Turning off traction control for quicker start in the rain?

H

hal2

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Phoenix
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I kind of understand the whole think if turning of traction control to get un-stuck. But I was wondering, if I wanted to play and act like a kid a bit (read immature), if I'm at a light on a rain/wet road, will turning off the traction control give me better AWD acceleration when mashing the pedal when the light turns green? I mean, if it drives more of the wheels to get un-stuck, wouldn't that also mean more drive when starting from a stop in the rain? So does TCS off also engage full time AWD?

Yes, I realize that this is not an AWD sports car and that I'm playing with it in a way that it's not intended. Related - any harm being done to any of the drive components since it's not really like the scuffing you'd get by driving a truck in 4x4 mode on the street?

Yes, I could test it, but it hasn't rained in my part of Phoenix since I bought my car over almost 4 months ago.
 
If traction control cuts back on power when wheel spin occurs, it would seem that disabling TC would increase likelihood of wheel spin.
 
IME on the CX-9, AWD engages before TCS, but I don't know if the iActiv AWD gradually splits the power from the front to rear, or if it's more like a on/off switch (i.e. 100F/0R, then 90F/10R, then 70F/30R, then 50/50, or 100F/0R to 50/50. If the TCS is off, you're more likely to hit the 50/50 split faster, and depending on your tires, you'd get a faster takeoff. Theoretically you'd also be able to maintain the 50/50 split for a longer period since the TCS shouldn't intervene.

The AWD is not a full-time AWD, it will only engage when it detects slip (or when the sensors can "predict" a need for AWD).
 
I realize that this isn't the old subaru ad "transfers power from the wheels that slip to the wheels that grip", but I guess I'm looking to have as many wheels spinning at as possible at take off. Again, I know I'm playing and was looking for as much take-off as possible in the rain.
 
The tcs off should allow more wheelspin before cutting power to the engine. On my CX-9 I don’t think it affects how fast the AWD engages, a lot of people with the turbo engine complains of torque steer at full acceleration and turning TCS on or off didn’t seem to have that much of an impact. If you have decent tires, you likely won’t see much of a difference between TCS on and off in the rain honestly. It is more apparent on snow and ice where i can get the traction control to kick in easily when i fool around. If there are no traction controls lights turning on in the dash when you try to do a hard acceleration in the rain, then the system doesn’t engage and you won’t see a difference by turning it off.

The skyactiv AWD is a predictive system however. So if you can trick into thinking it is raining heavily ( like by having your wipers at max speed), then you may be able to have a quicker AWD engagement. Although mazda uses a lot of different sensors for the prediction algorithm so i am not sure just using the wipers would be enough to trick it.
 
I recall seeing a test/study somewhere about spinning tires in snow. The test measured how much "pull" or "thrust" the vehicle had with no spin vs spinning tires and also at different rates of spin. The test results looked like an engine torque curve model with increasing "thrust" up to somewhere in the low 30mph (above vehicle speed) spinning then rapidly dropped off above that speed.

I imagine that would apply to any loose surface (ie snow, sand, dirt or mud) but I don't think spinning tires would grip better on a dry or wet solid surface.

But it may be more fun-er-er to get your drift on ;-) lol
 
Oh, I may think I just realized that Mazda on my model doesn't refer to it as turning traction control off, but rather, turning traction assist on
 
Yes.. the power cut is excessive and you will lose acceleration assuming you have good tires. The more you explore the tcs/dcs the more you may find it counterintuitive a lot of times
 
Chris_Top_Her said:
Yes.. the power cut is excessive and you will lose acceleration assuming you have good tires. The more you explore the tcs/dcs the more you may find it counterintuitive a lot of times
Click to expand...
I've never seen a power cut on a punch from a stand still or roll on clean, wet asphalt or concrete. Timed it also, no diff. The awd puts in work. Even with 310# tq
 
I would have expected someone to have their own anecdotal comparison by now. Then again, not everyone here is a playful child like me
 
Actually on my CX-9, in the rain and wet weather, I actually turn TCS off and sport mode on for better turning traction. Without doing that, I can get significant wheel spin and loss of traction. I don't drive the car like that but do it when I need to quickly make a turn from a stop.
 
Last winter I played with the TCS a little. The roads through through the residential area to get to my house for about a mile off the main highway are very steep up and down small canyons and ridge tops.There was about 3" of fresh snow on the ground. The car has enough torque to easily spin the tires going uphill if you give it too much throttle, and that is with or without the TCS. It might do better with dedicated snow tires instead of the factory all seasons. I also learned that the tires aren't much good for stopping either and to keep my speed down on the downward slopes.
 
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