Traction Control Issue After Coming Out of Driveways

[TbonePdx]

Lately I've been noticing that if you're coming out of a driveway onto another street, if you cut the corner too close and one of the rear tires drops down off the curb, even just a teency bit (read: just a drop, no loss of "traction" per se) you lose all power for a second or two as the electronic nannies completely disable the accelerator. It's a little dangerous if you're trying to get out onto a busy street and have only a little wiggle room and the gas pedal is basically dead.

Am I the only one who's noticed this? I've never had a car with a traction/stability control system this unnecessarily aggressive.

Tony

 

[williakz]

You sure that's not 'Tony' with an 'i'?

 

[TbonePdx]

You sure that's not 'Tony' with an 'i'?

Huh?

 

[Nikgen]

Lately I've been noticing that if you're coming out of a driveway onto another street, if you cut the corner too close and one of the rear tires drops down off the curb, even just a teency bit (read: just a drop, no loss of "traction" per se) you lose all power for a second or two as the electronic nannies completely disable the accelerator. It's a little dangerous if you're trying to get out onto a busy street and have only a little wiggle room and the gas pedal is basically dead.

Am I the only one who's noticed this? I've never had a car with a traction/stability control system this unnecessarily aggressive.

Tony

Yup - it's very dangerous as the throttle response essentially goes "dead" for a few seconds and leaves you hanging while traffic is coming. It's WAY too sensitive in triggering and much too heavy handed in it's response. I've resorted to turning it all off in such situations ,but it's a real PITA.

 

[nofaithineli]

Agreed, very common complaint. Maybe I don't have enough appreciation for the benefits of traction control but I FEEL that is increasing the risk of something bad happening in this car. Therefore, turning it off is now a part of my normal startup routine.

 

[TbonePdx]

Wow. Thanks. I'll have to add that to my startup checklist. Onscreen waiver? Check! Auto hold? Check! Driving mode SPORT? Check! Traction/stability control OFF? Check!

Tony

 

[pmckechnie]

I am new to the Genesis (got mine 12/2016) but have never felt the car loose power for any reason. I have felt the power reduced if I hit it too hard while turning or in the rain.

I worked on computer problems for years on a lot of cars. Traction control was usually done by the antilock brakes. The brakes for the wheel going faster than the others was applied until the speed of that wheel was the same as the others. If both driving wheels were faster than the non-driving wheels than both driving wheel brakes were applied. Engine power was also reduced but never so much that you could feel it. All this sounds crazy, but it worked real well.

It feels to me like this is what my 2016 3.8 base Genesis is doing.

I have been reading the post on this site for the past 10 months and have come to the conclusion that EVERY Genesis is different in some way from all the others.

 

[PMCErnie]

I'm pretty sure that only a leadfoot experiences such problems.

 

[williakz]

I have been reading the post on this site for the past 10 months and have come to the conclusion that EVERY Genesis is different in some way from all the others.

Tongue in cheek? If not, I suggest you tour a modern auto assembly plant. Afterward, you can reconsider your conclusion above.

 

[Nikgen]

I'm pretty sure that only a leadfoot experiences such problems.

You could not be more wrong!

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[Nikgen]

I am new to the Genesis (got mine 12/2016) but have never felt the car loose power for any reason. I have felt the power reduced if I hit it too hard while turning or in the rain.

I worked on computer problems for years on a lot of cars. Traction control was usually done by the antilock brakes. The brakes for the wheel going faster than the others was applied until the speed of that wheel was the same as the others. If both driving wheels were faster than the non-driving wheels than both driving wheel brakes were applied. Engine power was also reduced but never so much that you could feel it. All this sounds crazy, but it worked real well.

It feels to me like this is what my 2016 3.8 base Genesis is doing.

I have been reading the post on this site for the past 10 months and have come to the conclusion that EVERY Genesis is different in some way from all the others.

When this happens, you are left flat-footed with virtually no throttle response for a second or two - if you look at the dash you will see the TCS/ECS icon flashing.

It's a real issue when pulling out of a drive that has even a slight lip, especially when needing to cross one lane of traffic. You either have to wait until there is a large gap that allows you to pull out gingerly or you need to disable the nanny stuff.

 

[pmckechnie]

Tongue in cheek? If not, I suggest you tour a modern auto assembly plant. Afterward, you can reconsider your conclusion above.

