Traction Control

Levismith,

This is not just a problem in severe conditions. It happens in 70deg temps on perfectly dry pavement as well. Make a right turn out of a parking lot and try to accelerate to match traffic speed and oops, traction control kicked in and now you're a sitting duck.

 

I'm not going to argue that the system couldn't be better/faster at reacting, but I don't consider it a problem. I think it's only ever done what you've described once or twice to me and I'm on nearly bald tires at the moment. (nor at any time did I feel I was going to get hit by traffic) But maybe that's just cause I know that the tires will spin if I floor it when cutting the corner sharp and I don't like to do that with any car I'm driving...(which would normally result in squealing) Hence I don't generally floor it. Light-medium pedal and increase quickly to floor if desired thereafter.

Levi

 

I understand where you are coming from Levi and I do not wish to argue the point. I drive a 2005 Prius which was one of the worst models suffering from this problem so maybe I am just sensitive to the issue which for me is a problem.

 

Disable at own risk!

Prius Gen 1

1: With car off in park Depress brake pedel with right foot and hold throuout operation.

2: Turn key to on position but don't start.

3: Depress fully and release accellerator pedel two times.

4: Shift shift lever to neutral position and depress fully and release accellerator pedel two times.

5: Shift shift lever back to park position and depress fully and release accellerator pedel two times.

6: Display will change to three icon main battery, P.S., car with the car symbol
blinking showing the traction control disable mode engauged.

7: turn key to start car.




Prius Gen 2


1: With car off in park and foot off brake pedel depress the start switch two times to turn car on but not started.

2: Depress brake pedel with right foot and hold throuout operation.

3: Depress fully and release accellerator pedel two times.

4: Shift shift lever to drive forward position to shift car to neutral then depress fully and release accellerator pedel two times.

5: Push park button to shift car back to park position then depress fully and release accellerator pedel two times.

6: Display will change to blank display with "Trouble" for a few seconds then change to only have car symbol in
upper left position showing the traction control disable mode engauged.

7: Push start button to start car.

 

I have been scanning the forums re Traction Control and pleased to see that the loss of power I've experienced with our 07 is not my imagination. Ice and snow or gravel is not our problem. Not even sand. We have lost power driving over railroad tracks and, when accelerating into traffic, the white lines painted on the road will even activate the traction control. This is a problem. However, we really love the Prius and if this, and the splash guard, are our only problems, its not enough to offset the benefits of this great car.

 

What do you suggest as a decent OEM tire replacement?

 

I have used both Micheline MXV4+ Energy tires (now Primacy) and Nokian WRg2 tires. They are both good all-season tires. I like the Nokian a bit better, as they have better traction in rain and snow. Both types were in the stock size.

If you don't need mud and snow tires, there are other options. There are a number of other threads devoted to this topic.

Tom

 

I've also used both the MXV4+ and the Nokians (WRs and WRg2s) in my 190k miles of Prius driving. The Nokians are great!

JeffD

 

Was going to post a new thread, but found my answers in here (Still reading).

Here's still the thread I almost posted:

Hello, short time owner of the Prius, (one month) but had two occasions where I had the traction control or stability control kick in and I found it to be very intrusive. It simply seemed to suck away all power close to leaving me stranded...

Once was me doing a(n illegal) U-turn because I tried to avoid an open draw bridge (so Burt Reynolds don't get hurt... Sorry, childhood memories kicking in...) through some mud. I was scared it would simply cut all power and leave me stranded .

Second time was even more insane: speedbump taken at an angle with moderate speed. No cause for any interference with any car I have ever owned, but the Prius acted as if I was driving like Colt Seavers in his GMC (second reference ). Again it close to stalled the car (or so it felt to me as a novice Prius driver).

Anyone else find the interference far more intrusive than they are used to in other cars? (Or even my 1994 motorcycle with traction control for that matter?)

 

Pretty much everyone else finds the interference more intrusive than other cars. This is because other cars use an entirely different drive system and transmission. HSD on the Prius comes with some compromises. Toyota did a pretty good job minimizing the compromises, but some are still obvious.

Tom

 

Reviving form the dead! Something I find very interesting is the the ford escape hybrid (same set up as the gen 1 prius) doesn't have traction control, at least the 2007 base model my brothers has. You can spin the tires like crazy in the grass or gravel with the ICE still turned off. I even smoked the tires once while making a hard right turn and punching the throttle.

So what do ya'll think of this? Why doesn't that hybrid protect its power split device? Because I fully understand why the prius has such sensitive TC

 

guys, this has nothing to do with traction control, traction control software, or traction control hardware. What you are experiencing is over speed protection. The large electric motors could conceivably destroy themselves according to electrical engineering theory if the motors are allowed to spin freely beyond their maximum speed. In order to combat this isa quarter second and pound the gas you should immediately let off the gas for just a quarter second and pound the gas again. If you are good at it, you can feather the throttle while exiting and experience minimal to no overspeed protection. You just have to get to know your car.

It used to bother me a lot when i was first getting used to the car, but now i am very good at predicting and minimizing or eliminating it. What still bugs me, though, is they could have written what i do to avoid it right into the firmware.

~ dan ~

 

PS - this is all spelled out in your operating manual.

 

This is not as you stated. While there is the possibility of over speeding mg1 "the smaller of the two mg's" mg2 turns at a rate fixed by wheel speed or mph. So the spinning wheels would have to be going faster than 112 mph to over speed mg2, and the electrical drive frequency to the motor is limited to that speed. They are effectively 3 phase ac synchronous motors.
If the engine is turning to drive mg2 at 112 mph mg1 is within it's safe working speed range. In fact mg1 could be going backwards at less than 1000 rpm depending on engine speed at 112 mph with a safe speed of 6500 rpm.
If the engine is not running mg1 could be over sped if the wheel speed goes over 41 mph. Even under these conditions there must be a safety margin built into the design of the car to allow the mg's some over speed capability.
I regularly let the car run at 50 mph without the engine running taking mg1 20% higher in speed than it would normally done by the cars systems. This also happens when the cars are converted in some systems to EV's.
Further mg1 must be protected from inertial shock to a large degree by the torque limiter built into the engine flywheel.
As I see it the weakest link in the transmission is the item with the most links "the drive chain". Since this by it's nature must have some backlash and be prone to breakage under shock loads. However I have not seen any reports of a chain breaking.

John (Britprius)