I am hoping some of our C5 Techs out there can answer this quesiton... I have been experiencing a problem trying to Power Brake my C5 with either setting of Traction Control - OFF or Traction Control - Competitive mode... It seems to bog down and not let me spin the tires... What could this be?

Any help would be appreciated...

 

What year is your C5?

 

2000

 

you have to apply the breaks and slowly release them to allow the tires to spin keeping enough pressure to to lock the fronts. If you just mash the breaks you'll never get a good spin out of them

 

I'm not sure but torque management may have something to do with it. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Seems like I had probs power braking too until I had my pcm reprogrammed. One of the parameters that were changed was the torque management. It was zeroed out and since then, I have no problems power braking it.

 

The first year I had the car, I could power brake the car with no problem. Then out-of-the-blue... It wouldn't do it anymore. There have been some weird things that has happened over the last 5 years with this car and currently I am dealing with an intermittent "pull key, wait 10 sec" message on the DIC...

The 'puter has been reprogrammed back in March when the brake valve and the electronic module attached to the valve.

 

Your problem is that you have Generation I Active Handling. With Generation I, you cannot powerbrake with Active Handling engaged, either with Traction Control activated, or in Competitive Driving. The further you depress the accelerator, while attempting to powerbrake, the more the engine will downpower (torque management). In order to powerbrake, you will have to turn off both Traction Control and Active Handling. This is not true with Generation II Active Handling. That system will allow you to powerbrake in Competitive Driving. Generation I Active Handling was offered as an option from Late 1998 through 2000 C5s. Generation II Active Handling was a standard feature on all 2001 though 2004 C5s. There are some other differences, also, such as Generation II Active Handling can be engaged while moving. Generation I Active Handling can only be engaged while the car is stopped...though you can begin the 5 second countdown while the car is moving, the car must be stopped at the point of timeout. So, you can hold the button down while coasting up to a light, for example, for approximately 4 seconds, but at that 5th second when it times out for Competitive Driving to engage, the car must be stopped or it will not go into Competitive Driving mode. Generation II Active Handling is also a little less intrusive than Generation I. Generation II consists of different components and programming than Generation I. A Generation I car cannot be converted to a Generation system (at least for anything near a reasonable price). Maybe more than you wanted to know, but I hope this clears it up for you.
Ed

 

Thanks for the information Ed, I have tried several ways including the 5 second disable... I will keep trying and if nothing else works, I will continue to do what I have been doing.... pull to the burnout area and nail it and let her spin!

 

 

You should try powerbraking a stick shift car. Now that's a pain in the butt.