Traction Control this morning

[mwadams]

Well after another nights snow, I dreaded the long incling side road, well half way up and sure enough the wheels were spinning and the TC light flashing; I eventually managed it but the last part I decided to switch the TC off to try and get up the last bit of slope which worked better than it being on !

Any advice apart from snow tyres or leaving the car at home !

Thanks

Mark

 

[MikeO]

Keep in a high gear.

Traction control does seem a bit useless in snow, is it because there's not enough resistance at the tyres for the system to work out what's going on?

 

[John Ware]

Basically traction control reduces the power to the spinning wheel(s) until grip is regained. However, if there's no grip you can plant your right foot and nothing will happen as the system won't allow any power to the wheels. Hence, turn it off.

This is a similar logic as to why ABS doesn't work on sheet ice. ABS compares wheel speeds so if one is locked when the others are spinning, it will release that brake. If all the wheels are locked, they're all doing the same speed so the system won't release the brakes. ABS can't be switched off either....

 

[Guest]

ABS can't be switched off

But you can do the same thing manually (although not quite as fast ).

For the snow, you would be better off putting it in a higher gear. It may nto be quite so kind to the clutch though.