Advance trac light comes on sometimes during autocross

[s550 luke]

At a recent autocross I noticed me advance trac light came on when I braked very hard for a sharp turn, there was some gravel on the course that I think could have caused it, the light turned off once I was parking back in the grid. Should I be worried about this or is this normal?

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[skinnyb]

The advance track light is used for any event that traction is compromised whether on acceleration or deceleration. Probably hard on the brakes on a somewhat slippery gravel surface, that can happen. I wouldn't sweat it as long as the light went out and the car drives fine...

 

[s550 luke]

The advance track light is used for any event that traction is compromised whether on acceleration or deceleration. Probably hard on the brakes on a somewhat slippery gravel surface, that can happen. I wouldn't sweat it as long as the light went out and the car drives fine...

Thank you, this is the first time it had happened and I was a little bit concerned

 

[skinnyb]

Thank you, this is the first time it had happened and I was a little bit concerned

Yeah I had it happen once in my 22 GT when I was hitting the curves a bit too hard and the back stepped out a bit, but it just flashed briefly and went off once I got it back in line... Most times when I accelerate hard and it spins in first gear

 

[NightmareMoon]

Had you turned AdvanceTrac off or was it on the default setting?

Regardless, sounds normal. Gravel is one of those things that can really confuse the stability control system.

If it happens somewhat regularly and you want stability and traction control OFF, first inspect your wheel hubs for play (a bad hub can increase the frequency of stability system errors) and consider pulling the “dyno plug” to disable the system entirely.

 

[s550 luke]

Had you turned AdvanceTrac off or was it on the default setting?

Regardless, sounds normal. Gravel is one of those things that can really confuse the stability control system.

If it happens somewhat regularly and you want stability and traction control OFF, first inspect your wheel hubs for play (a bad hub can increase the frequency of stability system errors) and consider pulling the “dyno plug” to disable the system entirely.

I had it an advance trac off but I had not pulled the dyno plug

 

[K4fxd]

I had it an advance trac off but I had not pulled the dyno plug

Many of us have found the advance track/traction control still operates even when when we hold the button until the dash says it is off.

So perfectly normal.

 

[s550 luke]

Many of us have found the advance track/traction control still operates even when when we hold the button until the dash says it is off.

So perfectly normal.

Thanks bro

 

[mavisky]

I had it an advance trac off but I had not pulled the dyno plug

I have seen instances where it still kicks in somewhat. I actually had incidents where we would crest over a hill, and one tire would be on a combination of polished concrete and a steel plate that was part of the site's wet skidpad arrangement. One tire on regular asphalt and one on that combo would even throw it into a scenario where the car would go so far as to re-engage advancetrac and drop me out of Track Mode even.

You can see it happen on this video at about the 15 second mark when we go over that rise and the car goes into a nasty bout of understeer.

 

[NightmareMoon]

Many of us have found the advance track/traction control still operates even when when we hold the button until the dash says it is off.

So perfectly normal.

That's not my experience, I've never found it to interject when turned off properly... Its a myth that its going to routinely interject if you've properly disabled it with the switches .... but it IS running in the background and monitoring it's signals, and it CAN error out and reboot conditions are just right. After the reboot it will be fully enabled again.

So the dyno plug is the safest way to disable it where it won't come on by itself.

However if you find its happening often and you can't pin it down to a strange patch of gravel or an unusually harsh jolt, then probably a good idea to look for a issue with the hubs or wheel speed sensors. If those are in good shape it should almost never error/reboot.

 

[kz]

It is absolutely not normal (on a magride car it turns all the traction control / advancetrac back on, switches mode to Normal - if car was in a different one than normal) and goes back to whatever damper calibration is tied to Normal mode).

But it is a flaw on these cars that has existed ever since (and only way to prevent it is to pull the dyno plug). Ford seemed to have eliminated it on Mach 1s (and possibly newer cars).

I get this error every single time on our lot if plug is not pulled - for the record cars last year had 4 brand new hubs - including Mach 1 front knuckles / hubs (which per some aftermarket vendors selling them allegedly was fixing this issue) and new ABS sensors.

 

[K4fxd]

but it IS running in the background and monitoring it's signals, and it CAN error out and reboot conditions are just right. After the reboot it will be fully enabled again.

I've had it happen several times. Usually under some not normal circumstance.

I'm not sure if it's a glitch or if it is baked into the firmware. My car is mechanically 100% so no hub or sensor problems.

The first time it happened it was a WTF situation. Now I just pull the dyno plug if I absolutely want Advance/TC off.

 

[mavisky]

That's not my experience, I've never found it to interject when turned off properly... Its a myth that its going to routinely interject if you've properly disabled it with the switches .... but it IS running in the background and monitoring it's signals, and it CAN error out and reboot conditions are just right. After the reboot it will be fully enabled again.

So the dyno plug is the safest way to disable it where it won't come on by itself.

However if you find its happening often and you can't pin it down to a strange patch of gravel or an unusually harsh jolt, then probably a good idea to look for a issue with the hubs or wheel speed sensors. If those are in good shape it should almost never error/reboot.

Agreed, I've only ever had it kick back on in that one very specific area and the fact that it reports it as an advancetrac error and boots me clear out of race mode shows that it's not just it randomly still intervening in the background. I've had plenty of slides and spins when pushing 11/10ths with advancetrac fully disabled and it won't interfere one bit.

I also had it happening to me more frequently at one point and further investigation showed I had broken one of the mounts for the ride height sensors and I believe that was the reason for the faults. Once that was corrected the vehicle behaved as expected.

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