subaru after my little snow off!!

you know the scene,,, snow, 90 degree turn ,, rear wheel drive etc...


stuffed the fron end into a high kerb and sheared a trunnion..

blox the only way we could get the car home was to jack the car up and drop the sheared trunnion onto a plank and sledge the thing up the road!!!

the car pulling me along was my neighbours forrester ...

made it look easy...


the bloody repair cost me a fortune




bloody snow...............................



Mart

 

Please think carefully about insurance implications before disabling your ABS

 

eh? ABS does not work in the snow!!

OK I understand if you meant if I had an accident and investigators found the ABS wasn't working...but if that happened I'd have enough sense to put the fuse back

 

i'll not take mine ut in the snow you end up with a great big sledge once you touch the brakes

 

What are the insurance implications if you disable the ABS?

 

is abs and snow a bad recipe in all scoobs, or just a particular model year?
I have a MY99, will I be affected? I live at the top of a steep hill, and come this time of year, makes for fun progress out to work in the mornings, as I am the first to leave at 05:15 everyday.

chris

 

The insurance company will class ABS as a safety feature. The premium and cover is based on an unmodified car. Disabling ABS = unnotified modification. (Replacing with a blown fuse is probably safer) If you have notified the insurance company that you are disabling the ABS then there would be no problem.

You may struggle to put the fuse back in if you are unconscious, especially if it is in a safe place in your garage!

Edited to add:
Ali-B if you're confident that removing the fuse improves safety why would you need to put it back? You would easily win any argument with the insurance company

[Edited by speedking - 12/22/2003 4:15:40 PM]

 

ABS is a problem on snow/ice/loose surfaces in many cars, irrespective of size/make/model, not just Imprezas.

 

i was expecting the ABS to be really crappy, and to my suprise it was just "normal"

dont know what people are winging about the ABS for?
it did switch itself off and throw up the warning lamp after a massive doughnut session, but it reset once the engine was switched off and restarted

there was a few times i thought "its not gonna stop me" but that is down to me going to fast so nuuurrrhh

intresting note was that me and my mate with his uk classic went to a pretty much deserted car park in newcastle to muck about and there was a driving instructer there teaching a young bird how to handbrake turn

i also had a small dabble with the hand brake, 1st time all 4 wheels just stopped and kind of slid me diagnoly, 2cnd and 3rd time i just "nipped" it up and released almost stright away, and it helped to swing the back around fairly easy

my mate took a few videos with his camera so i should have them soon, it was spinning round pretty well imo, i did **** up once and slid into a iced over puddle which cracked and coverd me in water (window was open lol)

 

Sorry to read about the mishap ,
Can't get my cap on I work in Hull all year and break up for Christmas on Friday , Hearing tales of meteoroglogical doom forecast for Sunday I spent an hour removing the 17's and fitting the "Winter wheels" and guess what ......... exactly - NO SNOW
Regarding the ABS i have fitted a switch in line to disconnect the fuse - trust cadence breaking and brown underwear a lot more than ABS
So as far as I'm concerened
LET IT SNOW ,LET IT SNOW ,LET IT SNOW ,

Merry Xmas


Steve

 

Whats ABS

 

the upshot of my tale was a 4 hour round journey on the motorway with no window!!
oooh how i larfed when they had gritted the motorway near manchester..feel a bit sandblasted now..
changed £275 into another wing and door in silver and now have a cold night planned fitting the door etc at least....
i was considering getting some big ralley stickers and coving the holes?...oh well.
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please drive carefully this winter...

 

Absolutely Bloody Stupid ! Lol

 

top tip.

you are on ice and are going a wee bitty fast to get round the corner. depress the clutch, leave the brake alone, switch off your brain that is screaming "this won't work" and close your eyes.

it does work actually - one of the useful things learnt at the Knockhill skidpan - although it was a lesson that had to beaten into us!!!


old picture before wallet emptying exercise on mods.

rd

 

so you dont brake at all and just close your eyes and turn the steering wheel?

which way do you turn?
the correct way or the "wrong" way

 

just reading to make sure my comments havent been covered...

nope!!

i am struggling to understand why all the anti abs comments..

