It was raining a little and I think it's the first time I've driven the car in the rain. A couple of times, as I was starting up from a stop at a light, I felt a slight skid and the orange "skip indicator light" (car with skid marks) came on briefly. I looked through the menu to try and find out what this means. It gave the the name of the light, but no explanation at all. What does it mean? Is there something I was doing wrong? I wasn't exactly gunning it. Just trying to start up again from a full stop.
Nothing you did wrong. The traction control on the Prius is a bit sensitive and that tends to activate even more frequently than it otherwise would thanks to the poor traction characteristics of the OEM Integrity tires. The Traction control is designed to prevent overspinning of the PSD which could damage it.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tumbleweed @ Aug 20 2006, 04:27 PM) [snapback]306337[/snapback]</div> <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Aug 20 2006, 04:46 PM) [snapback]306347[/snapback]</div> Okay, thanks for the information. I'm glad I'm not doing anything wong. It got me a little scared when the little orange light came on! As I said, I couldn't find anything about it in the manual (not "menu", which I had written previously) but I knew I could depend on someone in PC to tell me what's what!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RichBoy @ Aug 20 2006, 10:05 PM) [snapback]306476[/snapback]</div> I don't have VSC with my package. What does the traction control actually do?
you may not have VSC but ALL Priuses have TRAC which is traction control. traction control senses the rotational speed of the 4 wheels and when one wheel's rotation increases, less power is directed to the wheel (or is braked) enabling more power to be transfered to the wheels that are rotating slower (the wheels that have traction)
I see the little orange traction control rectangle come on when I'm accellerating or braking on a road that's particularly rough (ie: is begging to be repaved), or going through a pot hole, on almost a daily basis no thanks to some of the crappy surface streets around here. It's like the car senses that one or more tires isn't fully gripping the road, but quickly rights itself so I can keep driving safely. It's also come on a few times when braking on a rain-soaked roadway. No worries!
