How to remove all safety features?

[zei20t]

I have a Skoda Fabia RS (basically a polo gti) that has been written off and I will be using as a track only car.

Does anyone have an idea how to disable traction control and the active stability without resorting to removing fuses and thus losing ABS?

As I cant drive the car on the road, I cant check any changes I've made. I have removed all the airbags and the airbag computer, but cant disable the engine ECU airbag option. I'm worried I will need to put the airbag computer back in to prevent any CELs or putting the car into limp mode.

Does anyone here have any ideas?

thanks!

[Darkhorse Developments]

I dont think you can. You would just have to take out the fuse for ABS module.

[zei20t]

damn, really want ABS on the track.

well, I guess ill find out in a few months

[jamesatfish]

The traction management systems are built to handle partial failures of components so that might be an answer.

If you can disable or remove the yaw sensor / accelerometer in the car then the ESP that relies on knowing the yaw rate to detect a spin will fail. In that event you'd get error lights and codes but the system should fall back to use any features still available - which in that case means ABS would still be active.

Traction control is harder as it's linked to the ABS sensors to compare wheel rotation rates on all 4 wheels and intervene if the front wheels start rotating quicker than the rears.

You could use a custom solution to spoof the front wheel ABS sensor values whenever you've depressed the throttle beyond a certain point, which would in theory fool the traction computer not to intervene but would keep the ABS active under braking.

[zei20t]

the airbag computer is out of the car, and the only error I seem to get is the engine ECU cant talk to it. nothing else pops up.

ive removed all systems (unticked) from the gateway module. so I don't get any errors beyond the ECU one.

but yeah, if I find that sensor ill unplug it, and ill be leaving in all the ABS sensors as I want it, but I can turn off traction control with the dash button. but as per VW, you cant turn it off completely.

actually, I remember a thing about turning it all off on the golf r. I might look at the long coding changes and see if I can replicate!

thanks for the reply. appreciate the input!

[The_Hawk]

It's been a while so I don't know if you've sorted this or not, but if you have the newer ABS module it's possible to disable TCS/ESC

Check out my post 10 here:

http://www.vwwatercooled.com/forums/f20/apr-tuned-vehicles-question-you-81247.html

[zei20t]

Thanks Hawk.

Ill be looking into it, i only just got the back from the repairer so need to plug in VCDS again and have a play.

wish i could keep ALL the safety features off all the time

[sambb]

On my polo 9n3 gti (similar to your floor pan) you can pull the ESP fuse. On my fuse aox there is one that says ESP/ABS and it s a 10A fuse. Its not that one. I presume its for ECU outputs and you'll loose ABS if you pull it. But there is a 5A ESP fuse which I think might kill the inputs to the module. It'll take out the traction control/brake modulation of the front wheels and you won't get any of the throttle cut or timing cut that you can feel in there too. It'll leave the ABS intact though. The only thing I haven';t been able to verify is if it completely kills the ESP too though. After doing it I drove my favourite street course and the car did feel different but I can't really say I got it out of shape enough to be able to definitely say that it did kill the ESP. I did definitely notice better fuel consumption when cruising. I thought it might be all in my head but then checked the brake disc temps and they were cold. Go for a drive with ESP on and I bet your discs are hot even though you haven't been braking. It might be possible that the brake module 'primes' the pads periodically???
This was all by feel though. Haven't been able to go over the diagrams yet, but worth a try for your first outing maybe.

[zei20t]

I wish i could take it for a drive. Its a write-off so not legally allowed on the road.