Traction Control On The Mk2

[Guest]

Two days of snow here ... but no gritter in my little street.

Day one, didn't need the car, so went sledging with the neighbour's kids ... they must have bloody boring parents, or my missus is right and I am a 6 year old trapped in a 40 year old's body.

Day two, time to take the car out. Reverse out onto the road, engage forward, foot down, and Eddie the shipboard computer pulls the power from the wheels. Fair enough. Engage "snow" setting, foot down (gently), still bugger all. Gave up, dug down to tarmac, rolled back, then engaged forward. Car moved as usual then hits the compacted snow. "Car gone skating" light flashing on and off, lots of whirs and clicks from the front, and eventually I make it to the gritted part of the road and away as normal. In the meantime, my neighbour (with one with the kids I mentioned earlier), reverses out and drives past without a hint of wheelspin ... in his Micra! (by the popular myth, he must have to fold it up before zipping up which could explain his 4 kids to my none though his missus does look like a bulldog chewing a wasp most of the time.)

So question: is it normal for the traction control (or whatever Lexus call it) to be so damn sensitive? I've had no instances of it not kicking in when it should when my size 11 presses down to quickly, no fishtailing on corners, no worries really.

Oh, and if anyone asks about tyres, I haven't a clue - black, rubber, round and with a big hole in the middle for the metal bit.

[tehspanna]

The Micra will have been front wheel drive, and so had all the weight of the engine over the front wheels.

I've not had any snow yet where I live, so I can't tell you if it works with the GS, but with my last car (Ford Granada, also rear wheel drive and no VSC) the solution was to put a couple of big bags of sand in the boot.

More weight on the back wheels = better traction, so no slipping around. I would imagine this would have a degree of success with the GS.

You might benefit from letting the tyres down a bit too, but remember to pump them back up again when the weather gets better or they'll overheat and shred (or maybe blow out).

[P4UL T]

I had this problem when trying to reverse up a friends drive that was a little muddy, as the dude above said realy, its rear wheel drive going backwards

[shake]

what size tyres do you have? (they are written on the walls, will look somthing like this... 245/45/18)

[245 being the width, 45 the profile and 18 the inch of the alloy]

mine are 245 across and im dreading the snow.

thinner the tyres, the more traction you'll have, the wider... less traction.

[P4UL T]

I think the 17's are 235 and the 18's on the sport are 245

I have the 17's, looking at your pic I think you have a sport

[JCC]

I could not move my IS200 when there was snow on the ground. Same goes for my GS300. As soon as 1 wheel starts spinning all the power is transferred to the spinning wheel, even with traction control. A limited slip differential would help. I once had a Peugeot GTI, front wheel drive but wide tyres, that was hopeless in snow, so front wheel drive cars don't always work.

I suppose the new GS300 4 wheel drive should be OK and the hybrid with all that extra weight from the batteries over the rear wheels probably has lots of grip.

Always remember that starting off is one thing, but stopping is another. If the wheels don't grip to get you moving then they won't when you want to stop either! Rally cars have really narrow tyres for driving on snow, that was why the old 2CV was good!