[Psythik]

I'm a proud new owner of a 3.8 GT BK1; had the car for about a month. Love almost everything about it so far, other than the wonky traction control that we all love to hate for cutting all power the moment the wheels start to spin. Regardless, I've been leaving it on because this car has more power than I've ever had in a vehicle before (I used to think 200 BHP was a lot), and I'm trying not to kill myself.

So with that context, I was doing—to say the least—a spirited lane change today, when suddenly I felt the back-end slip out from behind me. I managed to recover after overcorrecting twice, but that experience scared the hell out of me since it happened so unexpectedly (and the fact that a similar incident is how I totaled my RSX Type-S many moons ago; guess I never learn my lesson, huh). I did see the TCS light flashing, but I felt like it did nothing to prevent my car from drifting.

I've owned two other vehicles with TCS before, and both of them made it pretty much impossible to lose control, so long as you stay within the laws of physics (and believe me, I've tried), so to me it seems that the system in this car keeps the wheels from spinning, but does nothing help point the vehicle where it needs to go. i.e. It seems like it has traction control, but no stability control.

Can someone confirm or deny this? Or is my TCS faulty? I now realize that I really need to take this car to a track to practice my driving skills. I also bought a diff mount kit and the Megan Racing transmission mount from GCTuner to try to make the back-end a little less squirrely. And plan on upgrading to some grippier tires (suggestions are welcome; it doesn't snow or rain much here). In the meantime I lowered the PSI in my tires from 40 to 35 (I'm used to doing that from driving a hybrid; never going to make that mistake again.)

But other than that (and driving like a grandpa), is there anything else I can do to make the car a little more stable under heavy acceleration during a lane change? The car is reasonably stable in a straight line, at least...

 

[Red Raspberry]

What tires are on the beast?

 

[Yellow Coupe]

Mine's a 2011 Track with the 3.8 and 6 speed manual. Bought it new.

Since new it would spin the tires till I let up on the gas while turning left. Did that three times over the years.

It would kill power if the tries tried to spin while going straight off a stop light/sign. Happened multiple times over the years.

It would stop wheel spin but not lose power when turning right. Did that once over the years.

Last year I had to replace the master cylinder. Had some traction control issue afterwards (weird and different than those listed above. Loss of power, surging, wheel spin. No idea why it showed up after the MC change and lots of brake bleeding (at least I got the 11 year old brake fluid out of the system - it was discolored compared to the new fluid but still good for moisture content).

Trying to remember if I had specific codes about the brake switch/circuit or if someone here suggested changing the brake switch (down under the dash). I got the right switch (the second trip to the parts place) and got it installed and after an adjustment issue the recent issues disappeared.

During some test drives I also found out that the it was now acting differently than it did the first 11 years with the factory/original brake switch.

Now, whether turning left, right or going straight it will not spin the tires and it doesn't choke down like it's running out of gas. It accelerates rapidly and I can feel the wheels "wanting" to spin but not spinning and see the traction control light blinking on/off.

Someone here mentioned the factory brake light switch was a known issue in the early Coupes for a couple of years.

The switch cost me about $22 I think.

Not saying that's your issue. Just saying that when I changed mine out it fixed issues the car had since it was new.

 

[BK1Bennettae]

I'm a proud new owner of a 3.8 GT BK1; had the car for about a month. Love almost everything about it so far, other than the wonky traction control that we all love to hate for cutting all power the moment the wheels start to spin. Regardless, I've been leaving it on because this car has more power than I've ever had in a vehicle before (I used to think 200 BHP was a lot), and I'm trying not to kill myself.

So with that context, I was doing—to say the least—a spirited lane change today, when suddenly I felt the back-end slip out from behind me. I managed to recover after overcorrecting twice, but that experience scared the hell out of me since it happened so unexpectedly (and the fact that a similar incident is how I totaled my RSX Type-S many moons ago; guess I never learn my lesson, huh). I did see the TCS light flashing, but I felt like it did nothing to prevent my car from drifting.

I've owned two other vehicles with TCS before, and both of them made it pretty much impossible to lose control, so long as you stay within the laws of physics (and believe me, I've tried), so to me it seems that the system in this car keeps the wheels from spinning, but does nothing help point the vehicle where it needs to go. i.e. It seems like it has traction control, but no stability control.

Can someone confirm or deny this? Or is my TCS faulty? I now realize that I really need to take this car to a track to practice my driving skills. I also bought a diff mount kit and the Megan Racing transmission mount from GCTuner to try to make the back-end a little less squirrely. And plan on upgrading to some grippier tires (suggestions are welcome; it doesn't snow or rain much here). In the meantime I lowered the PSI in my tires from 40 to 35 (I'm used to doing that from driving a hybrid; never going to make that mistake again.)

But other than that (and driving like a grandpa), is there anything else I can do to make the car a little more stable under heavy acceleration during a lane change? The car is reasonably stable in a straight line, at least...

If I'm not mistaken, I believe our cars only have traction control and no stability control. Atleast BK1s don't.

