ESP in 2 wheel Drive

[18 inch Crappie]

I have a 2007 Ford Truck and just missed the ESP on the new trucks by a year. Now with the snow my back end can kick out when not in 4x4 on take off. Does the ESP work to fix this and how does it work if both tires are spining?

[Jeremy airjer W]

ESP?

TCS (traction Control System)maybe? It uses the ABS to control the wheels that are slipping.

The VSC in my Tundra (vehicle Stability control) is amazing. All you have to do is point it in the direction you want to go and it takes care of the rest. I proved this to my brother last year on our way up north. cars in the ditch left and right. Roads glare ice. I told him to watch this. I floored it. The look on his face was priceless. Everything kicked in and all I had to do was steer. It really is amazing!!!

The Tundra uses the ABS, engine management, pitch, yaw, steering angle and a host of other sensors to put this all to gether. I'm not sure what Fords TCS system entails.

[Macgyver55]

ESP

Ford has it trademarked as "Electronic Stability Program"

I believe, "Electronic Stability Control is what they market it as.

Pretty much same stuff different name.

[Jeremy airjer W]

Gotcha! Its getting really hard to keep up with all of the acronyms!!!

the only thing I could think of was Extended Service Plan!

Than I'm sure it would be really similar to the Tundra. This started as "stability" control with I think BMW to help consumers keep control of the vehicle during abrupt maneuvers. Engineers quickly caught on to what was going on and developed algorithms and programs for the system to help with skid control during bad weather/icy/snow covered roads.

If you ever get the opportunity to check it out, do it! If you ask nicely I'll take you for a ride in the Tundra the next time the roads are icy!!

[Ralph Wiggum]

Airjer,

Any ideas how VSC has evolved in the past 8 years? My '01 Sequoia has traction control and VSC, and it helps, but it's not as impressive as your claims. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, though, and I should just let the truck sort it out.

Edit: Perhaps your Tundra has Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management(VDIM)with the VSC and mine just has VSC.

[solbes]

My understanding is traction control will only try to reduce slippage in drive wheels. This may or may not be helpful to people who live in snowy climates and already know when to reduce throttle under slick roads.

Stability control, which has many names proprietary to each auto manufacturer, will adjust braking to individual wheels to counter understeer and oversteer conditions. A bunch of sensors give the input to the computer to determine course of action. It should help the car/truck manuever to the steering wheel input rather than spinning out. Not sure this would even kick in for your low speed rear-end-walking problem, maybe? It's more for accident prevention in mid to high speed course corrections.

I have VSA in my Acura car and I really like it. It comes packaged with traction control, so they are either both on, or both off. Sometimes I want to turn traction control off, like when you need to rock to get out of a drift.

As for the vastly different names of stability control, check out the Wikipedia site and search for electronic stability control. At the bottom it lists what each manufacturer has called their's.

[Jeremy airjer W]

I would have to imagine that it has advanced significantly since '01.

[theoilman]

My 2006 Sprinter Van (made by Mercedes) has the traction control / anti-skid braking, etc. system standard. It is amazing what it can do in slippery sliding conditions.

Many names for similar systems. In general they take the signals from the 4 wheel speed sensors and keep all 4 wheels moving and working together, using the braking system to pulse on any corner to correct - whether in braking or accelerating, 2 or 4 wheel drive. And if you want to slide just turn it off with a dash mounted switch. It should be a much better traction control than any limited slip system, and by some of these other posts most are great.