if my memory serves me correctly,

if you encounter a skid situation ie the driving or trailing wheels lock up the correct method to counter this, and to bring the car back under control is to realease the brake pedal and to repeatedly apply and release the brakes in rapid succsession (actually locking them again) to enable the car to be brought to a halt completly. (cadence braking)

as for ABS my understanding is that as soon as the sensor (reluctor) senses that there is no wheel movement ie a skid, it releases the brake presure and then reapplys the brakes until the car stops.. providing the foot is kept on the brake pedal in an applyed action, thus providing an increased level of control over non abs vehicles

now correct me if im wrong (and no doubt you will) once a car has gone into a skid the only things that will stop it are


contact/ collision with another object

resistance of the cars weight vs the surface on which it is travelling

lack of imparted momentum....

or if your really clever an opposite amount of force/ acceleration equal to the initial amount,to counteract the event..

once a car has gone into a slide, whether you have abs or not the above trio applys...

so i cant see why you are so concerned??

surely if you drive appropriatly to the prevalant weather conditions, you shouldnt be in a situation whereby you lock your wheels,, i accept there may be the isolated unexpected incedant, but if its snowing, you dont give it great lumps of welly..


flame suit on


mart

 

It saves any potential hassle...and more importantly:- any car fitted with ABS, by MOT standards a car MUST have it working. A vehicle fitted with ABS that isn't functioning will fail an MOT. So if I crashed, and investigators found the ABS to be inactive, the car would be declared unroadworthy, thus uninsured and I would have the law throw the book at me.

As mentioned previously ABS is very ineffective in snow; For the shortest possible stopping distance, you are need to build up a wedge of snow under the wheels. ABS prevents this happening and thus increases stopping distances.

But as already said, if your in a slide brakes will only make it worse - ABS or no ABS. The only way your going to recover things is by corrective steering and/or gentle use of the throttle.

For those who are unware of issue about ABS or even how to correctly use it, I suggest you do a good search on here and on google (or similar) - this topic has been very well covered as it affects every car with ABS fitted.

Also theres issues with traction control in snow too - but that's another story

Edited to add: sorry, I missed Speedking's sarcasm, still to all intents and purposes; pulling the fuse may keep me conscious to put it back!

[Edited by ALi-B - 12/22/2003 11:02:50 PM]

 

A word of warning. I tried this once (a few years back) having been told it by someone at work. All that happened was I attacked a kerb at 15mph, not recommended. Previously I had relied on getting the nose to bit and using the handbrake (FWD hatch) to bring the back end round which worked for me. One time I tried to follow someone elses advice I had a not insignificant repair bill

Never had any probs with the scoob, just go slow enough to get turned in and use the accelerator to bring the back around if it started understeering. Braking onlt becomes such an issue in a scoob because it builds up speed on any surface, in an ordinary car you aren't getting as quick in the first place so don't have the same problems.

All I'm trying to say is: it's all a matter of using what you are used to (and know works for you).

 

Just driven over to Ireland yesterday ( ) & when we got off the ferry it was snowing...

Came to a high piece of road known as the Glenshane Pass, with snow building up on the road. Blasted straight up @ 50/60 with no problem Other cars in the crawler lane were struggling @ 25/30.

Had a "wee moment" when I forgot to change gear to 4th (high gear better in snow) & held it for a mo, but PTMW! is well balanced & never really got out of shape.

Most of the trip was light snow, but hit the ABS fuse cut-out switch (see Projects) whilst doing the pass, then re-set once it was OK again. That was because snow was heavy & completely covered road, so ABS would've been no good in stopping, but as said, when it was lighter covering, ABS would've been OK.

Once again, AWD & a well balanced car is in the snow

However, as usual, I'm in a country with just a taste of snow, when had I been at home in East Anglia, it'd be all over the place Oh well, it was fun last night

 

About 12 years ago I had an Audi quattro which had both switchable ABS and a centre diff lock,both useful when the going got slippery. ABS and Snow were acknowledged not to mix then (sic) and was used as a feature in some of their adds.

p.s. sorry to hear of your little mishap.

 

I struggled down to H&S in the Scoob in several feet of snow to have an 'Afterburner' exhaust fitted last year. Despite the fact that ABS is supposed to be the same as cadence braking at 100 times the speed, it actually proved worthwhile doing the cadence braking manually.

I think I put a post up to that effect at the time. Probably difficult to find though

(Now I have a 360 bhp RWD car on 245 section tyres with no ABS or TCS. Best to leave in the garage, methinks )