I was driving my maxima in real snow for the first time on saturday and my ABS idiot light kept on comming on... Does this mean that the ABS is turned off? If thats so then its kinda crappy that my ABS craps out when I need it most, If its off can I pump the brakes or will it mess with the computer?... Also if it craps out so easily does it indicae that something is broken? Thanks in advance

 

Try getting the whole electrical system checked out because a wire or something may have came loose causing the light to come on. Pumping the brakes won't harm the computer at all because you are doing the same thing abs is doing. There is a little to none chance of overloading the computer better yet harming it. Remember that when you pump the brakes the computer does that to abs. It does this multiple times within a second. The manual tells you don't do it but most people are used to pumping the brakes abs or no abs. The computer must feature some type of failsafe.

 

First off, yes the ABS on our cars is a little crappy. They were first gen abs systems, and they only work under ideal conditions. Chiltons 1985-92 Maxima Repair Manulal states "Certain driver induced faults, such as not releasing the parking break fully, excessive wheel spin on low traction surfaces (SNOW), high seed accerleration or riding the brake pedal may set faulty codes and trigger a warning lamp. These induced faults are not system failures but examples of vehicle performance outside the paramerters of the control unit" (page 9-30) Having said that, I can speak from experience I drive in the snow all the time, and my ABS cant even think of not locking up. The snow is just too slick, the computer can rarely keep up. And yeah, it throws on its stupid light. If the light goes off after a while, there is no problem, but if it stays on take it in right away.

 

Sounds to me like I'd pull all the ABS fuses and ignore the fact that the car has ABS. Did it on my legend (actually I only pulled the bulb, too lazy to do fuses)