Three days ago, with TC/AH fully "on", I punched the gas while changing lanes and got the car pretty sideways. I was surprised, but gathered it up quickly and went on my way. No harm, no foul. Temps were low 50s.

Problem was, AH never came on. No message, nothing.

Last night, I decided to do a test. There is a large parking lot in my town with no light posts, blocks etc. Part of it is flat, the rest ondulating with dust etc on it. Took the car there and started running tight laps and figure 8s with AH/TC fully on.

Folks, with the system 100% "on", I was able to powerslide at will, spin the car multiple times (imagine a drifting contest), and generally totally lose control. Speeds were up to 30 mph or so and some of the spins were massive and would have caused one to hit something and total the car had they occurred on the street. During this time, the AH/TC NEVER came on. No warnings, no nothing. Zip. Just as if it is not there. I repeated with the system turned off, then with Comp. mode...no difference.

I want to stress that I could induce a power slide at will, with absolutely zero intervention from the car. I have had two C5s and took both to this same location. Neither one of them would allow ANY of this to occur with AH/TC on. Any attempt to powerslide with the gas and the engine would cut back. Oversteer the car into a corner and the car would straighten it out.

I don't care for myself: I compete a Formula Mazda and I am now into shifter Karts, so I have plenty of driving experience and I have drifted, power steered, and spun cars a-plenty. What saved me the other day, is that I have plenty of experience correcting my mistakes. No big deal for me. However, my wife, who is not experienced in this way, also drives this car. With prior Corvettes, I always felt OK with her driving a powerful car, because I knew the systems were there to help her if she got into trouble.

I am sorry to say I have lost that faith completely with the C6. I am not sure if there is a malfunction with the system (I have seen AH coming on occasionally on some of my fast mountain drives, so I know it does "work"), or whether it only intervenes at high speeds.

What I do know is that many others have reported similar incidents, with three others (including a new Z06 owner) not so lucky and crashing their cars. And make no mistake: this IS a problem. I know this because I know what a properly functioning system does (the C5's).

So, C6 owners, DO NOT expect the system to save your butt in these cars. Expect it not to be there when you need it. For my part, I bought a car with a stability control system, which I expect to work just like the one in the prior model, and I will be taking this all the way up the line until I get answers. Not cool, GM

 

Have the dealer check it out.

 

Well stated, and with some good data. I think some of the problem here is that the owner's manual says almost nothing about AH, so it's hard to know what to expect. Does it only work above a certain speed? Are there other qualifiers here?

I might add that I have had similar indications lately - there's been some messy weather around, and I've spun the rear tires pretty well a couple of times without TC doing anything. One of those I definitely had to compensate to avoid banging the rear end into a mailbox. I had a Z28 with TC that would stop the rear tires spinning very quickly - too much so, for my taste. But the main thing is needing to know what's going to happen before it does!

 

When I picked up my Z51 last December, I experienced the same thing. The dealer fixed it(without knowing how they did it) when trying to diagnose the steering column lock issue I was having at the time.

 

This would be a serious safety issue. Hopefully you can report it to an appropriate federal governmental authority as well as through the GM chain.

 

Yes, it is a serious issue and it will get reported. What I am trying to convey, is that other cars may also have this problem.

And yes, the car is definitely going to the dealer, as step one. I will make sure this gets to the NHSTA, one way or another.

 

Very interesting post.

I just open tracked my new C6 Z06 for the first time this weekend, and never had the AH kick in either. I did activate the traction control while accelerating hard in a straight line over bumpy pavement, though.

I thought it didn't intervene because I was such a smooth driver. ;-)

Now I need to go repeat your experiment. I know the C5's setup was much more intrusive.

 

I don't want to minimize your situation, you should get it checked out right away. But your post is a pretty gross generalization. Ok, your car has an issue and I at least appreciate you letting us know about it. But there's over 40,000 C6 owners right now. If you've seen 3 or 4 people having problems similar to yours, or even 20 or 50, does that qualify as "a lot?"

As for what speed it comes on...mine has intervened when turning a 90 degree corner doing 10 to 15 mph. It seems to work at any speed.

 

Well, that was certainly the case on my C5Z. I knew I had smooth inputs when AH (in comp mode) no longer came on...an outcome that usually coincided with a lower laptime.

On my C6, it is just AWOL, period.

To others:
Yes, it happened on my car.
No, that is not normal, which = malfunction, so...
Yes, it is going to the dealer.

That applies to me. What you should be asking yourself after reading this is: "Am I sure my car's TC/AH is functioning properly and, if in doubt, should I have the dealer check it out". You can be sure it is NOT operating properly, if it does not halt a powerslide.

Disclaimer: I am not advocating driving like an idiot on public roads just to see if "it works". If you have not been to driving school and have no competitive driving experience, then please do not test it and just take it to the dealer. The others will know what to do.

 

Autohandling and Traction control?? LMAO, people use those??

 

Let me know how it turns out..my C6 is being repaired due to a expensive spin into a embankment with car in comp mode..no messages or warnings,,definately a problem for some C6 vettes

 

I do know that these stability controls on the C6 are more lenient than the C5 because many people complained about it on the C5. (Which I don't understand because it can be turned off anyway) The C6 will allow some sliding in the fully enabled mode, but my AH kicks in when it gets more severe. So you probably do have a problem with yours.

The thing is, how is the tech at the service department supposed to work on that? What the heck do they know about when AH should kick in, and how would they test it? Maybe you've got a great tech, but I know that if I went to my dealer, they would see no codes, and say that it's fine. Especially since it does come on at some point.

Let us know what happens.

 

Mine has worked at very low speeds. I have tried to power slide it quite a few times with no luck with the AH TC on. Really sounds like there is a problem with yours

 

I agree - I don't expect them to find anything, but I am assuming that; (1) either the module is defective, or (2) one or more sensors are defective. So I expect to have to demand that they replace the whole system, after taking the manager out for a demo drive...

 

The other day I was driving mine in competition mode testing acceleration.

Went to the gas station and after my fill up, I started the car and a warning message popped up:

something like "service active handing or service traction control or traction control inactive...."

I pushed the buttons and have not seen the warning since.

I must say, I've never felt it intervene, ever.....

Howard

 

I wonder the advisability of owning a performance car if ones skills are such that electronic nannies are necessary. In our latigious(sp) society it seems that people do not want to take responsability for their actions and rather blame their lack of skill or judgment on others.
Just my thoughts.

 

I disagree with that statement.

I've owned some of the fastest cars around, but.....

It is nice knowing that if something unexpected happens at a time when those controls are on, it is nice to have a little extra help.

I am definitely not Mario Andretti, but I did pilot a stock Viper except for air filters and Kumho radials to a 11.6@120+ 1/4 mile time, not many people have done that.

The Viper had no traction aids, my 03 Cobra has them, 1/2 the time I have them off (in case I have ot beat some Vette ), and in my Vette I usually use Competion Driving mode for that little margin of extra safety - If it works

Howard

 

What is your point? Aside from the sentence "It is nice knowing..." your post is irrelevant(sp).

 

You also don't know if its sporadic either, I have had it come on when shifting into 2nd at a high rate (it should have as I slightly broke traction),
but I could not tell you of a time when I thought it shoud have and it did not work.

 

True, which it well could be if, say, one sensor was sporadically malfunctioning. Several others on here have already had to have sensors replaced.