DerrickL

Hey guys, I just wanted to share an experience I had recently with my Z06.
I was driving on the highway during a rainy day and the car just completely lost traction. Usually traction control will step in and stop from small wheel slips and I have seen it work in much worse conditions than what I was in. Seriously the system is great at what it does. After I hit the wall, I noticed that my "Electronic Stability Control (ESC) Off Light" was lit (I did not recall it being lit before) This is the one that you have to hold down the button turn it off. Only this light was lit and not the Traction Control light. I parked and assessed the damage which was surprisingly very little. I continued to drive the car home and it seemed like car did not want to stay on the road. At first I contributed it the alignment probably messed up due to the hit, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt like the car feeling like this is what caused me to randomly lose control. After I replace the wheels, I will get the alignment checked and then the Traction Control system just to be safe. I will try to update as I go.

I thought about the possibility that I maybe pressed the TCS/StabiliTrak button down with my elbow for the few seconds to turn everything off, but it seemed unlikely with me driving with both hands on the wheel.

Here's the video
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1UF...ZA9eK7eKzeJ0Pd

TWILLY

Wow, to be honest I was expecting some guy maybe doing some erratic driving but from what I could tell you were taking it pretty easy. Kind of looked like the rear tires hydroplaned. What tires are you running?

Glad you are ok, hopefully the car has minimal damage.

Edit: I just noticed you're from Jacksonville. Small world... Was that on 95 yesterday during that storm? Your'e were lucky that some of the fantastic drivers we have around here weren't tailgating you like they normally do.

subieworx

Tires tires tires.

saleen556

MCK_Z06

If you are on the OEM Cup2's then Im not surprised.
They hydroplane if there is any water standing on the road surface, there is nothing traction/stability/torque management can do if there is no contact between the car and the road.

I have been caught out in a downpour on the Cup2's and had ok traction with weather mode and driving cautiously as long as there was no standing water.
Once I hit any it was like ice every time.

It sucks that that happened though, it looks like it was a "softer impact" so hopefully the damage is just cosmetic.
If you are daily driving on the OEM Z07 tires you should switch to something else for driving in the rain.

EDIT: Oh yeah, maybe you did turn ESC off on accident. It wont say ESC off if it has a problem it will say service ESC on the center screen.

c6txvette

Glad you and your baby are ok man. I had a similar situation last year in my Z but it was dry (not wet) but about 40 degrees on stock summer tires. I was being a total *** tbh and downshifted to run a hellcat with all the nannies off and boy what a mistake that was. I didn't wreck by the grace of God but was all over I45 like a drunk on ice skates lol. I learned to respect weather and summer tires needless to say.

DerrickL

Yeah I am driving on the stock Michelins. I have had a C7 since 2015 as a daily and drove in plenty of rain. I never lost control like this, but I also relied on the traction control a lot I suppose. The tires have great traction in warm dry weather. haha. The only damage is a small scuff that I already have repaired and the two wheels on that side. If anyone know a good place to get a some replacement wheels, I would be grateful for any suggestions.

DerrickL

The entire time I was praying for no one to hit me. If my tires had no traction, there was a good chance people behind me didn't have traction afterwards. Usually you have to worry about the drivers more than the weather in Florida haha.

Zjoe6

You were very lucky I'm glad to see that you came out with minimal damage. After you hit the wall and came across the lanes I was like "no cars, no cars". Very lucky. Also it didn't look like you were accelerating or turning, just cruising along, then that rear end just seemed to come around. Super weird. Had to be hydroplane if it wasn't some weird traction malfunction. I'd see if it threw some codes.

Also as long as you are getting two new wheels, I'd get a good full set of forged ones. It seems like the stock wheels are prone to bending and cracking.

Cubby558

Bill Dearborn

Hard to tell how fast you were driving. It looks like you got into some deeper water and the tires hydroplaned. When you are on the verge of hydroplaning it doesn't take much to cause the car to start sliding on top of the water. Maybe a slight movement on or off the throttle or a slight movement of the steering wheel. One instant you are driving a car and the next you are driving a boat.

If you had been running the PDR it would have captured throttle and steering movements so you could go back and see what caused the initial disturbance. TC only works on the rear wheels and either cuts throttle or applies one or the other brake to send power to the wheel with traction and it doesn't proactively stop a slide since it has to see a difference in wheel speeds to know one or both of the rear wheels lost traction. Stability control can be more proactive since it looks at yaw rate, lateral Gs along with steering wheel inputs and reacts if the car isn't doing what the driver is telling it to do through the steering wheel. However, neither can exceed the laws of physics and when all 4 wheels hydroplane that means the car is riding on a layer of water and the tires aren't touching the ground anymore.

Bill

BooSSted

Why you crusing in the passing lane with no traffic ahead ? Other lanes had traffic with water dissipated already. Stock tires in wet performance are horrid. Glad no one hit you and the car is ok.

BrunoTheMellow

What was the temperature? What kind of michellins? How many miles on them? Sport Cup 2 or Super Sports? Super Sports wouldn't have caused this.

**** Jacksonville, FL? Couldn't be colder than 50*F.

BSSlomovic

Are you sure you didn't nod off?

fleming23

Don't you just love this place.... Glad it was not worse. I expected more ***-hatery when watching video as well. I do agree, get Pilot Super Sports instead of Cup2s if that is what you have installed. You can get 2 replacement wheels for around $1k from forum vendors.

acroy

tires tires tires and

get out of the left lane, I want to pass

X25

I don't think the poster was being rude; you should leave the left lane for passing/faster traffic, and less used lanes, as pointed out, keep more water in. When it rains/snows hard, I always follow the heavily used lanes.

muncie21

My AWD BMW did something similar when there was a noticeable difference between the tread depth of the rear and front tires. In light rain the car felt like it was on ice, because the 'nannies' were activating wheel brakes on individual wheels. Scared the crap out of me, ordered new tires and haven't had this issue since.

bigsapper

Actually, the width of your tires are working against you in that kind of weather. Wide tires are wa more likely to hydroplane than narrow tires.

bc928

Looks like a very smooth road and a bunch of water, and some very wide, low lug profile tires. Water needs somewhere to go. Otherwise it comes nearly a solid. A very slippery solid.