I was delighted that my Camry SE had a button to turn it off. Snow, hills, ice in the winter. I tested it many times, and consistently got the answer I already knew, the button stays off when I need to go forward. Funny how I didn't think about that when I bought my v (lowercase v). I remember when Toyota had a 4Runner without the button, and those people stuck on ice were furious. I found this arcane way to disable: How to Disable Prius Traction Control - CarsDirect
Step 5 lost me, "turn the ignition switch" there isn't one on the Prius and "without going back to the ready position, to start the engine" AFAIK the engine will only start if in Ready mode ???
I haven't tried it yet, and maybe won't until someone else does LOL So far, this car with the new snows appears to have excellent traction. But I've not hit the real nasty stuff yet, like a slight incline of ice or heavier snow. I remember with my Camry SE the button turned out to be a godsend in those conditions.
The article suffers a major omission: to which Prius generation does this method apply? From past threads here in PC (I'll let someone else find the links, as I won't disable TC), GenII and GenIII have different paths to disable TC.
The Prius has a very aggressive traction control. First noticed it on my 2004. Because of the electric motor, the Prius has a lot of torque at low speed. If the wheels loose traction (easy to do with the extra torque), the possibility of over speeding the electric motor may cause the motor to "shed parts". The aggressive traction control will prevent that. It can be a problem in snow and ice conditions.
Here is the traction control thread from the last time it reared it's ugly head; Disabling traction control | PriusChat I got the procedure to work but have never had to use it here in snowy Syracuse NY. Enjoy.
