How aggressive should the traction control be in normal mode. I'm not sure mine is working or has ever worked. It seems if the road is wet, as long as the back end doesn't kick out and engage the stability control I never see the traction control display on the dash and the wheels just keep spinning.

 

I'm actually really curious about this too. My 2011 GS sometimes gets way out of shape when the tires are cold before traction control ever kicks in.

My previous car (1997 Camaro Z28) was much more aggressive with the traction control, to the point where I could punch it with bald tires in water and it would barely let me hang the back end out before bringing it in line.

 

On my 07 the traction control will engage with minimal wheel spin.

 

TC full on will allow the tires to spin a touch, and get the back end out a touch as well. It may feel like it not doing much, but drive the car in full off mode and you will be able to tell the difference pretty quick when the car is pushed.

Comp mode, will turn off the TC (button pressed twice), but leaves the yaw control on, so although you can get the back end to step out more, it will prevent you from getting the back end out so far that is passes up the front end of the car.

Full off (hold the button for 5 seconds), and all the nannies are off; Hence your own your own. If you have ever seen someone get the car sideways with the back passing the front end of the car, it was due to them being in full off mode and not really knowing how to drive the car with all that it will give.

Simply, the nannies will pull you back from the point of no return if on, but you still need to roll on the throttle and not try to use its a off/on switch instead. It is a sports car, and if the nannies didn't allow any type of tire slip, there where would be the fun in that.

 

I have noticed the same thing with My 12 GS. You can get the car to almost pull a 180 from a stop before its really kicks in. My 06 350z would kick in almost instantly after the wheel would slip. I have tested it a few time since I was surprised how slow it is to kick on.

 

Mine does not seem to work at all. 2013 427

 

My full on mode seems to be much less sensitive than this. It won't stop me from bringing the back end past the front end, I always have to save it myself by letting off the throttle and steering into it.

 

Do you have a HP tune file of the current tune that you can post?
Sounds like someone reworked the tables.
Best guess, changed either the tables, or disabled all the TC methods for the TC/active handling to work correctly.

In full TC, a first gear punch hard turn, should allow the back end to slide out a touch (back end about a foot out of line), but should start killing the power to straighten the car back out petty much as the back end start slipping out.

Even in comp mode (TC off for the most part, active handling still on to a less degree), the power should be clipping if the back end even begins to get even close more that 1/3 the way out. Comp mode kills the TC for straight line so you can burn the tires to the rims, but active handling correction is still to just a lesser degree so you still should not be able to get the back end all the way around under power.



Full off, turns both TC (tire spin sensors) and active handling (back end in line or not), so your all on your own.

 

I'm with you on this. My 427 never seems to have any intervention either. My tires will slip until they finally bite or I let up. I have never heard the engine back off to allow the tires to grip. When I drove the Z06's at Bondurant, I did feel the computer control the throttle while cornering. If the tires start to slip there with the wheel turned, the engine will not respond to the throttle position of the gas pedal. It worked directly in proportion to how straight the steering wheel was. The straighter you got the wheel, the more throttle would come on and this with the gas pedal on the floor. It would appear you couldn't hang the rear out and power around a corner without turning off the nanny.

 

My car dies not have a tune, it is bone stock. Still have factory warranty so maybe I should have the dealer look at it.

 

Technically what is traction control? How is it suppose to work? Sensors? Is it designed on torque? wheelspin? or what? Where is it measured on the car? I've tried it "on" and "off" on my '13 C6 and I don't have a clue, except that it seems to slow the car down and eliminates wheel spin under higher acceleration. I had the feeling it was tied into the braking system somehow. Anybody have the specs or diagram on it? The big question is to leave it "on" or turn it "off". BTW- I just put the Magnuson Supercharger, Comp cam and Corsa exhaust on my GS. Wow!!! Now to get all those ponies down on the ground efficiently. Thanks

 

Here are most of the sensors in the car,
Wheel Speed Sensor
Brake Pedal Position Sensor
Brake Fluid Pressure Sensor
Steering Wheel Position Sensor
Yaw Rate Sensor
Lateral Accelerameter Sensor
Also, in the ECU TC control tables, it limits the amount of power that the motor can put out throw the drive line as a pre-active strike for the TC as well/

TC works with most of these, being that the front and rear spindle have sensors to tell how fast each wheel is turning to each other and how hard you are pushing the car forward via the Lat Acc sensor.

