Traction Control - When To Have It Off?

[JonnWhite]

My dad and i had a discussion about this earlier -

When it is icy what is best traction control off or on?

I thought off as you don't want it to compensate for ice as it could put you in more danger, make you skid wheel spin etc

My dad said if you have it on surely it will help you not skid or wheel spin?

I've always read that it is best to have it off, whenever it's icy i turn it off i was just curios as to what everyone else though?!:)

Thanks

Jon

[vibeone]

Reading with interest - see my thread regarding sliding - it seemed like maybe the odd feel was the ESP

Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC

[shaunytee1600]

Deffinetely on.

[troy45]

Problem you get with the system on the mk2/mk2.5, is that the traction control and ESP are linked so you can't turn either one off individually.

So while there's times you might not want TC, if you turn it off you're also reducing the ESP interventions (I've got it on good authority that you can't turn the ESP off completely)

Think it's in snow that the expert advice, maybe Ford handbook too, says to turn off the TC/ESP especially if you're getting stuck - possibly for those occasions where you can put your foot down and the car will spin the wheels but slowly get moving as well. Obviously with TC on it'd stop you from doing this.

[madmole]

It's abs in snow you want off. TC you want on permanently

14 years of off roading in a land rover and the TC has never been turned off. Spinning of wheels never wanted in any conditions

Sent from my iPad using Ford OC

[JonnWhite]

Ah right okay. I've always heard you should have it off.

When I do turn it off, I can still hear it working if I hit a bit of ice as you hear my gearbox making noises haha!

So what's the difference between traction control and the electronic stability thing?

Thanks! It's grey to hear your opinions but the way, was thinking of adding the esp button in so I don't have to fiddle with the trip computer to turn it off.

Stupid question why does my car seem to get a new lease of life if I turn it off?

Thanks again!

Jon

Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC

[troy45]

It's abs in snow you want off. TC you want on permanently

14 years of off roading in a land rover and the TC has never been turned off. Spinning of wheels never wanted in any conditions

Stand corrected there and makes sense - when there's lot of snow down you really need to pay attention to stopping distances, as with ABS if there's zero grip it'll just keep knocking the brakes on and off and you'll merrily roll into whatever it is you're tying to avoid :(

Maybe with ABS off at least the locked up wheels might dig into the snow and provide some stopping effect.

Ah right okay. I've always heard you should have it off.

When I do turn it off, I can still hear it working if I hit a bit of ice as you hear my gearbox making noises haha!

So what's the difference between traction control and the electronic stability thing?

Thanks! It's grey to hear your opinions but the way, was thinking of adding the esp button in so I don't have to fiddle with the trip computer to turn it off.

Stupid question why does my car seem to get a new lease of life if I turn it off?

ESP is Electronic Stability Program, it's purpose is to keep the car going in the direction the steering wheel is pointed mainly during cornering. It detects Yaw movement compared to steering wheel position and tries to bring car back in line by braking different wheels individually as needed. Also cuts engine power.

Traction control's main purpose is to prevent excessive wheelspin, comparing speed of front wheels to rear and also side to side. Does this by cutting power and possibly braking one or both front wheels. Older Ford systems used to compare side to side but not front to rear - my Puma was like that.

So TC only comes into play when you're pressing the accelerator but ESP can operate at any time.

Info from the people who mapped my ST is that you can't fully disable the ESP (by the switch) which is why you'll still notice some interventions despite turning it off. And I believe it's normal for the car to feel a bit nippier in lower gears when ESP is off, wouldn't know exactly why though.

[Dee_82]

So is abs and esp one in the same system, will turning off esp, or at least some of it, disable abs...

[JonnWhite]

Thanks for the info! It's an auto so I don't know what gears it's working in :')

Does explain it though

Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC

[troy45]

So is abs and esp one in the same system, will turning off esp, or at least some of it, disable abs...

My understanding is that the same hardware is used for both ABS and ESP but they're still separate systems - even if you turn ESP off the ABS is not affected.

Think you'd have to pull a fuse to disable the ABS, or maybe through the ELM interface but I've never wanted to look at doing that.

Only improvement I'd like would be to run the RS version of ESP/TC software to allow the LSD to do it's thing instead of cutting in too early. But it's not as simple as that.