Can stability control be turned off completely?

[Dragster]

Hey everyone! One quick question: is it possible to turn stability control completely off? I know it is easy to do with traction control, and stability control is adjusted via the drive modes, but it is still on even in tack mode. Thanks in advance for the help!

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[svtenthusiast]

Yes, hold down the traction button for over 5 seconds and it will say "advancetrac off" in the IP display. All functions are outlined in the owners manual.

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

Turning it off completely is a necessity for driving in snow; cars that don't let you defeat it completely are essentially useless in the winter.

 

[Dragster]

Cool, thanks for the info! The car isn't here yet, so I haven't been able to check the manual.

 

[OppoLock]

I would honestly consider not buying this car if that would ever be the case.

 

[svtenthusiast]

Turning it off completely is a necessity for driving in snow; cars that don't let you defeat it completely are essentially useless in the winter.

You are confusing traction control with stability control. You may want to disable traction control but not stability control in the snow.

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

You are confusing traction control with stability control. You may want to disable traction control but not stability control in the snow.

Not confusing the two.

Last year, we had some pretty awful snowstorms, one of which left my parallel-parked car buried behind a three-foot high mound of snow left by plows on the street. I dug out the snow mound next to my car as best I could, and tried getting out, but couldn't. I couldn't for the life of me realize what the problem was -- until I noticed that I'd shut off the traction control, but not the stability control. In order to get the car out of the parallel-park spot, and over the little bits of ice I was unable to dig out, I had to spin the steering wheel all the way to the side and get the rear wheels to push up against the curb while spinning, in order to force the front end to slide perpendicular to the curb rather than forward into the car in front of me. Ditto the re-angling when I did the same thing with the steering wheel locked the opposite way and the rear wheels spinning in reverse. Stability control keeps the car from sliding sideways in those situations where you need it to do so in order to get it unstuck from the snow bank it's parked in.

Basically, any time you're stuck in a snow bank and need to get out of it (which for me is every single time it snows), you need to shut off both so that you can slide your car in all directions to break it lose from the snow and any ice that may have frozen the floorpan to the ground.

 

[Nitro]

In my car, the nannies have saved me in the snow. Stability control actually does a great job of stopping a spin. I would never turn them off unless I was completely stuck. Then once I was unstuck, I would turn them back on for sure. Those nannies exist for a reason.

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

In my car, the nannies have saved me in the snow. Stability control actually does a great job of stopping a spin. I would never turn them off unless I was completely stuck. Then once I was unstuck, I would turn them back on for sure. Those nannies exist for a reason.

Agree with that -- stability control is INCREDIBLY useful in helping you safely drive in snow. It's almost impossible to spin a car with stability control, and I was legitimately shocked the first time I drove a car with stability control at how much easier it made driving in icy conditions.

That said, you need to be able to defeat it if you're going to ever get out of a snowed-in parking space.

And traction control can also be a huge hindrance on snow -- I remember in my old Mercedes with non-defeatable traction control, you couldn't get above about 3 mph in unplowed snow because the traction control kept shutting engine power.

 

[fionic]

Cool, thanks for the info! The car isn't here yet, so I haven't been able to check the manual.

the manual has been available for a while.

http://www.mustang6g.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/2015-Mustang-order-guide-7-1-14.pdf

 

[dabears2322]

unless there was a blizzard, i always turned off tc and sc on my 2005 g35 in chicago winters. Maybe wasnt the smartest idea, but it was fun and i never got close to an accident so it was worth the risk i guess haha

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