Gen-III: Fixed Ill-Conceived Traction-Control?

There is a mod to deactivate it on the gem II, but as soon as the car is shut off and turned back on it is removed from the program and resumes normal operation. I have also seen used pri'i here that have done just that and have damaged the transmissions doing so. The majority of them have a very rough shudder feeling and you know they deactivated traction control because they have a photo copy of the instructions in the glove boxes. I live in North Dakota and have owned two gen II's and now I own a gen III. We get over 6' of snow regularly every year with usually 4" or more on the roads at any given time between plowing. I have never gotten stuck. Slow moving sometimes after a icey storm from a stop light but I have high performance 17" tires on my Prius which are shit in snow.

 

Snow is easy and not a problem...ice though, I take one of the other cars to work.

 

Last winter my Prius got stuck in snow on the road several time - normally I avoid driving in snow but last winter we had some freak weather that caught me on the road in a major snow storm. With the snow on the roads not plowed away, the Prius' low ground clearance became a major weakness.

other weird stuff
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When I forget to put the sun shade over my ScangaugeII - the Scangauge II overheats and the traction control and ABS warning lights turn on. To reset the the warning lights - I turn off the Prius and disconnect the Scangauge II from the OBDII port. After letting the Scangauge II cool down a few minutes, I reconnect the Scangauge II to the OBDII port. When I turn the Prius back on and reset the Scangauge II display - the traction contol and ABS warning light are off and everything looks fine again.

 

I would like to point out that the traction control was not "ill conceived". It is NECESSARY. If you turn it off, you run the risk of damaging internal components of the HSD. Spinning up the wheels on ice then hitting bare pavement WILL damage the drive train. Don't try to tell me nobody drives like that. I've watched!

But again, in the GIII it has been "toned down" to be less intrusive. Pearl S gets around just fine in winter. I just prefer NOT to plow the city streets for the City of Edmonton. So I drive the FJ Cruiser in deeper snow, burning -three times- as much fuel as Pearl S burns.

DO install proper snow/ice tyres for full benefit of the drive systems in place.

 

I agree. my 08 was undrivable in the snow. my 2010 is great!

 

The consensus then is the Gen III is better than the Gen II and "normal" cars are better than both...as it relates to traction control that is. I will take it on faith from members that have driven both that the former is true, but I can personally attest to the latter on ice.