Active handling uses that system, plus the steering wheel position sensor and yaw sensor to see how sideways that car is getting to see if it need to clip power to bring the back end back in line.

Again the car has to react to it getting out of hand, so there will always be some slip/wheel spin until the system kicks in from the sensor inputs that the TC tables did not prevent before hand.

Note, the z06 is a little more relaxed with the system than say on a base model (get more wheel spin with the TC fully on) but the system should be kicking in with it fully turned on to keep you out of trouble with the car tire spinning fully unchecked.


So again, tire spin control is on in full TC mode,
Two button pushes to put you into comp mode kills most of the wheel spin TV system with active handling still on to a lesser degree to allow the back end to step out a touch more,
then a 5 second TC button push, turns all the both TC and active handling, and you're all on your own with no nannies saving you if you get the car out of shape.

As for seeing if the system is working,

Find a safe area, and do a WOT first gear run (clutch dump). In TC on, your going to still spin the tires, but you should be moving forward pretty quickly.
In comp mode, your going to be pretty much burning the tires through first gear, and moving much slower forward due to the over spin on the tire. Since the active handling portion is still on in both modes, the back end should not be whipping out of line.
Everything off, not only should the tire spin to the end of red line until the over rev kicks in, but bank that the back end kicks way out to get you very, very sideways.

TC on (checking active handling), first gear hard turn WOT and the back end should slightly slip out, but power cuts to bring the back end back in line very quickly.
Comp mode and the same, back end should slip out a touch more, but still clip the power to bring the back end back in line.
Everything off, and you should end up with the back end of the car, now the thing going around the corner first instead of the front end.

Also to note, the TC and active handling system are settle, so unless you are pushing the car, may never feel them kicking in. Its when you drive the car hard with the system full on, and full off that you grasp what the system is really doing to try to save you from your own errors.

 

So Dano523 gave a great description of sensors and how they can send signals to cut torque, but how is torque cut? Less fuel? Retard timing? Apply individual brakes? I understand that "active handling" will apply an individual wheel brake where needed to straighten the car. Doesn't "traction control" also apply the brake to the spinning tire?

 

Active Handling works on the premise of applying brake pressure to specific brakes (and modulating throttle response) to generate counter-torque to vehicular momentum. It's not a nanny in the sense that it won't make you a great driver; if you do irresponsible things, the handling systems won't be able to save you. It's designed to provide assistance during relatively minor but rapid course corrections or inertial changes, by braking on the opposing side to generate corrective torque in that direction. It utilizes all those fancy sensors listed earlier to determine the appropriate wheel to lock and duration. At speeds and with sufficient torque even the handling system won't be able to appropriately dissuade your car from spinning around

This is an old (and cheesy) video but it gives a relatively decent explanation of the concepts and technology behind active handling (it's for the C5 but the technology in the C6's is, essentially, the same).

 

I don't know how much truth there is to this but a Coworker claims that Chevy relaxed how quickly the TC kicks in. Somewhere around 2011-12ish. He's part a a large camero club a knows a lot of higher ups with Chevy. His claim was there were a lot of complaints about it kicking in too fast/early. So they relaxed it a bit.

Mines a stock 12

 

That would definitely explain why my 2011 GS seems like the TC is way more relaxed than my old '97 Camaro ' s TC.

 

I have had the TC light flash many times . I wonder if it has a low speed limit . The anti lock brakes on my old benz would lock up under 5 mph . It would give up and let you slide into an intersection locked up 5 ft in the rain . While the Vet TC has never been indicated over 30 mph . Rear brakes pad condition maybe the control that is needed .

 

I can assure you the system works despite allowing some spin. This is on a tuned car (HP Tuners).

How do I know? I accidentally had it ON when at the track and tried to do a burnout...it spun for about 2 seconds and then it stopped spinning and I almost stalled the car. The DIC came up with a message saying something to the effect of traction lost or traction system active (I don't recall the exact message).

 

I played around the last few days trying to see what it was doing and on dry pavement did notice the TC came on, but it doesn't seem to do much.

Sure wish they would have just added a fourth less intrusive mode so there was an option. My Corvette is my only car, and when it is in the 40s and raining the TC could be much more effective IMHO.

 

This has been my experience exactly. This doesn't really bother me when things are dry because I have to be pushing it before it gets out of hand. But in cold/wet conditions the car has gotten pretty squirrely when I'm taking it easy. In that situation I think the traction control should be more aggressive.