Sorry to make another winter driving thread...

I did a little more winter driving experimentation a few days ago. One of my friends
lives in an apartment complex with a fairly hilly driveway that is not treated (sanded / salted). My first time up the driveway, I just kept the car (Cooper with 15" Nokian snow tires) in second gear and stayed on the gas. The DSC light blinked its little heart out, and the car climbed right up the hill. No problem. My friend and I had to go run an errand, so on the way back I decided to see what would happen if I stopped in the middle of the hill and then tried to get started again. Not something someone would do on purpose. I kept the DSC on. The first two attempts to get started found me letting the clutch out (in first gear), the wheels start to spin, the DSCS kicks in, the engine RPM drops down below idle speed, the car starts crawling forward and then stalls. I had the gas pedal about halfway down, so I was trying to tell the engine to rev higher so it wouldn't stall, but the computer wouldn't let me. The third time, the engine managed to not stall (just barely) and I made it up to the crest of the hill.

I didn't retry with the DSC off... I'm sure I would have been able to just spin the tires and get myself up the hill. I also didn't try second gear with the DSC on to see if having less torque would help matters.

So, nothing shocking, I guess, other than the fact that the DSC can actually stall the engine in extreme low traction situations.

 

That's normal, I had a '94 GS300, and on ice the traction control would drop revs to cut torque, I could have my foot to the firewall and the car would just inch along until it found traction, my '98 Crown Vic does the same along with brake application of the wheel with the least traction, but due to engine mods I can defeat it if I really plant my foot.

X2

 

Didn't know that...
I've only experimented w/ turning the DSC off...and had loads of fun spinning around in a large....vacant....wet......parking lot.

Peace,
D

 

Well I'm glad it works! My mother had a '96 Saturn SC with the traction control feature. As far as I could tell, the only thing that moronic system did was to let the driver know (with a blinking orange "!&quot that the wheels were spinning! Duh! I am a better traction control computer than that crappy option.