Hello All,

I was reading my Evo VIII maintenance manual I got for Christmas, and noticed there are lateral and longitudinal G sensors underneath the center console as part of the Sport ABS EBFD system. I was wondering if anyone has tapped into these sensors for G force meters, and if so, what brand and how did you do it?

 

Hmmmmmmm 24 views and no posts...I saw a commercial for the G-Tech pro and I was thinking it's probably just easier to put one of those in than install G meters, since I can't really think of a purpose for having them other than suspension setup, and for that you need some sort of logging to really use the data anyway. Come to think of it, does anyone know of a company that even makes G meters?

 

I've put a volt meter on them before and seen changes as I move around. I wonder if anyone makes a meter.

bryan

 

Why would you do this? the Gtech SS meter is only $200 and offers more than just G measurements, besides the Gtech has 3 axis "G" sensors. It would be foolish for a company to waste resources to develope a product for less than $200 that taps into your ABS system. Think of the lawsuit of it shorted out your ABS controller and you had a wreck because of it.


You have a $30k car...don't cheap out on a $200 meter!

 

If the ABS system did lose one of the sensors, you would just get an ABS light and know there was a problem. You wouldn't lose your brakes. I personally don't feel all that much safer with ABS anyway, and this is the first car I've owned that even had it. I don't really notice a benefit from it, and if anything it makes matters worse in low traction driving (I've actually pulled the ABS fuse just so I could stop in the snow).

As far as why, I don't know, why not? They are just sensors already present, so it would be no different than the factory oil, boost, and volt meter kit you can buy. I fail to see the 'foolishness' in it. You could just as easily get a vaccuum leak from installing a boost gauge incorrectly, which is actually trickier to troubleshoot than an ABS light just after you tapped the G meter wiring. If you make proper solders there shouldn't be a problem. I'm sure designed the ABS to deal with a failed G sensor, since they can and do go bad.

As far as a '3-axis' G meter, why would you need to measure more than lateral and longitudinal G forces? It's not as if it's a jet plane and I need to measure the positive G's in a loop or negative G's in a dive.

 

YOu have no way of knowing what would happen if you shorted out the G sensor. If it caused the ABS system to engage, the next time you hit your brakes it would vibrate the **** out of you and you could wreck because of it.


That's what the lawyers would see anyway...

 

I bought one of these last week. It came as advertised.

Normally $140 -- here it is $30

G-Tech Pro on Ebay

 

Yeah, those are going cheap now that the new GTech SS and RR are out.

 

those abs sensors are 4 speed sensing g sensing abs. It just adjust to the need of the car depends on the speed and how much g you are under.

I wouldn't think that would be accurate even if you tap it somehow. I would leave it alone.

 

You obviously don't know much about ABS systems. If there is anything wrong with them, the ABS DISENGAGES it doesn't engage for no reason. They are very carefully designed and tested for this. You think if one of your G sensors goes bad on its own, your ABS will go crazy and you will fly off a cliff? Of course not, that would be stupid to think. Only stupid people would think this. I'm not calling you stupid or anything, even if you are

 

Yes, because whenever something goes wrong, all the testing they did obviously was worthwhile. The funny things about things going wrong, is that you never know what it was. Air bags deploy on accident, abs goes on on accident....these things are settled out of court very quietly for huge sums of money. Don't assume bad things never happen because they engineered to prevent bad things.

 

The paranoia here is freaky. If your ABS system fails, you still maintain brakes. If ABS were to, by some freakish accident, stay on, then why would it be any different than stopping normally under ABS? Anyone with ABS has practiced this many many times and is quite comfortable stopping while the ABS is being actuated, right? Besides, that's not really how ABS works, that vibration you feel/hear is really many readings and restrictions of the braking force. It cycles between sensing wheel lock, restricting the brake force, sensing wheel movement, unrestricting the brake force, and repeating the process. It's not activated any other way, like on a timer or something, so really there is no way for it to cycle itself without sensing wheel lock. If it's not sensing any wheel lock, it won't kick on period. If it does anything else, you have total ABS failure, and that ABS system should never have made it out of the R&D/QA process. Yeah it's possible there is a flaw in the software, and the first person to have a G sensor go out will fly off the road. However I seriously doubt that, and you don't need to worry that much about breaking a sensor for a normally functioning ABS system. The worst that could happen would be a short or open circuit and that is instantly detectable. I mean it's not as if you are going into some unknown realm if you happen to screw up the G sensor (which you shouldn't by tapping a ****ing wire lol).

An ABS system must pass ALL of its diagnostics before it even arms itself, and to activate it you must be pressing the brakes hard enough to lock at least one of your wheels, so the ABS sensor stops getting on/off magnetic pull from the tone ring on the brake disk and stops relaying those signals to the ECU. Everyone worried about tapping a wire from a sensor: You people need to relax and get a grip. It's much harder to get an ABS system to arm itself with a faulty signal than you are imagining, and even harder to get it to actuate uncontrollably. The main problem reported to NHTSA about ABS is that it works too well under panic stops, sending the car actually to where it's pointed. People try to avoid something in the road, slam on the brakes and jerk the wheel, and low and behold the ABS works its magic and the people go right where they pointed the wheel...to their surprise and often to their demise...

As part of my previous job, without getting into specifics, I had to work on a problem where even a little rust between the teeth on the tone rings was not letting the abs sensor sense a high enough frequency at a certain speed to arm the ABS. The ABS didn't explode or make the vehicle enter some alter dimension, it just simply threw a fault code and never armed itself.

 

Im hardly paranoid and don't care. But calling someone stupid for suggesting something could potentially go wrong is....stupid.

 

Maybe, but that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. It wasn't really the suggestion something could go wrong, it was the manner seriousness that I found, let's say, quaint.