ABS or No ABS

Hi All,

My brake master cylinder failed on a long road trip. I am looking for replacements and it appears there is an ABS and a non-ABS version. What is the best way to tell if my car has ABS or not? I have a 1997 Jetta Tdi.

Thanks,

h.ubk

Follow the brake lines from the master brake cylinder. If they go to an aluminum block with a black cylindrical object stuck to it, probably on the top, with a large electronic connector on one side, and with 4 brake lines coming out, then that is the ABS pump and you have ABS on your system.

If the brake lines split into lines going to the wheels, without any larger block in there, you do not have ABS.

Cheers and good luck,

PH

Thank you!!

h.ubk

Word of advice - while nice to have, ABS is not required for non-commercial vehciles. You can drive your car perfectly fine if the ABS pump fails (like I'm currently doing on my 2000 Beetle).

The problem is these cars have no proportioning valve so without ABS your rear brakes will lock up in a panic brake and cause your car to spin out. Very dangerous situation.

If you feel the need to master your car at the track then go non ABS
everything else, ABS
you never use it unless its something you needed it for. LIKE A SEAT BELT
imo run with ABS

I have much more driving experiance than most people - I've literally put 300,000 miles on my Beetle, the vast majority of which I have not had to use the ABS. I've also been riding motorcycles for 40 years (none of which had ABS) - the whole point to fast stopping is to take it just below the lockup point (which is much more critical on a bike than in a car). Plus the many hundreds of thousands of miles I've driven in vehicles that didn't have ABS.



When the ABS light came on, I took it to a competent mechanic, He diagnosed the problem as a failing pump. $2000 for a new/ remanufactured pump (if he could find one), $1000 for one from a junker. If I would have had the money, I would have ...



Go try to get a CDL - They tell you that you still have full power of your brakes.

pumps fail for one reason (besides outliers). neglect. yea you can bleed the brakes and not have to cycle the pump but that's what happens. it never gets activated enough to purge the new fluid though it.
change your fluid once every year or 2 depending on a few things and the pump should last forever.

also unless you track or autocross, i don't care how many millions of miles you may put on anything, you don't know the true limits and cant really call yourself a experienced driver. sure that's a lot of miles and its great to be a good driver but............