Disable Traction Control for winter situations?

no, just the message on the display said "Maintenance Mode". When I reset the car, it was no longer a problem. When you are in maintenance mode the message will come back back if you change screens.

 

Got it and thanks for the clarification. I have a print off of the procedure in my glove compartment and with all the snow we received over the part few days here on the East Coast I thought I might actually need it. I went out several times during the storm and to my amazment ( with more than 36in of snow in places) the car plowed through it all. I have studded 185/65 15 winter tires and they did amazingly. Even with icy snow covered inclines, it powered it's way up hills where other cars were stuck in their tracks. With the right tires this car is as good itf not better than other cars I have owned for winter driving, minus several 4wd I have had over the years. In fact I traded my 2011 Rav4 AWD for this car and I think the RAV4 with all season tires may not have been as good as this car in the snow. The only real thing that might stop it would be ground clearances and in particlular wet, deep, heavy snow. The lighter snow, even snow that exceeded the ground clearance of the car, was not a problem.

 

I can concur the "maintenance mode" and that it disables at least the traction & stability control.

Key On [not ready]
two gas pedal stomps in Park
two stomps in Neutral
two stomps in Park
"Maintenance mode" appears on LCD
Start car and proceed with the freedom to roast your tires and do reverse donuts in a snowy parking lot.

My only wish is the LCD would let me stay on certain screens and not constantly message "Maintenance Mode". Thankfully you only "need" to do this every blue moon and not all the time [unless you live in mega-snow-land].

 

After getting off the icy road, How do I TURN OFF the MAINTENACE MODE & go back [re-set] it to the traction/stability control factory setting ?

 

Turn the car off and back on again. This "should" reset it back to normal.

 

Are you guys sure there is not a wire to cut or a fuse to pull?? To disable this worthless feature? I have almost been t-boned twice once when wet and running over a painted line and the other time a rough road caused it to engage!
I am 65yrs old and have 3.5 million miles without t-control and anti lock. On many different vehicles.

 

Snow tires make all the difference, but having the option to disable traction control is also important. Since I live in a four season climate that gets snow for 3 months a year, I'll be sure to test out how the Prius C operates next winter.

 

Thanks for your answer; it works.

 

I think it you permanently disable it, you run the risk of overheating the drivetrain cooling system/pump. I think this is one of the reasons that it's not so simple to override the traction control.

 

we have disengaged TC numerous times and of course only get 'maintenance mode' instead of 'icar' displayed but every time we turned the engine off after using no TC and the system cleraed ityself. We could not have the TC remain disengaged after turning the engine off. So if you want to hold disengage TC don't turn the engine off.

 

I used this secret handshake all through last winter. It's a bit cumbersome to stop and put into play so I would put it into play at the beginning of the trip, and back if required.

I haven't noticed anything different while using this for a while other than perhaps some increased fuel consumption.

 

Please be advised that the TC should not be disabled on a Prius, even in an emergency. When the TC is off, the torque from the electric motor can damage the Hybrid Synergy Drive. TC prevents that from happening!

