A long 4 seconds....
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 931
Likes: 0
From: Libertyville IL
A long 4 seconds....
So I'm driving home from work last week on 90/94 from Chicago to the burbs last week. There was some sporadic misting rain, but not much. Not long after I pulled out of the garage, I hit a bump and my "Service Active Handling" light came on. "No big deal" I thought. "I really need to get that fixed". I had fixed it once before, but now need the second tier fix, apparently. So, somewhere in the back of my mind, I was wondering "is that just a false error message, or is active handling really turned off? Hmm...." but the thought passed and on I drove.
I was in 4th gear going around 60mph, when some traffic opened up and I wanted to catch up to the guy in front of me. Well, I stepped on the gas, and in about .5 seconds, my rear end was half way into the lane to the right of me, and my car is skewed about 35 degrees from straight. Man, it happened fast. I turned to the right to try to straighten out the car...time was all the sudden moving quite slowly. The semi behind me didn't help calm me down one bit.
Well, to make a short story shorter, after instantly letting off the gas and adjusting my steering, the car straightened out withoug whipsawing the other way, and I was safe. The whole thing from start to finish took about 4 seconds, but was quite a wake-up for me.
So, the lesson here is twofold...1) be VERY careful getting on the gas on wet pavement, even at higher speeds and lower RPMs; and 2) when "Service Active Handling" light is on, THAT MEANS IT ISNT WORKING.
I was in 4th gear going around 60mph, when some traffic opened up and I wanted to catch up to the guy in front of me. Well, I stepped on the gas, and in about .5 seconds, my rear end was half way into the lane to the right of me, and my car is skewed about 35 degrees from straight. Man, it happened fast. I turned to the right to try to straighten out the car...time was all the sudden moving quite slowly. The semi behind me didn't help calm me down one bit.
Well, to make a short story shorter, after instantly letting off the gas and adjusting my steering, the car straightened out withoug whipsawing the other way, and I was safe. The whole thing from start to finish took about 4 seconds, but was quite a wake-up for me.
So, the lesson here is twofold...1) be VERY careful getting on the gas on wet pavement, even at higher speeds and lower RPMs; and 2) when "Service Active Handling" light is on, THAT MEANS IT ISNT WORKING.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 2,015
Likes: 1
From: Deerfield beach Fl
Did something similar years ago with my mustang, had the thing sliding sideways on the road as we came up to traffic and had to hit the brakes on the interstate. Scared the crap out of me and my friend, we were grabbing our seatbelts as it happened. All of probably 2 seconds or so and felt like 5 minutes.
So I'm driving home from work last week on 90/94 from Chicago to the burbs last week. There was some sporadic misting rain, but not much. Not long after I pulled out of the garage, I hit a bump and my "Service Active Handling" light came on. "No big deal" I thought. "I really need to get that fixed". I had fixed it once before, but now need the second tier fix, apparently. So, somewhere in the back of my mind, I was wondering "is that just a false error message, or is active handling really turned off? Hmm...." but the thought passed and on I drove.
I was in 4th gear going around 60mph, when some traffic opened up and I wanted to catch up to the guy in front of me. Well, I stepped on the gas, and in about .5 seconds, my rear end was half way into the lane to the right of me, and my car is skewed about 35 degrees from straight. Man, it happened fast. I turned to the right to try to straighten out the car...time was all the sudden moving quite slowly. The semi behind me didn't help calm me down one bit.
Well, to make a short story shorter, after instantly letting off the gas and adjusting my steering, the car straightened out withoug whipsawing the other way, and I was safe. The whole thing from start to finish took about 4 seconds, but was quite a wake-up for me.
So, the lesson here is twofold...1) be VERY careful getting on the gas on wet pavement, even at higher speeds and lower RPMs; and 2) when "Service Active Handling" light is on, THAT MEANS IT ISNT WORKING.
I was in 4th gear going around 60mph, when some traffic opened up and I wanted to catch up to the guy in front of me. Well, I stepped on the gas, and in about .5 seconds, my rear end was half way into the lane to the right of me, and my car is skewed about 35 degrees from straight. Man, it happened fast. I turned to the right to try to straighten out the car...time was all the sudden moving quite slowly. The semi behind me didn't help calm me down one bit.
Well, to make a short story shorter, after instantly letting off the gas and adjusting my steering, the car straightened out withoug whipsawing the other way, and I was safe. The whole thing from start to finish took about 4 seconds, but was quite a wake-up for me.
So, the lesson here is twofold...1) be VERY careful getting on the gas on wet pavement, even at higher speeds and lower RPMs; and 2) when "Service Active Handling" light is on, THAT MEANS IT ISNT WORKING.
