Traction control - is it rubbish?

[sosidge]

Finding it relatively easy to spin the wheels on the 1.6 XL with the TCS on, especially if I have a bit of lock on.

This is not to say that the wheels spin when I don't want them to, just that I can make them spin quite easily if I do want to.

Does this suggest a problem with the system or am I simply expecting too much from it?

 

[andycupra]

do you get the wheels to spin when stationary or going very slow?

if so its probably due to the traction control only working above a certain speed.
(otherwise it would stall the engine when pulling away etc)

 

[sosidge]

Only from a standing start. I've never owned a car with enough power to spin the wheels once on the move!

 

[Tell]

I suspect it is as Andy says... it saved me in a snow skid a few years back when the traffic lights changed to red and I was turning right on the continent and ABS kicked in which gracefully stopped me with a few banging sounds at the white line, covered in snow if one could have seen it.

I too can get wheel spin from rest but I suspect they put that facility in for the Seat boy racers so they get spin perhaps.... in a DSG you learn not too put too much power on when pulling away.

 

[bobbycfc]

I could be wrong but I thought traction control only cut in if one wheel was spinning at a faster rate than the other? So from a standing start you could spin both, but on a slippy bend or something similar the traction control would stop the spinning wheel?

I have heard it be said that sometimes its best to switch Traction Control off in the snow for that reason, it doesn't help get you traction, it will just stop the slipping wheel from spinning whereas sometimes in snow you need that spinning to eventually get you going?

As always, I could be wrong, or maybe there are different types of Traction Control? eg current F1 cars have traction control, but it doesnt stop you seeing them spinning their wheels, especially if they are accelerating back onto the track after having came off?

 

[Tell]

The middle para also dates back to a conversation in winter time when Loadswine, fellow DSG owner found a lack of traction in a DSG going up a hill in snow and I'd noticed skidding when trying to pull away from stationary in snow with a loss of power.... putting ESP off in snow seemed to help if you are not moving ... [Loadswine founds], other than that, having it on is good. The snow is suppose to be wipped out so the wheels can touch the road which is what a normal pickup in snow gives until it finds grip, if the ESP says skidding take off power then that doesn't help. With the DSG you can't engage in low or high too well, and you are also suppose to stop too many gear changes, so DSG with snow can be a challenge... that's when we get it and it settles.

Now the ESP which the Altea has does assorted stuff... so I pass control too someone else to go through that. One is ABS which is what I started to talk about first... then we have the rest.

This site bundles them into two, but as I recall previously ESP was a term used by Seat to cover all the functionality of about five or so different system fitted to the Altea.

http://www.seat.com/com/generator/su/com/altea/site/sports/agility/TCS/main.html

Quicky google, Seat seem to be unbundling as to what is contained within ESP these days, good for marketing. Looking at the 2005 brochure the sport had ABS, TCS, ESP, EBA and DSR, but ESP wasn't on the Reference or Stylance.