Traction Control Freakout.
 

Had this happen to day, not sure if anyone else has had the problem.

Turned traction control/all off (3 seconds.) Pulled out on a double wide empty road making a left turn intentionally kicking the rear end out. Mid-way through I had the tracing control continuiously flashing (as if it was never turned off and you spun the wheels.) The result was that slight choke (for lack of better description) of the throttle or whatever it does which resulted in a sweet 180* spinout -_-.

Soon as I see the end come around I clutch in and catch it. TC still flashing even though I've come to a complete stop. I put it into 1st and proceed to leave as I already feel that I've made an ass out of myself. :bonk: So I let out the clutch and but, no movement. Car revs like it is in neutral. I shift into 2nd then back to 1st and try again. Again, tach is revving, crickets chirping and the lost traction light is still flashing with the "TC off light" and the one below it still lit up.

So I hit the push start and then restart the car. All seems to work well after the restart, didn't mess TC with the settings after restarting and drove off.

Has anyone had something similar to this happen. Just moments before I did see my low tire pressure lights come on (Temp is dropping.) Maybe a mixed signal cause the car to flip out.

Hard telling ...... but I wouldn't worry about it unless it does it again....sometimes they are just "touchy"......;)

humfrz

Auto I presume?

Words like clutch, and 1st... ;)

Oops. Didn't see that. Just a bit surprised you could physically put the car in gear and get nothing unless you'd done something to the clutch/drivetrain but that wouldn't explain it going after a restart.

it is odd, like the last guy said it was probably just a finicky spell with the traction control, i forgot to turn it off once while drifting in gravel and it wouldnt let me apply throttle for a good 20 seconds, then all of a suddon just worked. normally it will only cut throttle for 1-2.

3 seconds doesn't turn it off, you have to hold it down for 10 seconds

Nope, it's like 3-5 seconds.

I find it incredibly unusual that you put the car in gear and it didn't move. That technically should be impossible, unless somehow, your stability control used the ABS and put the brakes on completely. Did you feel the car squat when you tried to go?

I agree, but he said:

The car wouldn't rev if the car was in gear and brakes fully applied unless the clutch was slipping, in which case you'd smell burning clutch.

My only other ideas are clutch had overheated and not grabbing, or simply that the gears were not put fully home and as such not actually in gear. There are no other physical options I can see.

:popcorn:

The car was just giving everyone a chance to see you!

I noticed when the traction is off (3 sec. trac button) it will still kick in when the car starts to jumps up and down, like if you try to drift the rear on a bumpy road, if it's a flat road, it rarely shows up. I drove all winter in the snow with the traction control off and it never kicks in as it's always smooth drifts.

Basicly when the car sees vertical G's it seems to step in anyway.

If traction gets really light on one wheel it seems to do this. I've heard some people claim it is an e-dif function. There is a sharp uphill turn leaving my street so I end up doing this daily it seems.

At any rate if you pedal dance it truly turns everything off, but that requires the car to already be warm, and it is a pain in the ass to do in traffic. Wish the process was easier.

I'm sure anyone who needs to have everything off would be much better off making a cut-off switch to one or more of the abs brake sensors/any other critical sensor to the VSC, it would defenitly turn everything off. However I don't know if the computer would go back to normal upon restart.

I've had something similar a while back, the car got a bit swirly in the back and the ABS light went on. Turned the car off and it went away, hasn't been back.

It's nothing.

Just kinda curious as to why the clutch would not grab just because it is overheated? The 'teeth' of the clutch should still grab even though it is hot, unless they all have been melted or worn off - is that what you're getting at?

Or is there some sort of monitoring device the car that won't let the clutch hold if it gets too hot for safety purposes?

My take is that if the material on the clutch disk is burnt off or "glazed" to the point it would no longer create friction between the pressure plate and flywheel ...... it won't transmit the torque coming from the engine going to the transmission.

Most manual transmissions don't have any monitoring device to measure heat at the clutch. It's pretty much left up to your sensors ..... of the clutch is engaged and the engine is spinning and it's in gear, but your car ain't going nowhere .... the clutch may be slipping. If you smell something burning during the process, maybe the clutch is slipping.

humfrz

Clutches fade when overheated, just like brakes. They are inevitably quite smelly/smokey at this point. In a 200 hp sort of car with an OEM street clutch, a couple of seconds of slipping clutch at full throttle will do it.

But I've never heard of a clutch that faded (& subsequently recovered) so badly it wouldn't engage at all. Usually if they get to the point that they won't make the car go, they are done. OP's experience is a bit mysterious.

I'm sure the clutch is ok. No burnt smell. I've tried to recreate the event in the parking lot and got similar reaction though the TC goes back off when the car comes to a complete stop and I have no problems with taking off afterwards.

The only thing I can figure what happened was that the ECU was flipping out and may have continuously sent the kill-throttle signal or got hung-up on itself (maybe the drive by wire.)

It wasn't a cold start. I had warmed up the car, drove 1 mile dropped a letter in the post and returned to my vehicle (never keyed off.)

This makes sense to me.

There are times I miss a direct, un-assisted connection between right pedal and throttle, middle pedal and brake, steering wheel and rack.

As we have all found out recently, Toyota programing quality is not all it could be?!