Motoring Discussion > Electronic Stability Control - In Action? Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Fenlander Replies: 10
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New Wed 24 Feb 10 10:00 
 Electronic Stability Control - In Action? - Fenlander
My C5 is the first car I've owned with electronic stability control. I wondered if anyone has experience of causing the system to trigger in their own car when pressing on and how it felt?
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New Wed 24 Feb 10 10:02 
 Electronic Stability Control - In Action? - rtj70
Only time I've experienced mine was on the ice. You could tell it was breaking individual wheels etc. In normal conditions I'd hope it does what it does and you don't notice.
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New Wed 24 Feb 10 10:09 
 Electronic Stability Control - In Action? - Old Navy
>>I'd hope it does what it does and you
>> don't notice.
>>
My new car will will be the first car I have had with stability control, I may be wrong not having experienced it yet, but I would like to think if the car braked one wheel or reduced power I would notice.
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New Wed 24 Feb 10 10:08 
 Electronic Stability Control - In Action? - Iffy
I think I've got the same thing, but called something else, fitted to the CC3.

I provoked it a few times in the snow and there was a fair bit of clicking to accompany the flashing light on the dashboard.

Fairly sure I could feel drive being turned on and off and swapping from one of the front wheels to the other.

The only other time I've felt it was when giving it plenty of wellie when pulling out of a T-junction.

Again, a couple of clicks and brief flash of the dashboard light.

Suppose the system did it's job in that I maintained forward progress in the right direction.



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New Wed 24 Feb 10 12:17 
 Electronic Stability Control - In Action? - Fursty Ferret
I provoked mine on the ice last year. Doing about 40 mph down what I thought was a gritted road I hit a patch of black ice. Car just twitched slightly from left to right. Shortly afterwards there was a series of accidents. My sister was in one of them, apparently she got out of the car and promptly fell over!

Also tested it in an icy car park late one night. In terms of spin prevention I think if you were entering that situation in a FWD diesel then no amount of computer wizardry is likely to help. However, it did a fantastic job in understeer situations and you could feel it braking various wheels to jerk you round the corner.

Would never buy another car without it, and a bit surprised that it's not a legal requirement in new cars like ABS.
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New Wed 24 Feb 10 15:27 
 Electronic Stability Control - In Action? - Fenlander
Interesting thanks. I was more thinking of its effect in dry/wet road driving rather than snow/ice.... also more in cornering rather than setting off traction control.

Anyway as my car has some 2000mls on it now and I feel the main bedding in is done it was time to gradually extend its abilities. I'm very lucky to have some deserted wide open roads on the daily travel so I've been upping the cornering effort on a couple of near 90deg bends over the past few days. Today (dry roads) I finally managed to get the ESP light to come on mid corner. What a reassuring feeling. As the car just started to drift (would have been 100% under control with no ESP) it was as if a giant hand gently held the drift. There was no sensation of slowing down from the system's brake application that corrected the drift. Most impressive.

In my normal daily drive I'm very laid back and let others get on with it but I do make sure I have an idea what my car might do in extreme situations when there is a deserted safe opportunity to do so.
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New Wed 24 Feb 10 23:06 
 Electronic Stability Control - In Action? - Dave_
>> as if a giant hand gently held the drift

That's exactly how I've described it to people in the past, too.

I found that out in an early Merc A-Class (S reg) taking an off-camber downhill left-hand bend at a speed slightly too fast but not way way too fast (just shy of the tyre-squealing point I suppose). Halfway through the bend it lurched to the right as though it was about to fall over, then a moment later seemed to be "grasped" from beneath and pulled down foursquare onto the tarmac. Most disconcerting, not from the ESP point of view but for how suddenly the car became unstable. It seems I mimicked the "elk test".
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New Wed 24 Feb 10 23:14 
 Electronic Stability Control - In Action? - Runfer D'Hills
The Qashqai is just weird on snow and ice. Up to a point beyond which physics takes its course it just drives as if it's on a normal road surface. The part time auto 4wd kicks in when needed and the stability thingy just takes care of you. Odd feeling but very comforting. If you press on a bit more you can just drift it round corners at surprisingly high speeds with no drama. Quite good fun once you learn to trust the witchcraft.
Last edited by: Humph D'bout on Wed 24 Feb 10 at 23:16
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New Thu 4 Mar 10 22:20 
 Electronic Stability Control - In Action? - Boxsterboy
>> What a reassuring feeling. As the car just started to drift it was as if a giant hand gently held
>> the drift. There was no sensation of slowing down from the system's brake application that
>> corrected the drift. Most impressive.
>>

Yes, it is clever, isn't it. Has been standard on all Mercs for a few years now. You can see why the EU are going to make it mandatory on all cars from (can't remember when).
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New Thu 4 Mar 10 23:12 
 Electronic Stability Control - In Action? - Bellboy
its not that clever when it goes faulty and the fortnight in distant lands has to be foregone so a plastic box with a few resisters and raisinsin it can be substituted for another one that works and shifts currents around
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New Thu 4 Mar 10 23:50 
 Electronic Stability Control - In Action? - Londoner
My own personal experience of these electronic systems has been mixed.

Traction control - Brilliant. Never experienced ANY wheelspin moving off from low speed.

ABS - Also brilliant. Got used to the juddering when it activates, and now just appreciate it working efficiently and safely.

ESC - complete pants on my motor. The dashboard lights up like a christmas tree and it still goes sideways. Maybe it's because it is RWD. To be honest, my own driving skills are very limited as well, but I am no boy racer.

You can't expect the electronics to work miracles, I suppose!
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