VSC fun!

I do minor test like these in the rain. The car is pretty much unstoppable.. unless your stuck on curb.. hehe.. or... trying to climb a wet, gravel, muddy, or icy hill at low speeds. high speeds through dirt and mud is fun.. the car stays true.. i'm guessing much like the parking lot you played in.

 

Gosh I thought for sure I'd mentioned it at some point this winter!

That damn snowflake has been on pretty much non-stop since mid-October... Maybe it put the zap on my head ?

I tried every possible trick to do some donuts MANY times this winter and the Pri would never do much other than slide slightly sideways.

Nothing could ever get that sweet fishtail, loop-de-loop that all Michigan drivers know about from hours of practice in high school parking lots.

 

I just read a report about the Prius at Bonneville (131 mph) and they said briefly that they bypassed the traction control by some combination (?) of brake and punching the accelerator. Any ideas on how this is done?
I was almost stuck in snow at Tahow a few weeks ago and could have used this.

 

are you sure you read right? i heard they couldn't bypass it and had to match all 4 tires to the same size. they wanted smaller front tires but couldn't do it because trac control locked up the system since the wheels where spinning at different speeds. I read in other post there is a combo for it. diagnostics mode. But.. you run a risk of destroying mg2? if you rev it too high. very easy to do if you are stick in a snow drift.

 

Here you go: 26 inch wheels on the front:
Now the Prius had 26-inchers on the front wheels; Leininger wanted a time slip for over 130. The computers had other ideas. The Prius's traction-control system has no off switch, and it dials back engine power when it detects a speed difference between the front and rear tires. Wade had sized the front-wheel arches for larger tires but left the rear arches alone since only the drive wheels need to be bigger to get the ratio effect. The mixed tire sizes, though good for speed, would be perceived by the computer as a dire safety hazard.

Leininger had—or thought he had—a work-around. By stomping the brake and gas in a precise sequence, he could tell the computer to disable the traction-control system. It worked great, except that the computer now refused to put the car into drive.

This is a 4 page article:
http://www.caranddriver.com/article.asp?se...5&page_number=4

 

well actually i tried this out on grass. it definitely keeps you in control. my friend has a fully loaded Prius and we were very impressed when we got up to about 20-30 mph and tried to take a sharp turn on the grass and it straightened the car out almost immediately. we really couldnt slide to save our lives. im sure the neighbors thought we were crazy, driving around in circles in the yard for nearly an hour. it was a 3 acre yard with nothing to hit and flat as a pancake. grass was a bit tall at the far end though.

one thing that surprised me a bit, i only had the basic model and both him and i thought that my car would spin less on take off than his did.

 

sounds like fun. i have a great deal on mountain roads.. i need to find some snow or grass parcels now

 

That's a joke, right?

:roll:

At -40 with a brutal North wind, I can think of many warm places I'd rather be. Winnipeg is a windy city which helps keep the air quality very good, but as a result winter temps can become dangerous.

VSC may save your a** under most conditions, but it can't perform miracles. Before my winter tires arrived in Dec I had to drive on snow/ice here and had some very close calls.

When I got "stuck" going up a parking ramp (The Trac engaged and I stopped) I went to a large empty parking lot to see if the Trac also worked in Reverse. It does.

I also thought I'd try out the VSC and at speeds under 50 km/h it works as advertised. However, at around 70 km/h the car will definitely spin out. Once the skimpy "all season" tires lose traction you're buckled into toboggan.

However, with the winter tires on, the same test at 70 km/h was controlled.

 

Somebody better do a FAQ on the difference between VSC and TC, and the difference between the 04 and 05, before somebody gets hurt.

Also, as many have noted, you do not want to let your Prius get up to its hips in snow over about 9 inches...I've done it twice...the traction control makes it very hard to get out.

That's why they have shovels!

 

My company works with the maker of the gyros used in the corvette for VSC. My understanding of VSC is that it senses lateral stability and steering angle to calculate if the car is under or oversteering. It then applies braking to the appropriate wheel(s) to correct the problem per a software program in the control unit. IF YOUR BRAKE(S) AREN'T BEING EFFECTIVE(i.e. on ice) THEN VSC WILL NOT SAVE YOUR BUTT.
TC measures the higher speed of each driven wheel to the non-driven wheels. TC applies braking (and possibly throttle position) to prevent DRIVEN wheel spin.

 

No appreciable differences between '04 and '05, other than package arangements (rear wiper is now standard), and price.

200V, you are correct in your assessment of VSC and TC, with the addition that VSC may also attempt to correct your steering, since the power steering is accomplished by an electric motor on the steering column.