Traction Control issue

[NomadMac]

My wife and went up the mountain to see what we could see.

Mt. Tamalpais had 21 inches of rain out of the last storm, so, of course, the roads were slick.
There are a lot of ups and downs and half a dozen times, on downhill hairpins, in low,
the power cut out completely. I realized the second time that it was the traction control. I was very light on the throttle so there was really no reason for the traction control to come on.

I found it very unnerving so I turned the TC off. Or so I thought. The TC-is-off idiot light was illuminated, but the TC light kept flashing in tight, downhill corners and cutting off power accompanied by what sounded like the velocity joint knocking in the right front.

Anybody else experience this?

Oh, and my hatch latch has failed with the package shelf in the up position making it very hard to see when backing up since I can't put it down.

 

[Electricbowtie]

Yes I had very similar issues last week driving windy Bear Creek Road in Santa Cruz mountains. It was a little wet and the car was cutting power to he wheels on many corners while I was going relatively slow. I clicked traction control off and it still continued to flash traction light and cutting power on the sharper turns.

 

[NomadMac]

Thanks for your reply.

I'll talk to my service advisor and see if they can do anything about it. Or kick it back to Chevy. It's truly unnerving and annoying.

 

[Nashco]

Did you turn the stability control off as well? In order to do so, you have to push and hold the traction control button for 5 seconds. I've found that it still does not fully disable (limits power with significant wheel spin) and it turns back on above a certain speed (40?), unfortunately, so some further experimentation is required. I really don't like how the traction control is so quick to cut power and so slow to return it as it's bear to steer consistently in low traction conditions when coupled with the torque steer inherent to the front suspension design.

Bryce

 

[NomadMac]

Did you turn the stability control off as well? In order to do so, you have to push and hold the traction control button for 5 seconds.

Bryce

I did not. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[nozferatu]

Did you turn the stability control off as well? In order to do so, you have to push and hold the traction control button for 5 seconds.

Bryce

I did not. Thanks for the heads up.

Perhaps they need to do a software update on this once they figure out the issue. Looks like a logic problem.

 

[Nashco]

Did you turn the stability control off as well? In order to do so, you have to push and hold the traction control button for 5 seconds.

Bryce

I did not. Thanks for the heads up.

Perhaps they need to do a software update on this once they figure out the issue. Looks like a logic problem.

There is no issue. This is the intended function, as documented in the service manual. Push the button to turn off traction control. Push and hold to turn off the traction AND stability control. Push the button once to return to normal operation. Each state change has an indication on the instrument cluster to tell you what is going on as well.

Bryce

 

[nozferatu]

There is no issue. This is the intended function, as documented in the service manual. Push the button to turn off traction control. Push and hold to turn off the traction AND stability control. Push the button once to return to normal operation. Each state change has an indication on the instrument cluster to tell you what is going on as well.

Bryce

Hey Bryce,

Sorry I should have been clearer...what I meant by software update was that perhaps they can remap the control unit to be A) less sensitive and not kick in so eagerly and B) allow an option to fully turn the thing off.

I suspect these guys...who have tweaked the Spark EV to put out 420 ft-lbs...has had its TC turned off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v2aYpMOn-8

 

[emotodude]

I too have been driving in the wet Santa Cruz mountains recently as I am now commuting to Bonny Doon on a daily basis. I also have discovered the Stabilitrack to be super annoying. I think what some of you are perceiving as "power loss" is actually the SBS actively braking the rear wheels to "help" keep the car pointed where it thinks you want to go. I find it kicks in somewhere about 70% of what I would consider "maximum performance" cornering. By holding down the TC button you can turn it off for a bit, but I'd like to figure out how to turn it off more permanently.

I'd really like to have this figured out before the the REFUEL races

 

[Nashco]

I'd really like to have this figured out before the the REFUEL races

I'm also intending to race my Spark EV and want to "fix" this issue with not being able to completely shut off ABS and ESC for an entire key cycle. Maybe we should work on some tests to carry out and divide and conquer? I've got a few plans already, but two heads are better than one. Let me know if you want to work together on this, or if you've already done some testing of things that don't work and want to share that helps too.

Bryce

 

[NomadMac]

I too have been driving in the wet Santa Cruz mountains recently as I am now commuting to Bonny Doon on a daily basis. I also have discovered the Stabilitrack to be super annoying. I think what some of you are perceiving as "power loss" is actually the SBS actively braking the rear wheels to "help" keep the car pointed where it thinks you want to go. I find it kicks in somewhere about 70% of what I would consider "maximum performance" cornering. By holding down the TC button you can turn it off for a bit, but I'd like to figure out how to turn it off more permanently.

I'd really like to have this figured out before the the REFUEL races

No, this was complete power loss at less at 20% throttle with no response at all from the accelerator.
Completely unresponsive in 10-25 mph corners while driving with my wife, so I was attempting to drive very smoothly.
In low, by the way, if that helps.

 

[Theo]

I've noticed a different, and possibly more disconcerting feature with the traction control in the Spark EVs:

If you're going downhill, are actively braking (foot on the brake pedal), and go over a minor drop in the road (like if you are on an overpass and there is a ~1" drop between the top pavement slab and the road below), then then traction control kicks in and actually disables the brakes for a split second, causing the car to lurch forward as it is momentarily no longer slowed down. I run into this almost daily on my commute and I can't figure out a reason why they would have designed it this way... It has definitely caused me to leave additional room to the car in front of me when braking on non-smooth roads.

 

[nozferatu]

I've noticed a different, and possibly more disconcerting feature with the traction control in the Spark EVs:

If you're going downhill, are actively braking (foot on the brake pedal), and go over a minor drop in the road (like if you are on an overpass and there is a ~1" drop between the top pavement slab and the road below), then then traction control kicks in and actually disables the brakes for a split second, causing the car to lurch forward as it is momentarily no longer slowed down. I run into this almost daily on my commute and I can't figure out a reason why they would have designed it this way... It has definitely caused me to leave additional room to the car in front of me when braking on non-smooth roads.

That is quite disconcerting.

One thing I did notice when I drove the Spark EV on a test drive was that when driving in "L" mode and approaching a full-stop, the car wants to keep pushing forward. It's almost like the brakes feel extremely artificial and hydraulic....much like the feeling you get when you have pumped the brakes a few times on a regular car when the motor isn't running and you suddenly feel like the brake pedal no longer has much effect yet the pedal is getting harder and harder to push down. I had to really push down to stop the damned thing...not good.