My never ending car search is plagued by my nitpicking need to find a car with or without specific options. I have been looking at MK3 VWs and Focus SVTs both of which sometimes come with traction control. I would like to avoid the nanny factor of traction control but I do not know if I am being overly picky. Has anyone driven a traction control equipped SVT Focus or VR6 GTI in anger? Is it really intrusive or is it hardly noticeable? The car will see rain, but never snow.
Forums » Grassroots Motorsports » Traction Control - good or bad
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April 28, 2010 4:44 p.m. GTwannaB New Reader
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April 28, 2010 4:53 p.m. irish44j HalfDork
Don't they have VDC/TC disable buttons?
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April 28, 2010 5:11 p.m. Tommy Suddard SonDork
What he said^
Traction Control is the sukz.
'cause we're aliens, and thats how we roll.
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April 28, 2010 5:17 p.m. irish44j HalfDork
And if no disable button, just do like we did on the 4Runner this winter: pull the plug under the hood
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April 28, 2010 5:58 p.m. billy3esq SuperDork
My Focus SVT didn't have it, but I believe it can be disabled (switch on either the dash or console).
IIRC, only the EAP/Cold Weather package cars had it. Most did not.
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April 28, 2010 6:42 p.m. Grtechguy SuperDork
I live in the snow belt, I disable the TC. why? because occasionally, you NEED to spin the wheels to rock the car out of the snow. With the TC on, you're stuck if its heavy wet snow or slush. I see it over and over again.
PS. the disable switch rarely completely disables the it btw. best way is to remove the ABS fuse and be done with it.
best picture moments are started with hey y'all watch this
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April 28, 2010 6:54 p.m. Streetwiseguy Reader
ABS and traction control work fine on clean dry pavement. The worse the road conditions, the more likely you are to die because of electonic intervention.
And if any of you don't believe me, come visit in January and I'll put you behind the wheel of an Astrovan with the early abs. The newer the vehicle, the less active the programming, it seems. Kind of like the early airbags that killed short people- the gov eventually decided to depower the bags a bit and let people live..
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April 28, 2010 9:11 p.m. Wonkothesane New Reader
I love the modern stability control system in my Rx8, but I Hated, nay LOATHED the traction control system in my old Boxster......
Do be careful, as I found out with the Boxster, if you pull the fuse for traction control, you pull the fuse for ABS. If the car is over-braked and designed to work with ABS, you may find yourself locking all for wheels with 1/4" of pedal movement, sliding straight towards that wall of cones. Surprise!
1 Mazda == Good. 4 Mazdas == More Gooder.
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April 28, 2010 9:14 p.m. Nitroracer Dork
My focus svt had traction control, and while there was a switch to turn it off I hear it still intruded at the limit.
I ran an autocross once and left it on, I couldn't figure out why it was down on power coming out of certain corners. I realized that since the car has an open diff it was trying to spin a wheel out of tight corners and the traction control was fighting with me.
Day to day I rarely had it intervene. Then again it had a hard time turning the tires from a stop anyway.
1968 Fairlane 500 - 1998 Camaro Z/28
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April 28, 2010 9:17 p.m. carguy123 SuperDork
07 350Z was faster with traction/yaw control on the autocross course than without.
"mobilito ergo sum" I drive therefore I am!
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April 28, 2010 10:04 p.m. BobOfTheFuture Reader
My SVT can be intrusive, but its only a fuse away, as long as you dont mind losing ABS.
A Diff helps alot on making it calm down
Formerly MowogBob
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April 29, 2010 6:57 a.m. Wonkothesane New Reader
carguy123 wrote: 07 350Z was faster with traction/yaw control on the autocross course than without.
