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Weird stability control issue

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I was autox yesterday. Had stability off. During a run I felt the stability/tc kick in. When I looked at the dash the tc off light was on and the other light with the skidding car was on. Had to shut it off and restart to clear.

Guessing I got some dirt in a sensor or something. Any thoughts?
 
Did you turn it off by holding the brake and button till it said Advanced Track Off? I think others have had that happen but I am not sure why if Advanced Track is all the way off.
 
This happens to me often at the track with the traction control completely off. It happens mainly with street tires and I have not found a way to keep it from doing this other than not slide thru any turns. I don't think i have had it happen with slicks yet or in sport mode.
I believe this is a function of the street module turning itself back on in extreme circumstances and I know others have gone to the race module to keep it from doing this.
Only way to turn it off again is pit and stop.
 
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1
I second the other users on this board inquiring if OP has truly disabled all traction aids.
To do so, one must hold the brake and hold down the TC button for up to 10 seconds.

I've been able to get the car very sideways with no intervention. But if you only hit the TC button once (or even twice), you either:

1) Disable TC but keep stability on
OR
2) Put it in sport mode which is just a more lenient setting on the traction aids
 
I've had the same thing happen a couple times at autox also. Had advancetrac off for sure also. I've also had the skidding car thing come up and I think it was blinking once. I had to turn the car off and back on to get it to go away. I haven't found a fix for it.
 
It's weird that this happens to some with it all the way off, I have really screwed the pooch a few times with TC completely off, why won't it come back on for me!
 

steveespo

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Skidding car with the word off means traction control off, Advance track off message means Advance track is off. Other skidding car either blinking or on solid means there is a bad sensor or fault in the Advance track and or traction control system. Blinking means there is still some functionality in the system but a problem, on solid means big problem and full function failure.
If you see those lights there may be a DTC stored, if it persists you should have a Ford mechanic run diagnostics on it.
Steve
 
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1
You can also pull the fuse :)
I should look into it. If tc/advance track is a different fuse from ABS, I would pull it.
 
steveespo said:
Other skidding car either blinking or on solid means there is a bad sensor or fault in the Advance track and or traction control system. Blinking means there is still some functionality in the system but a problem, on solid means big problem and full function failure.

This is the light I had which is why I surmised it was a dirty sensor (it was a dirty track). Does ABS use the same wheel speed sensors?
 
Therefore, the car is not ignoring the sensors completely, so if something fouled one, it would alert me of that (and maybe automatically reinstate the nannies) to keep me from killing myself without ABS. That's my theory.
 
cosm3os said:
I was autox yesterday. Had stability off. During a run I felt the stability/tc kick in. When I looked at the dash the tc off light was on and the other light with the skidding car was on. Had to shut it off and restart to clear.

Guessing I got some dirt in a sensor or something. Any thoughts?

This has happened to me a couple dozen times. It always seems to do this when I'm driving aggressively and always seems to kill my fastest autox run by turning back on during the run and screwing up the rest of it. For my next autox I'm doing the Vaughn Gitten Jr. Trick of disconnecting a wheel speed sensor plug in the front wheel well just behind the wheel liner to disable ABS.

My only guess is that stability control thinks you are trying to kill yourself and tries keep you from doing so. I think that the limits are set too low so it has the tendency to cry wolf even when you have everything under control. I've also seen that if you keep driving with the two advancetrac lights on in the error mode that it will momentarily cut out the engine and completely reset itself (as in no lights on the dash) eventually.
 
This has happened to me once and another guy on the same autocross course. Both cars are 2012 Mustang GT's. The course had two very different surfaces (black top and concrete), tight, sweeing corners and long straights before the corners (a lot of HARD braking).

Button held down while stopped for 5-10 seconds, equaling tranction control OFF and advance track OFF. I was OK for three runs and the other guy was OK for two runs. This is the seriest of events for me:

-In the middle of my third run, I was exiting a corn and going into one of the shorter straights. As I got on the gas, noticed a slight decrease in power.

-I kept the throttle in all the way, came up to the next corner, hit the brakes hard, got off the brakes progressively and let speed scrub off. Exiting the corner, I began to apply throttle and notice a significant decrease in power.

-Out of the corner and heading to down a stright to the next corner, I gazed down real quick to my dash and saw NO WARNING LIGHTS other than my TC/AT OFF light. So, I didn't think much of it and figured my engine was just being de-rated (for some reason I ran a non-fresh tank of 89 ocatne from a Kroger gas station and it was 85-90F out with little wind).

-Coming to the next corner, I hit the brakes hard and was greeting by a hard pedal and little-to-no brake feel. Lucky this was about the end of the course. I made my turn and powered to the finish.

-Once at the finish, and slowed down, I looked at my dash and saw the Traction Control/Advance Track (TC/AT) warning light ON SOLID. As I looked at it, BOTH the warning and TC/AT OFF light turned OFF (de-illuminated) and the message center then projected "ADVANCE TRACK ON".

-Brought the car to the paddock, shut it down and checked everything over -everything looked fine. Went back out and did my last run with no issues.

Long story short, the other guy works for a compan that does vehicle dynamics systems...

So, why did our cars do this? It has to do with the EPAS. The steering wheel angle sesnor didn't intialize correctly. So, either the sensor simply did not get a chance to initialize, or something happened to the signal (i.e. connector issues, sensor issues (=module), etc.). The DTC? C1B00-63 (http://juchems.com/ServiceManuals/viewfile8c75.pdf?viewfile=Anti-Lock%20Control.pdf).
 
I also want to add this: In the 2011-2014 cars (whether it's a V6, Boss or GT), turning everything OFF doesn't really, truely turn everything OFF. Th system is still on and dormant in the background with limited ability, but can and will turn on under certain, extenuating circumstances. The only way to turn everything completely OFF is to disable the system, which can be done either by getting the Ford Racing parts (ABS control unit and EPAS (if you are upgrading the front control arm bushings to something stiff); this options allows you to reatin ABS) or pulling fuses/connectors (disables everything, including ABS). The older cars, 2005-2009 (not sure about 2010), the system is... not as smart and is turned full OFF with the button. I'm not sure how this relates to the GT500 as I don't have experience with them (I'd imagine the same applies).
 
I have had this happen too, and noticed that when it happened I got a TC Malfunction message on the dash. I don't recall if it has happened on TracKey, but it has on regular key.

My question is about the FRPP ABS module. Does it turn the stability off all the time? Only when you want to? What does it change exactly?
 
It turns traction control and advance track OFF all the time. It retains ABS, but to a different calibration more suitex for the track.
 

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