Prius Traction Control Complaints on the Rise

Toyota Can't Get a Grip on the Problem

04/20/2007 | ConsumerAffairs
By Joe Benton
Toyota is unable to modify the troublesome Prius traction control system without placing the vehicle's sophisticated hybrid drive system in jeopardy, according to a Toyota service technician familiar with the Prius problem.
In a mountainous or snowy areas, the little car can be more than just difficult, Prius owners complain.
"I live in the mountains, up steep hills and dirt roads. I consider the slippage problem with the shutting down of power to the wheels just when you need more not less traction to be a very serious problem and a potentially life-threatening design flaw," a New England Prius owner told ConsumerAffairs.com.
A Toyota representative told the Vermont hybrid driver that the system was "operating the way it's supposed to."
"It became clear that they were resistant to accepting that operating the way it was supposed to was the problem," the owner told ConsumerAffairs.com.
The hybrid's traction control system is managed by a computer program and several Toyota technicians have reportedly asked the automaker to modify the software to allow for more wheel spin before shutting the drive line down.
So far Toyota has apparently refused to provide for the modification.
Toyota spokesman Bill Kwon told ConsumerAffairs.com previously that the traction control system in the Prius could impact performance in snowy conditions but he has insisted the slippage was not a safety problem.
"Prius has TRAC (traction control) as standard equipment," Kwon said. "The purpose of traction control is to help prevent wheel spin and minimize slippage of the drive wheels by applying brakes and/or reducing engine power."
Others familiar with the traction issue in the Prius suggest the Toyota concern is for the safety and reliability of the hybrid system, especially the front axle in particular.
They suggest that Toyota engineers are concerned that if the traction control is turned off or modified, the hybrid system will produce so much torque in the Prius that wheel spin would lead quickly to broken axles and even wheels coming off.
One Prius owner was recently told that this is the reason "Toyota is reluctant at this point to allow for even a moderate amount of more spin by changing the Prius traction control computer program."
Currently the Prius system allows for no wheel spin at all and Toyota continues to brush off consumer complaints about the traction control system.
Several Prius owners have reported to ConsumerAffairs.com that they have warned Toyota of the tentative traction control system in the hybrid.
"Fundamentally Flawed"

"This system is fundamentally flawed in a way that could put people's lives at risk and poses dangers in environments like mine where navigating fresh slippery snow and steep inclines are a necessity," our New England reader said.
The Toyota statement that the Prius traction control system is "working as it was designed" has left more than one Prius owner feeling that the system is operating as designed to "protect the safety of the car not the safety of the driver or passengers."
Recently a Prius owner told ConsumerAffairs.com that he thinks Toyota has created "a potentially life-threatening danger for driver and passengers by preventing the driver from being able to exercise control over the vehicle under hazardous conditions."
Our Plainfield, Vermont, Prius owner is continuing to press Toyota for answers.
"I questioned them regarding whether an override switch was available and learned it wasn't and later saw that this is the solution that others had suggested."
Driving a Prius in snowy conditions takes a lot of getting used to. "I did find in a recent snowstorm that I was able to make it up a friends very steep road (just barely) crawling at about 3 or 4 miles per hour at best," he wrote.
"I do see that it's possible to drive this car differently, flooring the gas peddle to barely crawl and have it work but it was so touch-and-go and had another car been coming (up or down) I wouldn't have been able to move out of the way and probably couldn't have restarted with no momentum from a standstill," he wrote.
Our New England Prius owner has reluctantly concluded that, "it is completely clear that I am unable to trust my Prius in serious snow conditions and I now choose not to drive it whenever possible in fresh snow."
"Yesterday, I was not even able to get the car to move more than a few inches in reverse on my almost entirely flat driveway over just a few inches of fresh, wet snow, even when there was no snow under the car itself," he wrote.
On the other side of the country in Redwood City, California, yet another Prius owner has experienced the same traction control problems with a 2007 Prius.
"The traction control has proven to be very troublesome. If a bump in the road on a hill causes a wheel to bounce the traction control cuts all power and brings the car to a standstill," Ralph wrote ConsumerAffairs.com.
"This makes some roads and driveways passable to all other cars impassable to the Prius. This is a defect and can cause the car to become stuck very easily," he told us.

 

As an engineer familiar with traction control programing (I said familiar, not approving) though not specifically with Toyotas I see the value of traction control for the inexperienced driver. Applying part brakes and limiting power is the base line on control in slippery conditions. I dougt Toyotas TC program is much different from other manufacturers. Buty TC is programmed for limiting tire slippage and thats only a baseline condition and certainly not all the conditions that must be met when the going gets slippery..
Any experienced driver can do better than those programmed TC procedures simply because the actual incident conditions vary much more than the 'assigned' conditions the program deals with.
In high performance driving schools you rarely find TC activated; its necessary for drivers to learn how to control their vehicle at the edge of traction without putting up with inept things that programmed responses to tire slippage perform when tire slippage is often useful at full tilt driving..
In many years instructing and with fellow iunstructors teaching classes uo to 110 studentsI do not recall ever seeikng a driver incapating his vehicle. That covers 15 years and probably more than 5000 students in 5 driving school programs.
If you break an axle its more likely the wheels dropped from freely spinning to abrupt halt when it contacted full traction on the ground.In that case TC will limit the free wheeling rotation and thus reduce the shock but by no means can absolutely prevent the axle fracturing which completely incapacitates that vehicle. Just as the instruction for high speed driving, there are proper techniques and methods to get the vehicle moving without tearing up the transmission, axles, and tires when nothing is applied but raw power. Which rarely works, anyway.
Just like on a racetrack. In short, it ain't the programmed TC, its the unprogrammed driver that's the problem. There is a place for using TC and a place to turn it off and what to do with either that's the solution.
Cheers.