 

[Red Raspberry]

Mine will applied the rear brakes in a slide in the snow on the correct side. I think the BK1s have it but it's not very refined......

 

[BK1Bennettae]

Mine will applied the rear brakes in a slide in the snow on the correct side. I think the BK1s have it but it's not very refined......

Now that you mention it I think mine does it, because I can hear anti-lock when I'm not on the brakes when I am purposely sliding around

 

[Pchelka]

They have both traction and esp for sure. Many times the esp saved me
My suggestion is to get a decent scanner and check if there are any codes in esp

 

[Yellow Coupe]

Doesn't ESC stand for Electronic Stability Control.

Two ESC lights/indicators. The one with OFF below the skidding car means the system is off. Either you turned it off or it cut off due to some problem. Mine was doing that. I'd start the car up, it was normal, I hit the gas hard the tires would spin/car go sideways and that light would come on and stay on. Only was to reset it was to shut off the engine and restart it and then the next time the wheels spun it would come on and stay on again.

The other ESC light blinks in a situation where traction control is working to help maintain control of the car. I've seen mine blink at 80 plus mph in 3rd gear on the interstate when the tires went over the concrete joints in the pavement. Why was I doing 80 plus in 3rd gear? A jerk in the left lane would do a mile or an hour faster than the slow moving cars in the right lane till he got past them. Then he wouldn't get in the right lane to let other by and he'd speed up to 70/75 mph to keep them from passing in the right lane - till he came up to the next line of cars in the right lane and then he'd slow down to a mile or two above the speed they were doing (or 66/67 while passing and the sprint down the road in the right lane at 75 or more till the next line of cars in the right lane allowed him to slow down and hold everyone back. Sometimes the Coupe is worth every penny I paid for it.

 

[Psythik]

Hey everyone; sorry for the late reply. Just got the car out of the shop after having the Enthuspec diff mounts installed. It seems to help cause it's a lot harder to get the car sideways with TCS on now (but it'll still do it if I try hard enough ).

What tires are on the beast?

It came with Pirelli Cinturato P7 run flats

Last year I had to replace the master cylinder. Had some traction control issue afterwards (weird and different than those listed above. Loss of power, surging, wheel spin. No idea why it showed up after the MC change and lots of brake bleeding (at least I got the 11 year old brake fluid out of the system - it was discolored compared to the new fluid but still good for moisture content).
[...]
Someone here mentioned the factory brake light switch was a known issue in the early Coupes for a couple of years.

The switch cost me about $22 I think.

Not saying that's your issue. Just saying that when I changed mine out it fixed issues the car had since it was new.

Interesting. I will have to look into this.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe our cars only have traction control and no stability control. Atleast BK1s don't.

That's honestly what it feels like sometimes. Would be nice to get a 100% confirmation either way.

Mine will applied the rear brakes in a slide in the snow on the correct side. I think the BK1s have it but it's not very refined......

You may be right and I may just need to get used to it. Like I said, my last car wouldn't let me get even slightly out of control when its AdvanceTrac system was on. It would always go exactly where I pointed it no matter how much of a lead foot I was being. But it was also 3 years newer.

They have both traction and esp for sure. Many times the esp saved me
My suggestion is to get a decent scanner and check if there are any codes in esp

Will do. Right now I only have Torque Pro.

Two ESC lights/indicators. The one with OFF below the skidding car means the system is off. Either you turned it off or it cut off due to some problem. Mine was doing that. I'd start the car up, it was normal, I hit the gas hard the tires would spin/car go sideways and that light would come on and stay on. Only was to reset it was to shut off the engine and restart it and then the next time the wheels spun it would come on and stay on again.

Can't say this has happened to me. Every time it kicks in, the light blinks then turns off once I resume normal driving.
I have never disabled the system. Haven't even tried to see if the button works yet...

The other ESC light blinks in a situation where traction control is working to help maintain control of the car. I've seen mine blink at 80 plus mph in 3rd gear on the interstate when the tires went over the concrete joints in the pavement. Why was I doing 80 plus in 3rd gear? A jerk in the left lane would do a mile or an hour faster than the slow moving cars in the right lane till he got past them. Then he wouldn't get in the right lane to let other by and he'd speed up to 70/75 mph to keep them from passing in the right lane - till he came up to the next line of cars in the right lane and then he'd slow down to a mile or two above the speed they were doing (or 66/67 while passing and the sprint down the road in the right lane at 75 or more till the next line of cars in the right lane allowed him to slow down and hold everyone back. Sometimes the Coupe is worth every penny I paid for it.

Yeah mine kicks in all the time during straight line acceleration, too. It's only when I turn the wheel that things start to get squirrely. But again the diff mount upgrade seems to help. I need to drive the car more to find out for sure.

Thanks for the helpful replies, everyone. What a great community. I will definitely stick around here for sure.

 

[Psythik]

Wow, this community is really dead. I thought I'd get some replies by now for sure...

Is there another, more active forum that I'm unaware of? I thought this was the biggest one but I guess not.