Haven't seen this on the forum...

What is traction control supposed to feel like when it activates? I finally got it to turn on this morning. Cornering at low speed on slick pavement, cold rain, kind of mashed the throttle. A place and condition where my Accord would always spin its wheels. The car felt like the rear wheels were bouncing along railroad ties. TCS/DSC light flashing. Car stayed in line, wheels did not spin. Everything smoothed out, etc, once I finished the turn. But the TCS action was a lot rougher than I had imagined.

Is that the usual behavior?

Ken

 

Well i dont' have tcs in thsi car but it's basically supposd to recognize that ur foot is in the throttle but ur wheels are spinning so it will cut fuel/limit throttle with the computer until ur wheels are not spinning it works with ABS principles!...as for sound someone with TCS will have to chime in!

 

Yep, that's how it feels, like crap. It's your car's way of bitch-slapping you.

Be careful about that railroad-track feel on launch...that could be wheel hop, which is bad.

And yes, before the flames begin, the 8 will wheel hop, and it will do so with DSC on. At least I'm fairly certain it's wheel hop, it sure feels that way.

 

when the TCS kicks on it does sound/feel pretty bad

 

it feels like the abs is kicking in on the right corner...

or a throttle cut, depending on the mistake by the driver..

beers

 

so that wheel hop sound/feeling...is it bad when TCS activates? my tires thread is low, so it happens often.

that wheel hop feeling, is it bad? like if you do so off a launch.

 

It puts a lot of stress on the drivetrain. In a really powerful car like a corvette, it can tear the differential apart. But with 160 ft-lbs of torque, it's probably not as dangerous with an 8.

 

If TCS feels really rough it's because you're making big mistakes. As your driving skill/inputs improve TCS will be very gentle as it keeps you on course at the limits of adhesion.

 

I too thought that this was just the way TCS worked. Being used to early generation ABS on my old '96 Saturn all the jerking and loud noises seemed normal. And the fact that the car basically came to a dead stop in the middle of the turn was annoying, but I assumed the alternative was sudden death, so I was glad I went with TCS.

Then my wife got her BMW 328i, and the TCS blew me away. Go drive one on a wet slippery day and get in the throttle in the same turn and you will be amazed. The TCS is smooth, silent, and pulls the car into line without slowing you down at all. Honestly, if they didn't flash the light on the dash you wouldn't even know TCS was activated.

The RX8 basically screams "YOU SUCK! LOSER!" in your face. The bimmer just quietly whispers "oh yeah, we got this turn!" Amazing car.

 

Lighting up the TCS after several years of ownership . . . . clearly you're driving skillzzzz should be questioned.





Every morning when there's new snow or newly frozen roads I test the brakes with a stomp or two. Man that's some crunchy, horrid sounding ****. Me no likey. I really have nothing to contribute b/c I have no TCS. Mad driving skillzzz.

 

I've yet to feel it be gentle in an 8. In the 8 it seems to not kick in at all until you make a fairly significant mistake.

 

On some cars (like the BMW) it keeps things relatively smooth, and you have no idea that you've even done something "wrong." Much like the 8's DSC however, the TSC lets you get away with a little bit before trying to bring you back in line, and this results in the jerky feel.

Most normal people would probably prefer the less intrusive DSC/TCS systems, but I actually kind of like that it's so obvious that I've done something potentially stupid.

 

It does that, it's the ABS and various other countermeasures freaking out.

I learned all about it in my old IS300, which had the most obnoxiously trigger happy, limiting, and potentially dangerous TCS/SC on the planet. There was construction in our area, so there was sand on the ground and my wheels would spin if needed to make a quick jump into traffic. I eventually learned not to get on it too much, but every once in a while, nothing would happen but it would just decide to lock my speed at around 10-15 mph for about 10 seconds. That almost got me into probably 3 or 4 accidents - after a while I ended up leaving it off most of the time. The 8's is WAY better, and actually felt like it helped me when I got into trouble. It never felt like it was trying to kill me.

 

wheel hop will destroy the dif in this car just as in any other car- ask anyone who spent serious time launching at a strip

 

But are those cars stock? I'm not saying it can't happen, just that it might not be as easy as with some other cars. It's abusive in any case, no matter what the car.

 

The power cut part of the DSC/TCS doesn't feel nearly as harsh or abrupt as the independent ABS braking part. This is what causes the noise and a severe loss of momentum at slow (intersection turn) speeds - much like someone just jerked the leash from behind that is tied to your 8. Driving skill or no driving skill, my car will still do this on occasion when cornering fairly quick at intersection turns with semi-iced or semi-wet patched streets especially when bumps, potholes, and gravel is thrown in the mix. At much higher cornering speeds you shouldn't be getting to the point of this ABS interference until you've just about lost control already.

 

I just took my 8 with DSC and TCS on playing out in the snowy parking lot last night. The TCS "should" be pretty smooth, just power loss and a drop in rpm because your tires are spinning. It is really just cutting the fuel thus cutting the power until it detects that the wheel spin has stopped.

The "wheel hop" happened to me a lot in my previous car... 99 civic si : (skinny tires) anytime your car start slamming around and your spine is telling you that it doesn't like what is happening to it... it should be obvious that: 1. Its Bad and 2. You shouldn't do it again.

As for the anti locks... I don't really know. They're noisy, but I haven't noticed the type of behavior that you're noticing... but this is my first car with ABS, so I don't have a good baseline to know the proper differences.

Stop trying to wreck your car on slippery curvy roads.
OR
Turn all the systems off and try it again to see what happens

(^That is a joke, don't actually do this... you'll most likely wreck - get hurt - total the car, etc -- Nothing good will come from it)

 

Sounds like fairly normal behavior to me, I'm just glad to hear it's not just my ABS that sounds like it's rock crusher.

 

You mean the momentary inexplicable lapse in my driving skills, right?

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Good to know that the answer is "Yep, they'll do that."

Ken

 

^ exactly. sarcasm via posts is such a pita.

but I'm confident you understood it correctly, what with all the extra zzzzzzz's. lol



oh, and "Yep, they'll do that."

 

Yep...I got it.

zzzz is right. This TCS action happened at maybe 15 mph. Nowhere near the realm of the cool posts that say "So I was rounding Death Curve at 187 mph, hit a banana peel, and was saved by DSC kicking in." I feel like a wus.

Ken

 

bwaahahaha!!!


lmao


But really, that's totally your fault for not playing it up. The truth is rarely a "cool" story.

 

My DSC/TCS sounds kind of like someone dragging a heavy table across a wooden floor when it goes off.

 

Ken - i always thought you were some kind of stock car driver with mad skillzzzzz - now i'm not so sure

 

It's even worse. The reason I accelerated hard was because I was making a right turn after coming to a stop at a red light. I came to a FULL STOP, rather than rolling it at 11 mph as is the custom, per the recent "red light camera" thread.

I even knew that there was not a camera at that light.

I'll probably get banned.

Ken