Those of you experienced in driving in snow, a question for you...

Have you ever had to disable DSC and under what circumstances?

Thanks in advance.

Ken

 

only when I am doing donuts

Actually I have never had to turn it of for snow driving. Other then the above stated. I'm sure leaving it on has saved me once or twice without me knowing.

Plus we haven't had a really bad winter either.

 

I've had to turn it off to pull out of my driveway when snow is clumped up at the end. Otherwise, it is on during winter driving.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

Any others?

ken

 

The most common reason to have to turn DSC off in the snow is so that you can "rock " the car out of a parking spot. If you live in a snowy area, you know what I'm talking about.

The other time I've had to turn it off is when I was testing the winter handling and purposely stopped on a snowy / icy hill. Trying to get started again, the DSC would cut power to the point that it stalled the engine. To get out of that situation, without backing down the hill, I needed to turn off DSC. But the DSC was doing its best to get the car moving forwards in that situation. I would slowly inch forward until the engine stalled.

 

My MA said to turn it off or you weren't going anywhere!

 

In Minnesota, we get our share of snow. MINI's do great in the snow and DSC helps them keep in the road. However, a few times, in order to make it up my unplowed, somewhat steep driveway, I had to turn it off for the same reasons listed here earlier. I actually wanted the tires to spin, so I could plow trhough the drifts and get into the garage.

Good luck-MINI's love the snow!

 

Here in Quebec, we have pretty bad snowstorms and my MCS with DSC never gave up on me!

The DSC is great and I almost always leave it on. The only time I will turn it off is if I get stuck in my parking spot.

But once the car is moving, I let DSC do its job. It's great in city driving, but it really helps a lot when cruising on a highway in a snowstorm. The car drives straight and the DSC light almost always flashes! One or 2 more winters and I'll need to change the DSC light bulb...lol

btw, make sure to get your MINI some winter tires... DSC cannot do all the hard work by itselt!

 

I'll agree with everyone that's posted. dsc is great and i leave it on almost all of the time, but there are sometimes when you need to turn it off. sometimes when i'm accelerating from a stop the dsc wants to stop the wheels from spinning so much that i dont go anywhere (here in buffalo, the weather gets a little crazy sometimes), so i just turn off the dsc, get the car moving and flip it back on.

and be gentle into any turns because all of that weight is up front (whether or not youve got winter rubbers)

 

Thanks everyone, I'll be able to give my wife instructions on driving her MINI in the snow. We only get occasional snow here and some morning icing but we also have a lot of up / down hills here. I did get a set of Pirelli Winter 190 snow controls on a set of cheap alloys for her car. We'll see how it goes.:smile:

ken

 

I don't have DCS, but ASC+T, and only turn it off to get through deep snow.

After 2 winters I have only got stuck once, and that was the first winter, before I got my snows.

kenatminimania, I have the Pirelli snow controls, they are great

 

Thanks lot15, it's good to know that I made the right tire choice!

ken

 

Yep, turn DSC off to "rock" the car out of the snow or to get you going forward, or if you find a snow covered empty parking lot that you REALLY want to have fun in!

And I have the big 17" run-flats on the car, and the MINI with the DSC still does better than my Honda Civic ever did!

 

Make sure you bring a shovel or sand. I did the parking lot thing in my camaro, and got stuck. A Subaru Outback wagon came into the parking lot, did donuts around me, and left me there.

Took about an hour of chipping snow and ice from in front of the camaro with a screwdriver to get out, chipping out about a 1 foot clear path, and using it too get 5 feet closer to the road.

 

i mostly keep it OFF in the snow ... don't like its unpredictability at all.

 

Not to sure on this, but as I understand it DSC has ASC+T as the main part of the feature. The DSC takes it a few steps further, follows steering direction, braking?

Now I wish I had DCS, but I don't find the ACS intrusive, unless I'm in deep snow. To me that means over the lower air dam.

On ice and slick snow pack, I use the ASC all the time. I can be heavy on the throttle, I don't bog down, but my wheels don't spin, and I move along.

I turn it off from time to time to see what happens with the same amount of throttle. The tach. goes to redline, the wheels spin, and I go no where fast.

The other day I had to take a detour on a muddy gravel road, because of an accident on the highway. Lots of cars then had to pull out on the highway, after driving through this wet muck, and leaving a very greasy lane as we entered the highway. Cars and trucks were skidding all over the place as they tried to come up to speed. My MC, with my foot into it flashed the ASC, but I never slid around, and I moved faster than anyone else through the slick stuff.

I say bring on the snow

 

Just had the first snow fall on the road a few days ago in Calgary. Those are exactly my thoughts, ASC+T works wonders.

I drove a FWD volvo 850 with snow tires in the winter here the last 6 years, so I know how to control the throttle to cut back on wheel spin on ice, but ASC does the same thing with better precision than my own foot, plus it will brake the spinning wheel and send power to the other one on the REALLY slippery stuff (which I can't do with my foot). I think its great.