Electrical socket from light switch for cctv.

And at least a week doing the walking in front of some speed devil also being punished.

-- Rod

Not if other aspects of the equipment have been compromised or changed (perhaps significantly) in order to incorporate that safety feature.

Yeah right - a car with ABS has had the rest of it deliberately made crap.

They rely on the ABS to balance the braking on a wet road. Without the ABS working, the rear wheels will likely lock early possibly causing a spin. Cars without ABS have the brakes balanced to prevent this.

I doubt it, the ABS only engages if you drive badly. Wheels don't try to lock under normal circumstances. I'd think they'd have the wheels balanced as per usual - why deliberately cause some to start locking then have to disengage the brakes? That would make handling worse.

Anyway I've looked in the manual or one or two cars with ABS. It simply says "If the ABS light comes on, be aware that your car will function as though it did not have ABS, and you should change your driving accordingly". It does not say "This car will become absolutely rubbish at handling, you must take it to a garage immediately".

Or if unforseen circumstances occur and you need the reduced braking distance that ABS can provide in some circumstances. I do hope you're not one of those people who thinks that the unexpected somehow never applies to them :-)

But nor does it say that it will function with the same braking performance as a car that was designed never to have ABS in the first place; all that tells you is that anti-lock functionality won't be present.

My point was that it's no more dangerous than driving a car which has never had ABS.

I would expect it should, and it appeared to. I tested it at the time and it functioned just as any non-ABS car would - I could get it to skid if I was brutal with it.

My Berlingo had ABS and it failed it's MOT every year due to a break load balancing something or other being seized.

Hmmmm I was told Citroen were reliable, mind you a colleague had a fairly new Citroen (about 3 or 4 years old I think) which kept turning on the engine management light, yet the garage couldn't find the fault. She eventually sold it I think.

Was your "break load balancing something or other" to do with ABS? I've probably not had a car that fancy. My Golf says it MIGHT have a diff lock which activates if the ABS sensors feel I'm wheelspinning one of the two front wheels, but I don't know if mine has that feature or not.

Probably the load sensor valve on the rear brakes. It reduces the braking effort available when there is no load in the back of the car. They've been used since the days of the first minis, if not before. If you do not change the load on the back of the car regularly, they seize up due to lack of movement. On Citroens with hydraulic suspension, they control the brake fluid pressure depending on the pressure in the rear suspension fluid.

It's not connected with the ABS, but is a safety critical item, leading either to ineffective brakes when loaded, or too much braking effort which leads to locked back brakes when empty.

That's it. The load sensing valve - thanks. I had it swapped, I had it greased every 6 months and it still failed every year at MOT time as it was seized. And trust me the load on the back of the van changes every day. That van was a right pile of s*it but it did 250k miles.

I assume there wasn't a choice of getting a differnt make of valve?

As it's a safety critical item, and factory calibrated for the application, no.

A good way of the car manufacturer making a mint. You'd think someone else like Unipart would copy them though.

They'd probably have to make a different one for just about every type of vehicle including the all the different variations of each vehicle that has one fitted, which would be a nightmare for stock control.

You also get the situation where, say, the one fitted to some 1975 Rolls Royce cars is the same as the one fitted to the 1984 Skoda estate, but only a certain production run, and other variations of that model Skoda need the one that fits a 1995 VW Golf, or possibly a 1973 Ferrari.

Doesn't that happen with a lot of parts? I've seen a mechanic looking through a huge catalogue referencing what part fits a particular car.