I'm a little sketchy on how to use / or not use ASC on my 98 XK8.

Are there any benefits to turning off for everyday driving in dry conditions?

Can someone explain what exactly happens when it's off?

 

Just leave it alone in the on position and forget about it. Turning it off will only possibly help if you get stuck in mud or realy want to destroy your car and try drifting it!

 

+1

Those who have the experience & skill (not me) and take their cars to the track turn it off. The rest of us mortals leave it on. Just think of it as, "DO NOT TOUCH THE RED BUTTON"!

 

The only reason to turn it off is if you have an old set of tyres and you fancy doing some donuts in the supermarket car park.

 

I turn mine off if I have to make the quickest left turn across oncoming traffic. If it is on, the slightest loss of traction will slow you down intentionally.

John

 

[Epitaph]

"Yes officer, a friend told me to turn it off if I wanted to cut in front of on coming traffic".

Comment to EMS attendant: "Guess it didn't work, did it" !!!!! "Uh, would you put my left leg over here where I can see it"???


Cheers

 

LOL

 

I was on the 330+ mile drive home after I had purchased my car in Seattle. Once I had gotten away from the city and outlying areas to the Pass, there was only little to no traffic, and I had a chance to really get a look around the dash of my new car and started pushing buttons. When I saw the Dynamic Stability Control button was not lit, I pushed it to turn it on, or so I thought, I was really turning it off and was unaware that when lit, the system is disabled.

My new car at this time was scrolling several errant error messages, and I did not notice the alert from the Message Center warning me that the DSC had been disabled. Yes, I purposely bought a car that was displaying a multitude of horrifying error messages, however, I had a 'feeling' about this car. I knew there was no way this car would run like it did, or run period, with all the messages it was displaying.

Anyway to finally get to the point, I nearly wrecked the car, I mean I came really close to at least 5 or 6 terrifying single vehicle accidents. Every time I looked down at the speedometer, I was doing 95+ mph and I could not control the car to literally save my life. The body roll, pitch and tilt around corners, the steering, everything seemed to have changed for the worse on how the car drove. I had made the decision to turn around and return the vehicle to the dealership had I not looked down and saw the message 'WARNING: DSC Disabled' scroll across the screen and re-enabled the Control System. The car immediately responded and was controllable once again, a torpedo streaming smoothly down the highway with little input from me, and I calmed down a bit while the blood returned to my now white knuckles, and I realized that I should get the car home safely first, and read the manual before I start messing with the control switches.

 

Chuck,Chuck,Chuck, you sound like my white knuckled girlfriend on one of our rides! But it was funny I have to admit �.

But in all seriousness for original poster:

It took me 6 months figure out why the Jag was hesitating when I wanted to make full throttle turns.

What happens is that one of the drive wheels loses grip, ASC control kicks in. It purposely changes valve timing and reduces gas flow to reduce power. For those of us with Traction Control (button says Trac) the car applies brakes to control the loss of traction as well.

That's why many turn it off to record 0-60 times, or in my case when I don't want an unexpected power reduction in heavy traffic.



John

 

I know exactly what you mean, I had a 135 degree right turn (UK roads)from a very minor road onto a fast major road every commute for 5 years when I had my TT, if you had ASC on it would kill the power just when you needed it most.