Hey, guys. I have a question about the DSC on my car. I have a 2005 3.0 liter manual with the DSC. This is the fourth winter I have had the car and it is great in the snow. I have Continental Extreme Contact DWS tires on it that are in excellent shape. My question is: when driving in snow if I give a little extra gas just to test out the road conditions I will get the yellow light flashing on the dash when the DSC intervenes. I can feel like the brakes kind of grab and relase and the car kind of jerks a bit until regains traction. At least I think that is what is happening. I can't say I remember that happening in the past, but maybe I am wrong. Is that normal and that is how the system works or is something not right? The light is on just during that "intervention" and then everything is back to normal. It just seems the system seems more intrusive than the past where you could barely tell when it was working and no light on the dash. I even turned off the DSC and noticed an immdiate difference with far less control than when it is on, so it seems that it works behind the scene so to speak. So why then the flashing light sometimes?

 

It's the traction control, unless you turn it off every time the wheel speed sensors sense a rpm discrepance it acuates the brake on that wheel slowing it down,the grinding sound is just that, it's working,same system as ABS just in a different mode.If you get stuck just turn it off on the councel and let er rip, the tires will spin just like a 1970 vintage car and smoke the tires untill you let up.You cant turn off the ABS system even if you wanted to so don't worry about driving with it off(the DSC). The option is for rocking the car out of a stuck situation like we used to do and getting covered in mud/snow when pushing your buddies out.The reason it's doing it more is your tires are four years older,harder,less traction even if they look good!

 

Thanks. I know how the system works, but should the yellow dash light flicker whenever it intervenes? Just seems like sometimes it does light up and sometimes not.

 

Traction control and stability control are two different things. Traction control activates when there is simply wheel spin. This does not warrant the flashing yellow light.

Stability control intervenes when it senses yaw (rotational angle) beyond a specific threshold. So if the car is slipping and moving side to one side. This DOES make the light flash.

 

Thanks for clearing that up for me!