The Car Discussion Thread

[lukethedrifter]

If it takes the power from the slipping wheel and shifts the power to the non slipping side, why did I see vehicles with one wheel spinning on the ice with the other planted on dry ground?

[IMADreamer]

If it takes the power from the slipping wheel and shifts the power to the non slipping side, why did I see vehicles with one wheel spinning on the ice with the other planted on dry ground?

That is not how they really work. Mostly that's some fancy marketing about taking power from one wheel and putting it to another. Some cars with a limited slip differential, or some nifty electronic diffs do that sort of thing but your average car does not. What traction control is on I'd say 9 out of 10 cars on the road is simply the computer activating the brakes on the side where the wheel is slipping to slow the wheel down. This prevents it from suddenly gaining traction while going faster then the other wheel and shooting the car off one direction. It's also why when a car is stuck the TC should be turned off because you won't be able to rock your way out because it will be constantly working the brakes to keep the wheels from spinning and you'll never got enough momentum to get out.

[lukethedrifter]

I have a pretty decent understanding but couldn't figure out why the wheel on ice was spinning but the one on solid ground wasn't doing anything. So maybe I don't have a decent understanding.

[Arthur Dent]

If you have a standard open differential, shouldn't applying the brakes to the free spinning wheel divert torque to the other wheel?

[Arthur Dent]

[Arthur Dent]

Click and Clack:

http://blog.nwautos.com/2010/10/why_wou ... ntrol.html

[lukethedrifter]

so the cars I saw had an open differential and apparently no sort of traction control, i guess.

seems like i should have known this stuff by now

[IMADreamer]

Click and Clack:

http://blog.nwautos.com/2010/10/why_wou ... ntrol.html

Kind of disappointed they didn't mention the importance of turning of traction control for doing burn outs.

Also note for those of you who may be getting cars unstuck this winter. A lot of newer cars, especially sports cars and luxury cars have three modes. Traction control on, off, and really off. The really off (not the official name) mode is usually hidden because it keeps novices from killing themselves when they think they have the traction control off. For example in my Vette the traction control is on by default and you simply hit a button to turn it off. However it's still on in limited fashion, so to turn it really off you push the button again and hold for about 15 seconds. Then it's really off for some burn out, power sliding fun.

This is helpful in a stuck car situation. I had to use it a couple times on Nic's Merc in the winter to get out of our driveway. Of course not all cars do that, but generally powerful ones do because the manufacture knows your average person really can't handle the car with the TC completely off.

[mikechamp]

Saw this article and thought of IMADreamer:

http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/ne ... -unveiled/

1,035 HP! Talk about excessive!

[IMADreamer]

interesting name. the Fxx-k