Ive often wondered this as it seems to allow a lot of latitude in both wheel spin and slide.

None more so than this morning when on cold pirellis I turned onto a freeway on ramp in a moderately but not outrageously spirited fashion and went into a spectacular Jeremy Clarkson style sideways power slide with no apparent intervention from the electronic nannies at all. Fortunately I had clear space and no harm was none other than raising the morning adrenaline levels significantly.

Is this normal? There are and never have been any error messages etc, and I never deliberately turn it off.

 

Well, the obvious question is this :despite the fact that you never deliberately turn it off, was the light on the switch illuminated? In other words, could you have hit it in error at some point?
Otherwise, we have to blame those Pirelli PZero tires - and that is easy to do. Is this list causing a world-wide shortage of the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S? I will be putting on a set as soon as I can justify it.

 

I have noticed the same on the stock P-Zeros when cold (RWD R). I use the speed limiter in towns (so no more than 30mph) and gentle acceleration out of a roundabout or T junction can easily push the back out just as you straighten it up. No apparent intervention of the DSC (no light flashing). I've never slid out more than 30cm/a foot or so in those scenarios. If I deliberately try and slide the rear out I can get about 1 meter/a yard at most before the DSC slaps my hands, sometimes much sooner, depending on the forces being detected. (Normal DSC not TracDSC mode.)

If the outside temp reads less than 8C I've adapted to taking all slow speed corners while coasting as the slightest acceleration that would be fine normally can unpredictably produce lateral movement. It won't do it every time, probably no more than 1 in 100 times, but it is unpredictable. Fun when you have the whole road and it is deliberate, but not so much during rush hour with an HGV along side you.

 

No the light was not on. Yes definitely need to change tyres but even so I would have thought loss of traction and lateral movement should trigger the DSC

 

I don't think my TC works at all.

In the wet, I can get wheel hop in full DSC mode. The dealer gave me the "well, Jag sets the car up so you can have some fun" line, but... the purpose of TC is to eliminate or virtually eliminate wheel spin. Mine doesn't.

 

Sounds like it is not just me. I once did a full 360 on wet cold pirellis with a completely reasonable acceleration on a turn. Might be that the total loss of traction was unrecoverable even with DSC but still seems less than ideal. I get the fun factor but what you want is predictability and what I am finding is that it is really very unpredictable. I think they need a nanny mode for our pre coffee morning commute. An on road fun mode which is probably similar or slighty more predictable than the current and then the TRAC/Off mode.

Definitely need to get some Michelins

 

It seems the Michelins are the way to go. I am definitely looking for them as well the P-Zeros on F - Types are not good match. I have slide outs but only merely before DSC kicks in.

 

Odd; I find that my DCS interferes very early which is why I often drive in track mode or with DCS off if I'm going to be wringing it out.

Dave

 

+1.

 

Additionally I believe rain / snow mode will change dsc thresholds and throttle mapping and abs threshold

 

Are you in Dynamic mode when you are seeing the observations?

I will say that the DCS seems quite interesting (at least in Dynamic mode). I leave it on when I drive the car on the track. It's not a race car and I'm not going for a time trial competition so no need to take off. Anyway, I notice the system allows me to slide the car into and in the middle of a corner. It kicks on when I power out of a corner so it definitely seems to focused on wheel slippage from acceleration.

 

Yes often in dynamic mode.

 

It seems to me that the yaw sensors are the ones that cut power dramatically, where the traction control just makes the engine feel weak... I haven't noticed any difference in TC between Sport, Drive, DSC or TracDSC. However, I can slide the car (2017 Base Auto) much more with TracDSC than DSC.

 

I'm not sure how a car could detect slippage apart from tracking delta between the four wheels... If you're sliding sideways, but all four wheels are still spinning at the same or almost the same speed, how would it know?

 

Accelerometers.

 

From my experience the DSC allows a lot of sliding when you are off the power like driving downhill on a mountain road in slippery conditions. Under power it seems to intervene quite early in regular mode.

 

Keep in mind that Dynamic mode is also made to allow for more control of the car. They don't call it "track mode" like some other manufacturers but it's a similar concept.

Cars do it today. There are many ways to do it. As DJS mentioned, accelerometers (yaw and lateral), there is also the steering input that is analyzed and compared to what the car is doing, and those are also tied into the various traction control mechanisms as well.

 

We do have TracDSC mode, though (DSC/TracDSC/DSC Off).

 

So have changed tyres to Michelin Pilot 4S and the difference is night and day, still not convinced the DSC is fully operational but the car is 1000% more stable with the P Zeros gone.

 

That matches my experience and the experience of most owners who have expressed their opinion on Pilot sport 4S Vs P zero