ive noticed recently my traction control has not been engaging as quickly as it used to. It used to be at the first sign of spinning tires and slippage bam it would take over, now i can spin the tires for a good half second before it engages, and even slip as much as a foot before it engages. i got 10500 miles now.

anyone else notice this? should i just reset my ECU?

 

When traction control is on does a light turn on in the RX8? I thought there would not be any indication other than "On & Off"???

 

in egregious circumstances the light flashes for a second even after its done helping (kinda like a 'stop doing that' kinda thing), for minor corrections it flashes for a split second, so if you arent noticing it you wont see it. It lets you know traction control is doing something, plus you can feel it.

 

There's nothing wrong with a little slip Makes driving more fun, imo.

 

oh absolutely and i turn it off all the time frankly, but in the rain i dont want to be spinning tires especially when it usually doesnt let me.

 

What exactly do you feel when it activates? What about when the DSC activates? Does the DSC light also blink?

 

I have had the same thing and it has been going on for a while. At the same time the tires dont grip as well (10K) miles.

This seems odd that traction control is engaging less since the tires are gripping less, one would think the traction control would be MORE likely to engage and sooner.

 

This happened to me over the weekend. I just changed over to my snow tires on Saturday and I damn near smoked the tires (w/DSC on) coming out of my driveway.

Hasn't done it since.

 

Traction control is probably only as good as the tires. Let's say you drive out into a flood with 40,000 mile tires - or the equivalent of slicks. DSC/TCS will only go as far as restricting your throttle motion and ignition. Your car will still slip n slide.

 

I just got my car and the traction control light seems to exist only to tell you that you have just turned sideways. I really expected quite a bit more from a system that is named “Dynamic Stability Control”. From what I can tell it slams the brakes on after the wheels have spun for1/2 to 1 second. Could it just be that mine isn’t working correctly? That wouldn’t surprise me since I have had the car for 250 miles and have had the check engine light come on twice and stay on until I bring it to the dealer for them to turn off with a lame excuse. And of course it is getting cold here so the TPMS light comes on even though the times measure 32psi. I have lusted after this car since a year before it was introduced but I think I have a lemon and am not happy at all. I would take it back in an instant and wait for an 05 or 06 when they might have some of the bugs worked out of it.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. There are so many reasons to love this car but I didn’t pay 30K+ for something that is less reliable than my 93 MX-6 with 127K on it.

 

That's not normal if your tires are really at 32 PSI cold. The light is only supposed to come on for PSI < 26 or PSI > 49.

I've never seen my TPMS light come on and this is my second winter with the car. BTW, if you have snow tires, they should be set to 36 PSI per our Owner's Manual.

 

All 4 tires measured 32PSI +/- 1 and the light was on when I measured them. I tried 2 different gauges too.