This is how I figured out how to drive the Rx8 properly... I knew I was doing something right when I finally went faster without using the DSC :)
1 Mazda == Good. 4 Mazdas == More Gooder.
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April 29, 2010 9:21 a.m. pilotbraden New Reader
I do not like traction control. Dad's G35 is faster in the snow without it. Friend's 4 door Wrangler gets stuck in bumper deep snow ( I pull him out with my 97 Nissan pick up, same size snow tires as the jeep).One reason that I bought a 2009 base model RX-8 is the lack of traction control.
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April 29, 2010 9:32 a.m. GameboyRMH SuperDork
Traction control = bad. Pull the fuse or flip the switch.
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April 29, 2010 9:49 a.m. Hal HalfDork
Traction Control on the Focus SVT can be turned off. we had a note to that effect taped to the steering wheel in this car
It can be defeated entirely but as noted pulling the fuse will also affect the ABS.
Best solution is to put a locking diferential in the car.
2010 Transit Connect XLT 2001 Ford Focus with a little help from Powerworks
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April 29, 2010 9:55 a.m. Giant Purple Snorklewacker SuperDork
IIRC all you need is aftermarket software to defeat it on the SVT.
walterj, playing with the 'preferred username' feature
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April 29, 2010 10:44 a.m. mad_machine SuperDork
my idea of traction control is an LSD... my BMW has it, and even with badly worn summer tyres, I was still able to drive that car through several inches of snow this winter.
get one without traction control and have a limited slip added to the diff?
AS for ABS. I will be adding a defeat switch to the saab. It steps in WAY too early
Non-Sequitor Alert!
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April 29, 2010 11:16 a.m. njansenv Reader
I thinked we've had this discussion before....
FWIW, I LIKED the stability control on the M3. It was relatively unintrusive unless I was misbehaving, and it added a measure of security on "surprise" surfaces.
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April 29, 2010 11:20 a.m. Paul_VR6 Reader
The VW would have EDL and there's no way of disabling it short of pulling an ABS sensor. Breaks axles very cleanly when it engages when you're trying to launch the car.
-Paul - 1995 GTI VR6 12.833@105.48 kptuned.com
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April 29, 2010 12:51 p.m. GTwannaB New Reader
Thanks, I know you can partially disble the traction control on SVT, but without pulling the ABS switch the TC will always be lurking, even with the tune. Does the VW disable switch fully disable TC?
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April 29, 2010 5:38 p.m. Gearheadotaku Dork
I've driven seveal newer cars with trac control and stability control. They are all horrible. Seveal times when cornering at speed the car would "bog down" and I would lose the intended path. ABS i can live with some times, but these other systems scare me.
Old enough to know better, too young too care!
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April 29, 2010 8:21 p.m. Paul_VR6 Reader
The later VW's that have the ASR button will fully disable it when the switch is activated.
-Paul - 1995 GTI VR6 12.833@105.48 kptuned.com
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April 29, 2010 8:38 p.m. Streetwiseguy Reader
All my vehicles have had traction control, and stability control. I'm pretty sure thats what the 3 pedals on the floor and the round thing in front of you do.
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April 29, 2010 8:50 p.m. Wonkothesane New Reader
pilotbraden wrote: One reason that I bought a 2009 base model RX-8 is the lack of traction control.
Mine's a 2007, but the traction control on mine only kicks in if I'm slipping more than 20* I think. I always turn it off when autocrossing, and it's only kicked in one time when I had it turned "off," which was when I was sliding completely sideways and HARD on the brakes. After a second or so of that I felt it kick in, it felt like I hit a wall, and the car was stopped.
It's also fast enough to respond that if I feel like hooning around on the streets, I can turn it off on the fly, drift around the open corner, then turn it back on and it'll save me if I hit gravel or ice or whatever.
1 Mazda == Good. 4 Mazdas == More Gooder.
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April 30, 2010 12:02 a.m. The_Jed Reader
Wiggles his foot
/Southern accent on/
"This is my traction control, sir."
/Southern accent off/
ABS too...
They look like angels when they're asleep. But when they're awake...
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