Hi, I have a 2010 xB. I was parked with only the front right wheel on ice on a slight hill upwards, the left front wheel was on dry pavement. I could not get out of the parking spot as the right front wheel just spun.
The traction control button did nothing to help at all even tho it flashed the light at me before turning it on. Is my Scion 1 wheel drive only!!!? Isn't the traction control supposed to help with spinning?

My last front drive car would have power to both front wheels. Anyone else experience this? I got out with a handful of cat liter under the rt front wheel.

Thanx

_____

 

FWIK, TRAC and VSC are always on, pressing the button once turns off TRAC and holding down the button turns off VSC. The light flashing tells you it has acknowledged the current sitatuion of tire slippage and was trying to correct.

 

Our cars are one wheel wonders. All the traction control does is retard the timing for less power and more grip. More advanced traction control systems use the brake on the slipping wheel to transfer power to the other. Ours does not do this. If you had the limited slip differential that would have helped alot but it's very expensive

 

traction control does exactly what is described above because usually loss of traction is caused by the driver using too much power and overwhelming the tires, so the car cuts power to try and get the car to move away from a stop faster by minimalizing wheel spin.

the one wheel drive phenomenon is because of the cars open differential. the torque from the engine follows the path of least resistance, so the wheel with the least traction gets all the power, and the wheel with the most gets none.

traction control on the scions doesn't do anything to fix this. if it had some type of mechanical or electronic limited slip differential, it would be able to get out of its spot (my tc managed just fine today in the blizzard).

to get your car out, first, melt the ice with salt, and then put cat litter under the car and the wheels, get in the car, turn off the traction control, and try and get the car out of the spot. it might take a little rocking to get this done.

 

Are you on the stock tires? If so thats your main problem (they are garbage) and second issue like mentioned before is the lack of a standard option lsd. You can always get one installed but it costs $$$$$$.

 

im back on stock tires for the winter yesterday i spun them all the way to 120 i have tractions problems to as for the ice its cause we have a open diff i live in denver co my car is as low as it can go and still be drivable and i have no problem with ice or snow some of it is how your drive having a stick makes it alot easier to drive in the snow for we can feather the clutch to give just enough power to get the car moving without breaking the traction to the ice

 

I read my 2008 xB2 owner's manual from cover-to-cover and I could swear it says this single wheel braking action to control slipping is exactly what it does. Yes, an LSD is available, and although it's an expensive accessory, it's also more efficient and immediate than using the computer controlled single wheel braking solution.

It's a bit cold and dark out right now for getting the manual (car's under a cover), but I'll have to take another look at that tomorrow.

 

Just been web searching on the Toyota TRAC system and I've learned that what TRAC does is limited to detecting slippage and reducing engine power -- as opposed to selectively applying brakes.

Apparently another system called A-LSD is what performs spinning wheel braking, but that system is installed on the Tundra, not the Scions. What confused me is the VSC also selectively applies the brakes, but that's for controlling lateral skids while the vehicle is in motion -- doesn't do anything when just experiencing single wheel spinning (lateral motion sensors aren't triggered).

So, that's a drag, and the LSD accessory costs bokoo bucks (~$1230 at Sparks )!

 

i would go with the os gilken one for a little more i need a real lsd