i have a question about the traction control on my maxima, iv looked around on here and cant seem to find anything about it. i have a 99 se with the traction control option and its acting very strange in the recent cold weather, i live in south alabama and around here its just starting to get cold and i bought this car in may so its never had the chance to act like this with me. when its cold the tc lights come on (tc off and the slip light at the same time) which im assumin means theres a problem with it and its shutting off, correct? when this happens tho the car acts kind of erratic like its misfiring or knockin or somethin, it runs perfectly smooth when the tc is working properly. what im asking though is a little info on the traction control system for our maximas and possibly even a solution to my rough ride in the cold. thanks for any and all help!

 

nobody knows nothing about the traction control on our maximas? iv looked through the stickies and even searched it on google and i haven't came up with anything. all this vibrating sucks!

 

I am in California. The only chance to engage TCS is on slippery surfaces.

The idea of TCS is, whenever the computer detects any skid (slip) of front wheels, the computer cuts the power to front wheels to prevent further skid.

While driving normally, the "TCS off" light on the dash board should be black out, which means TCS is on. If the "TCS off" light is lit while driving, try to toggle the "TCS off" switch to make the light out.

If you can not turn off the "TCS off" light by toggling the switch, there must be problems.

If you turn on your TCS and get front wheels slipped, the only light you can see would be "SLIP" light. The "TCS off" light should not lit.


BTW, IIRC, the user manual says the TCS should not be turned off continuously while normal driving. If TCS is turned off while driving, something would burn out.

 

well why would it be detecting a problem only in the cold though, and i found a little bit on it and it says some tcs systems retard the spark or something when their off, could that be why its stuttering and shaking at low rpms?

 

my light is on to and it hasent changed in mounths...it seas TCS Slip

 

it doesnt say slip and tcs off at the same time, or feel like its misfiring?

 

Well, it's either properly working (cold = slippery) or it's malfunctioning. Do the lights just come on when you're going a constant speed, or when you're starting from a stop light or what?

 

TCS is actually like ABS in reverse. It does not really "cut the power" to the front wheels (how would it do that?) but rather applies the brakes upon wheelspin.

 

from my understanding traction control uses a combination of braking AND throttle modulation to counter act wheel spin. This may be why your car seems like its cutting out. If you can, i would just shut it off, i live in calgary, canada and we get a lot of snow and ice in the winter, ive actually found it more annoying to drive with traction control on, in my family's vehicles, IMO its yet another way technology detaches the driver from the road.

 

IDK about TCS on Maximas, but on many vehicles TCS works (or part of how it works is) by limiting the engine power. I've heard of complaints about if turning from a slippery road surface (gravel side road, roads in rain, etc.) on to a busy street, where they accelerate hard but the wheels spin a bit and the power is limited since the TCS detected wheel spin.

 

And with a conventional cable throttle (as we have on the A32, the vehicle under discussion) how would it modulate the throttle?

 

can't it do that by fuel restriction and spark retardation on cars equipped with conventional cable throttles?

 

The ECU can really do whatever it wants. It could retard timing severely, shut off a cylinder or two, cut down the duty cycle or pulsewidth, etc.

For example (not really related at all) when Lamborghinis (at least some of them, maybe all) when one of the converters reach higher than allowed temperatures, one of the ECUs disables itself, shutting down the appropiate bank of cylinders (along with lighting up a 'Slow Down' MIL).

MKIV's, with TCS, severely limit power when TCS is activated.

For the A32 -

 

RTFM, then post the codes.

 

when i bought the car i think the guy told me it had a high flow cat, so could that be throwing off the temperature of the cat and in turn giving me this problem?

 

I stand corrected...