Well, EVERY was an exaggeration. The point is that cars are changed on a regular basis. You can see cars being assembled on an assembly line. You can't see that some of the parts are modified to fix a problem that the engineers found. Parts are acquired from outside sources and these sources change from time to time. The engine computers are different for different engines, and other features. My Genesis is a 3.8 base RWD manufactured 6/15/2015 and it does not have this dead spot problem.

I would like to see everyone put all the basic information about their car in their signature. Then maybe we can see that there is something in common with the cars with these strange problems. It could be possible that it only happens on 3.8 AWD with the tech package. That would be some really good information to take to the dealer.

Having worked on the electrical system on a lot of cars for 28 years, I can tell you that there are very few cars that are exactly alike. It may be a major part or a change in the color of a wire. If you are trying to fix some of the problems even a wire color can make a big difference.

So I will change the EVERY to MOST.

 

[PMCErnie]

You could not be more wrong!

Must be a gen 2 problem. What kind of car do you own now? You've deleted that info from your profile and signature. Is there a reason?

 

[Nikgen]

Must be a gen 2 problem. What kind of car do you own now? You've deleted that info from your profile and signature. Is there a reason?

Once again.... this is the Gen 2 forum, so we are obviously talking about an issue related to the G2.

I own a 2016 3.8 AWD Ultimate and did not touch my profile or signature so there must be a site issue as I have made no changes!

 

[Nikgen]

Well, EVERY was an exaggeration. The point is that cars are changed on a regular basis. You can see cars being assembled on an assembly line. You can't see that some of the parts are modified to fix a problem that the engineers found. Parts are acquired from outside sources and these sources change from time to time. The engine computers are different for different engines, and other features. My Genesis is a 3.8 base RWD manufactured 6/15/2015 and it does not have this dead spot problem.

I would like to see everyone put all the basic information about their car in their signature. Then maybe we can see that there is something in common with the cars with these strange problems. It could be possible that it only happens on 3.8 AWD with the tech package. That would be some really good information to take to the dealer.

Having worked on the electrical system on a lot of cars for 28 years, I can tell you that there are very few cars that are exactly alike. It may be a major part or a change in the color of a wire. If you are trying to fix some of the problems even a wire color can make a big difference.

So I will change the EVERY to MOST.

I had this same issue in my 2015 3.8 AWD Ultimate as I now have in my 2016 3.8 AWD Ultimate which was built more than 12 months later - so this seems an issue with TCS/ESC programing in general (at least in the HTRAC equipped model). If you pull out of a driveway with a lip (even a small lip) with any level of acceleration, then the car bogs down when the rear wheels hit the lip on exit and drop. It will happen every time in that situation.

To me what should happen is that power should just move to the front wheels with no loss of throttle response - but, instead, you appear to go "dead" for a second or two. Now that I know about it, I can avoid it happening - but to the unsuspecting who pulls out in a small gap in traffic, it could cause an accident. I'm going to bring this up to the dealer and HMA at my first service later this week.

 

[TbonePdx]

The problem with turning the traction control off is that you can't use cruise control, at all. So, scratch that idea.

Tony

 

[Nikgen]

The problem with turning the traction control off is that you can't use cruise control, at all. So, scratch that idea.

Tony

I turn it off in those situations and then turn it back on. I don't need to do it that often in my normal commuting - so it is manageable ( but no ideal)

 

[trespinosranch]

I experience the same issue...a dead throttle. I have one intersection I use almost everyday, it is less than 90 degrees. The view to the left is very limited. When I see an opening to turn right, I accelerate moderately. There is also a lot of irregular pavement in the mix of things. If it is wet that just complicates matters, even with AWD.

 

[mfrish]

I've had the same problem on my 2015 Genesis since I bought it. In my opinion it's very dangerous because I lose acceleration for a few seconds. But I've brought my car into the dealer and since they haven't heard anything from Hyundai they just say it's working as designed.

 

[CanukV6]

I never experienced this with my 2009 or 2012 Gen-1 cars but it is a problem in my Gen-2 HTRAC. There is one corner in particular where when turning right the right rear wheel is lightly loaded due to the road camber and the car basically loses all power for an instant. I am not using anywhere near full throttle, just normal acceleration from a stop.

It is definitely a problem with the traction control programming. What I don't understand is why this even occurs on an AWD vehicle. If traction is reduced or lost on one wheel, shouldn't the system just adjust the power to the other three wheels?