I've had plenty of cars with traction control but this is a first. I brushed it off but in hindsight, want to make sure it's nothing. Last friday I left out on my commute and immediately had the traction control randomly kicking in, grabbing seemingly randomly at different wheels. My first thought was to turn off the traction control. That worked. Then, I gave a good push on the brakes, since I figured it must be rust. I turned TCS back on and it never happened again. I'd washed my car the day before and it's been VERY humid here. I'm assuming it was just rust on the discs interfering w/ the speed sensors??? It's not happened since.

 

I'm calling BS on the rust theory. My last 5.0 was parked in the weather for 14 days a month for 3 years and there was plenty rust on the rotors when I took off in it. No TCS problems.

 

Lol no need to call "BS." Just throwing it out there as it's the only thing I can think of. Whatever it was, it was cured by an application of the brakes and hasn't recurred. So no clue...

 

Mine has done this 3 times since I owned the car. It's very hard to replicate. All mine have been triggered by turning left. There is a thread on this in the warranty and service section.

 

Oh you are kidding! Mine started right after I turned left out of my driveway, lol!!!

 

Definitely not rotor rust. Your speed sensors are mounted behind the rotor, so the surface rust on the rotor has nothing to do with the sensor.

Also, TCS kicks in when one (or 2) wheel speed sensors read higher than expected speed, indicating that the wheels are driven into power slip. TCS than applies the brakes on those wheels to bring the speed back to "reference", which is the average of the non driven wheels for most situations.

Thirdly, when you say "random wheels" you mean either one of the rear wheels? TCS would only activate on the back axle since that's where the power goes on our cars. If you felt brake hits on the front it was not TCS, but either ABS, or if you weren't braking, VDC.

 

When I say random wheels, I mean it just felt like it was sort of pulsing from side to side in no discernible pattern.

W/ regard to how TCS kicks in, I realize this, I just didn't know if excessive rust impacted the signal the sensors picked up or not. Just a guess since these discs seem much more eager to rust than any I've dealt with in recent memory. Perhaps it's something completely unrelated though. I was really just throwing this out there to see if anyone else had the problem, if it's serious, or if there's a solution or fix.

 

Hmm, did you jump into the car, fire it up and take off really quick (in terms of time between IG on and driveoff)? Also, did you drive straight for a few second before this happened?

The side to side to side pulsing is making me think this was a VDC intervention. The reason I'm asking is because steering angle and yaw rate and the key inputs for VDC

 

Yes and no. Basically, I was leaving for work. My avatar is a pic of my car about 15 feet from the entrance to my garage. I back out maybe a car length further, then take off down the driveway for say a couple hundred feet. But it was after I'd then pulled out onto the street in front of my house that this happened. And it wasn't going away as my speed increased. So maybe after 5-10 seconds I flicked off traction control. I'd probably gotten up to at least 30-35 by that point?

 

Hi bkrell,

Have you addressed this with your dealer? I’d also like to get this escalated to the customer service manager for your area if needed. Please, PM me with your VIN, dealer, mileage, full name, and best daytime number.

Deysha

 

I've had it happen once. Immediately after filling up, making two hard right turns, then light acceleration. There was a huge thread on another site, maybe here. I've never seen anyone mention the fix. If they are lucky the dealer puts a data recorder in to try to catch it. But as infrequently as it happens, the odds of them catching is a long shot at best. If this many people have had it happen it seems it must be the same thing.

 

Mines happened 3 times in two years. One was turning left on a bumpy road, one was accelerating onto the freeway, not a smooth on ramp, and the other was just starting to turn onto a freeway on ramp. I'm not sure if it was a right or left turn.

On all three, I swore that I had a front flat. I pull over, expecting to see a flat, and nothing. I start back up and it's fine.

I won't take to the stealer until it get's worse. This is the only problem I've had by the way.

 

Rust would not cause this to happen.

 

I have had the same thing happen on 3 different occasions, all 3 happened while going straight under moderate but not hard acceleration, Dry roads although it had rained earlier on 2 of the times and the other was just after washing the car. On all three occasions the TC light was flashing and it was trying to make steering corrections, it was not just the rear brakes coming on and throttle loss for traction control.
After all the trouble to find the Problem of one of the people on AFM with the flight data recorder and various trips to the dealer I cleaned out the front sensors on both wheels and it has not done it since. I also clean them regularly by blowing out dust and debris when I take off the wheels to clean the insides of them.

 

The same thing happened to me about a week ago. Tons of rain. Once I left work, I turned left also. That's when it happened. I drove about half a mile as it stopped by then, got out to look at the wheels and under the car but nothing seemed wrong. No problems since either.

 

2 of the times were after a right turn, but over an 1/8 mile down the road, the other was after a left, but more than 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile down the road after slowing down and accelerating when someone turned left on the 2 lane.

 

Have you guys addressed this with your dealers? If not, I’d like for you to make appointments, and let me get this escalated to the customer service manager for your areas. Please PM me with your VIN, dealer, mileage, full name, and best daytime number.

Deysha