What exactly does traction control do?
 

Sounds like a dumb question,but my base 2016 doesn't do ANYTHING different from an older car without traction control.In wet conditions the tires will spin under hard acceleration at will without any restriction.Took the car to the dealership to have them have a look at it,and believe it or not they said they think it's fine but they aren't really sure what traction control is supposed to do??Is there any way someone can point out to me on how to test the traction control system to see if it's functioning properly?Could it have something to do with the base's open diff?

What does your owner's manual say?

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Are you saying in the wet you can for lack of a better term do a "rolling burnout" all day down the road? It should start cutting out your throttle and forcing the car to stop accelerating / slow down once it feels the slip and maintain that until you stop slipping. That is what the 14's do anyway. I have a hard time believing that Nissan has done anything other than make it cut the acceleration fasting and baby things more since than if anything

Yes,thats exactly what I'm saying,I can spin the tries in slippery conditions without any cutting back of the throttle for 10 seconds straight.Its been like this from the start,I have since put a sprint booster on,don't really want to crawl under there to remove it to take it back to the dealership.

Your traction control must be stuck off or something then. There is no way with the trac control on you should be able to do that for more than a second or two at the most. with the traction on it's like being in "no fun mode" you cant do anything

I agree. Mine cuts in rather aggressively, and noticeably, when roads are wet.

Thanks guys,that's what I figured,going to have to have the dealer look at it again.

When your wheels are slipping is it giving a traction notification (blinking yellow light)? If so I'm thinking your system is fine and is pulling power, could probably see it on a scan tool recording ign timing and throttle value pids while breaking traction. Traction control is a cause and effect system, meaning it needs to break traction before it will kick in, it isn't a pre active system that magically prevents you from ever breaking traction.

Had to go round and round with a customer on a new vette about this, reading him the manual on system operation and even bringing out a gm field engineer and waste everyone's time for something that was 100% normal. Wanted to tell him if you never wanted to break traction then why did you buy a massive hp and toque v8 sports car? Just get a Cruze and be more than happy.

I guess it doesn't hurt to check but today's cars monitor everything and if your system isn't working right I'm fairly confident you'd be seeing a MIL or abs light by now.

Read the manual.

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It is NOT traction control, it is called VDC. Vehicle Dynamic Control. And more than anything it is there to assist you when the system believes you may spin out.

Also, the base model has an open diff which means "one tire fire" and anytime when I heavy throttle and turn it kills the acceleration.

Can't help but chime in...

Were you spinning one or both wheels? This makes a big difference.
Was your VDC off?

My understanding is even with VDC off (which covers the TC function), ABLS still interferes and wouldn't allow you to spin one rear wheel that freely. But if you are spinning both wheels, and VDC is off, system will allow it if the rear tires are spinning at approx. same speed.

See post #42 - http://www.the370z.com/new-370z-owne...ml#post1822210

CV will the base model diff allow both to spin? The OP did mention he has a base model.

Aggravates me to no end. That's what it does.

I know, and he's currently on 275/40/18 rears. I looked at some of his past posts and noticed he's mentioned this exact same scenario before back in late 2015. I think there are times one can make both wheels spin even with open diff (small amount of personal experience), but suppose it's next to impossible to a str8 line standstill burnout type of spin.

I asked because, from my reading, ABLS is never off (according to the post I linked and another post citing the owner's manual) and would be impossible to just spin one wheel so freely for so long. So I wanted clarification.

:icon18:Understood

It sometimes throws off a blinking traction light,but more often than not it doesn't in wet conditions.In dry conditions the light will come on more consistently.I never use that disable button.Guess I wont get a decisive answer,it hasn't thrown off any trouble codes,so for now I'm going to assume its fine.Certainly doesn't hurt the driver experience at all,just nice to know if you car is doing something wrong while its still under warranty.Thanks for the ones who provided input.

As per jcosta79, the "decisive" answer is in the Owner's Manual. If you want more details, check out the FSM. Or just keep guessing.

And when your dealer told you they didn't know how it works (and didn't seem to care), you should have turned around and driven to another dealer - your warranty is with Nissan, not the dealer.

I see nothing in the manual that describes how the VDC specifically reacts to driving conditions and to what degree it reacts,but thanks for reminding me to read the manual.

You are most welcome.

Since the overview given in the OM doesn't seem to have answered your questions, hit the FSM.

Can't find any info there either,I was just kindly asking people for some insight here,thought that's what this forum was for......discussion.Anyway,I'm just going to assume it's working fine.

And you were provided with the tools to gain your own insight. Whether or not you take advantage of that is up to you. The info is in the FSM but you may have to dig a little to find it.

There has been discussion. The upshot of that discussion is that we can't troubleshoot your problem remotely. If you can't figure it out on your own, find a decent shop to look at it.

Like I said twice,I am going to assume is fine.U will no doubt get the last word in on this thread,but I'm going to leave it at that.Thanks:tiphat:

Page 13 of the service manual under the BRC section will tell you exactly what the Traction contol portion of VDC does.