 

I agree with everything you said, except when it comes to a Toyota Hybrid System. The Tranction Control benefits the driver, but more importantly, on a Prius, it protects the Transaxle. The torque from the electric motor is greater than the components in the transaxle can handle and severe damage can occur if TC is turned off and the driver exceeds the threshold those parts can withstand. A Gen II drivetrain is especially vulnerable.

 

If I have to remember all this the prius C will stay in the garage when it snows. I'll use my other car with a T/C defeat button.

 

I've had my Gen 3 since 2009, and only needed it once.

 

The CV joints in theaxles are most vulerable to breakage when the wheels suffer an aburpt change fro spinning to fixed on the road. It does disable a vehicle when that happens unless its equipped with a limited slip diferentiasl.
Braking a spinning wheel does not mean you will come to a halt; in fact braking the spinning wheel results in m more power to the other wheel which may be presumed to have traction. Its the cheap limited slip differential.
If one wheel has no traction its unlikely for the feathering of the throttle to avoid tire slip if the TC does not clamp down on the spinng wheel but featering may assist you in establishing traction on the un spinning wheel. It is delicate however. In truth, in your example keeping TC will be more helpful than no TC which lets the wheelk mspin freely and refuses power to the other wheel thru an open diffentia.
The key if first to do what you can to have tration and smoothly and gently take up the throttle. While putting a mat under the wheel wiothout traction is a good start, making sure the chassis isn't dragging te ground is next best. Its all part of programming the driver.
And for the person that thinks the computer should be programmed to address any case, that would add severe costs - and space - to the car.; almost needing a supercomputer.

 

Obviously he has not tested tires. There's no guarantee but snow tires would improve chances of success greatly. Summer tirtes are virtually worthless in cold weather and cold rain and snow. The difference in rubber compounds is the reason. There are rubber compounds that literally 'stick' to snow and some that grab wet surfaces but summer tires adhere to dry, hot surfaces and they don't switch places.

 

I am a Toyota Master Technician with over eleven years experience with Toyota, and over 23 years experience as an auto mechanic. The maintenance mode you described is the mode we put a hybrid into when we need to have a hybrid's engine run all the time, like when bleeding the cooling system or doing an emissions inspection. In maintenance mode the engine will never shut off and the traction control is disabled. The Toyota instructor that teaches us the factory training warned us to NEVER drive a hybrid while in maintenance mode as severe damage to the transaxle can result. He also advised us that if a hybrid is driven in maintenance mode and the transaxle is damaged Toyota will not participate in the repair. In other words, the warranty is voided by driving in maintenance mode. There is no way to bring it in and deny you damaged the transaxle while in maintenance mode either. Newer vehicles will set permanent codes that can only be erased by driving the vehicle, they cannot by erased by a scan tool or disconnecting the battery. The VIN is written into the PCM and is automatically pulled up by a scan tool. The scan tools Toyota dealers use (Techstream) automatically send all codes and freeze frame data to Toyota without the technician doing anything. There is no getting around it. Any internal damage to a hybrid transaxle will cause a code to set. If you damage your transaxle by driving it while in maintenance mode and bring it to the dealer for warranty repair the scan tool the dealer uses will automatically inform Toyota that the damage occurred while it was in maintenance mode and your warranty claim will be denied. If you drive your Prius in maintenance mode consider yourself warned.

 

brownm23, please explain what damage would be done and how that damage could occur when a body puts the Prius in maintenance mode.

Would simply driving across a parking lot damage it? Driving normally across town? What type of tire slippage or grippage would damage a transmission?

Have you ever seen this damage occur or been a part of the repair process. If so, describe it.

Thank you.