VSC - No Nanny at WOT?

[Thai]

This was posted over at FJcruiserforums.com: http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7329

"Odd thing happened this weekend. A friend and fellow racer Sully and myself were arriving at a race track on Saturday. I was having a discussion with him in regards to how incredible the Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) and Traction Control worked.

We were in a huge empty parking lot where a lot of Autocrosses are held and it had been raining. I did a quick change of direction and weight transfer to induce some oversteer. Sure enough the back end started coming around and VSC controlled kicked in. He said "yep there's the nanny". I was like "it works sweet and makes you feel pretty comfortable in nasty situations. Almost to the point that I won't switch into 4-HI on my Auto unless it's really bad".

When we were heading out there was a cone left in the lot. I was cruising at maybe 20-30mph and decided hey I'll see how well I know my FJ's dimensions and clip it. I proceeded to turn in and I went WOT (Wide Open Throttle) what do you know...the FJ immediately went sideways, tires howling and I was at full opposite lock. I stayed in the throttle to see if VSC or TC would kick in and it didn't. I think I went a good 20-30 yards sideways then brought it back.

So I'm curious, does the FJ disable VSC and TC at WOT?

Cliff Notes: Went WOT with the FJ, tossed it sideways and neither VSC or TC kicked in...hmmmm?"

 

[Falls]

Interesting.....

 

[MnRunr]

Hey Falls.. you should test this theory.. come on.. before you have to give up the runner..

 

[ovrrdrive]

I intentionally kicked out my rear end in a wet walmart parking lot once and experienced the same thing. It slid out and neither VSC or TC kicked in. Of course I wasn't expecting it to kick out so I let out of it asap when it did.


It surprised me too. I didn't use full throttle to do it either...

 

[Falls]

If you lock the center diff. I thought that disables the VSC & TC. Then you should be able to floor it in mud/snow and spin the hell out of the tires.....right or wrong ??

What about Atrac kicking in ? when does that happen and can you hear it or feel it ?

All this electronic crap is nice for my wife but not for me. If I'm driving on the freeway in a snow storm great but if I'm on side roads / off road and want to play......not good .

Although I really like my 4R , I feel they are soccer mom'n this thing out. Safety is a good thing , and that's why I can't understand why no switches to turn this stuff on or off.

 

[Whoknows]

I've had the same experience. Had the VSC kick in when going slow on an icy bridge and then slightly accelerating -- also in other conditions. Then, the other day in the rain I went WOT from a stop light and rear-end fish tailed, tires spun -- no nanny.

 

[jacal]

I know that the nanny doesn't kick in until a minimum speed is reached (9km/h?), but I have not tested WOT.

If you *must* get rid of the nanny, remove the abs relay. You also loose abs. This is what Car & Driver did when they originally tested the 03 4th gen.

J

 

[>MR2turbo4evr<]

I've played around with the 4Runner (05 V8 fulltime 4X4) on an icy empty parking lot in winter and I too have found that if you intentionally step on the throttle and want to get it sideways, the controls seem not to kick in as much, or not at all.
If you start sliding unintentionally, the conrols kick in way sooner and do a really good job of keeping the vehicle where you want it to be.