Rae Rad

This is the first snow day with my 2016 2.4 Tech here in the Hudson Valley we had 5" of snow.
Eco mode reduces the gas pedal sensitivity which helps with wheel spin in the snow. Uphill, down hill with precision! No snow tires stock Good year tires. Between using Eco mode and the PAW system the TLX held up well while a hand full of other cars were fishtailing left and right.
Just in case anyone was wondering how does a TLX without the SH performs in shitty weather.

neil0311

After having lived most of my life in NY and MA, I'm all too familiar with snow. The only thing that I would think would be helpful in ECO mode is that the RPMs are kept low and that probably helps to keep tire spin in check.

atl7

Eco mode is also better for ice, had to find that out the hard way last night. Barely made it up a hill, and the hill to get up to my house was even steeper so I had to park it on a level street for the night.

Crashmaster

What is more likely the problem is that you have your VSA on. Keep in mind that going up a hill, your VSA will be applying braking to any wheel which starts spinning and will also decrease engine power. Hills can then be very difficult to go up. I would suggest that you turn off your VSA next time. Your VSA button is to the left of the steering column. Hold it in until it beeps. You will then see a light on the dash showing you that it has been disabled. Keep in mind, that Acura put that button there for a reason; so you have the option of turning it off. Because there are some occasions where you need to turn it off.

RDX10

When I first started learning how to drive I always had the VSA on in my cars and I remember reading about someone on a forum who said they always had VSA off on their vehicle in winter because it helps them drive better. So at the time I thought maybe they were crazy and kept it on. I then remember one time getting stuck in snow and turning it off and seeing how easy it was to get out. I then remember I tried turning it off under normal conditins and I found that it gave me more control.

So now I drive exclusively with it off and I find that I have much more control of the car, no VSA cutting out power causing the car to go nowhere or the car to start sliding sideways due to wheels locking and open diffs. I find that it all depends on how you start moving vs if your VSA is on. Gradual pedal movement along with wheels that are not inhibited is the easiest to control. Another thing to note is that cars with AWD (not SH-AWD, but other normal part time systems) rely on front wheel slip to some degree to send power to the rear, however with VSA on that is prevented from working so you start going sideways a little and no power is prompted from the rear.

edmua6

While VSA off will surely help you get unstuck, I wouldn't leave it off all the time. If you happen to be turning on a corner and your back end decides to slip away (ie, black ice), your VSA will correct it.

Rae Rad

In Eco mode the throttle response is low reducing the gas pedal sensitivity, you can floor the gas and sound like you going 100 mph but barely moving.

Reducing throttle response is helpful with wheel spin from a start and even uphill. I Had a plow truck in front of me fishtailing going uphill ( not sure if it was a RWD) but I was fortunate to not experience any wheel spin. I did slightly skid when coming to a stop. But snow tires would reduce that.

I'm assuming the PAW system helps with fishtailing, so between that and using eco mode it helps.

If snow is falling put on the green mode

atl7

Yes usually this would help, but I needed to keep my RPMs down in this case. Limiting the power was good because I needed the car to crawl, not rev and spin out of control in the ice. Turning off VSA has helped me when I've been stuck in snow, though!

CPR

Here's the response I received from my dealer's Service Manager:

SOUNDS LIKE A RUMOR MY FRIEND, ECO IS JUST TO SAVE GAS AND MONITER DRIVING HABITS. SNOW & ICE IS WITH THE TRACTION OF TIRES

Rae Rad

Your service manager may be right. This is not an official remedy for snow traction, but try this at home with ya TLX; use sport mode from a full stop on snow, then switch to eco from a full stop on snow. (May need to wait until another snow storm) depending on how hard to hit the gas pedal, It reduces tire spin from a stop, almost like it reduces power and makes the car feel slower and heavier.
It helped me,so I decided to share with fellow TLX drivers.

Mr Hyde

It's not really a rumor, but common sense. Decreasing throttle response/jumpiness will of of course lead to better off the line traction. My fathers Volvo had an actual snow button, and this is exactly what it did.

You could try to modulate this yourself, but some cars just have a hair trigger accelerator. My 5 series with snow tires would spin the rear wheels if you just breathed on the pedal, and I would routinely be out accelerated in the snow by grandmas in Camrys. The torque was just to great, and it would routinely trigger the traction control. It had a Sport button, but a snow button would have been very helpful.

When it is slippery out because the roads haven't been plowed yet, etc, I always use the Eco setting. Id rather get trraction off the line without activating traction control, etc.

Rae Rad

My 05 Cadillac CTS had the same button with the same concept. I wonder if the snow button could had been considered an eco mode for that car.

YeuEmMaiMai

never had too many issues other than the constant sliding around when trying to get moving on low traction surfaces.... to solve that problem I decided to get a car that is more capable in said snow.

Dolcevita

I live in Ontario, Canada and we get a fair amount of snow. My TLX is my first AWD car. I love being able to stomp on the gas at a stop sign or green light in the winter and let the car sort it out. I'm running Blizzaks for the winter, so they help quite a bit as well. The other thing that surprised me is that you can make the car drift when you want to do so. I thought the stability control or the overall SH-AWD would prevent me from living the days of my youth sliding around corners in my dad's Cutlass. However, by appropriately applying the throttle, it steps out nicely. I'll give the ECO mode a try and see what it does when I'm being a better role model.

mapleloaf

We are having a cold, snowy, and icy winter. I have been driving around in Eco mode for the past few weeks, as it suits the type of driving you need to do in these conditions. Last year, I was driving a 2015 SH-AWD, but the 4 cylinder with PAWS (and the same Michelin X Icers I had last winter) feels just fine. Take-offs need to be slower, but that suits my driving style, especially in these conditions.

CheeseyPoofs McNut

We're finally getting some of your snow down here in the lower 48 - I've been driving my wife's AWD CRV which seems to handle it pretty well and leaving the TLX in the garage. Now that I work from my home office it's nice not dealing with the daily commute in the white stuff!

Rae Rad

Having the AWD model... I doubt you'll need to use the ECO mode. This mode would be more beneficial to owners with FWD.
AWD has less worries about wheel spin.

mapleloaf

I have to add that the transmission has behaved very well in the cold weather (as in a lot of minus 20s C with colder wind chills). I garage my car, unheated, without ever plugging in. I have had only of couple of minor 2-1 downshifts clunks, usually because I ride the brake, take it off, then break firmly as I stop at slow speeds, which is generally unnecessary. Leaving it in Eco, vs the Eco to Normal to Sport routine I was following has been good, and certainly makes for quick upshifts.

ZipSpeed

Currently in a deep freeze with nice shiny ice surfaces thanks to the graders that come by. That said, my TLX is the best winter vehicle I have driven. This is coming from a guy that owned multiple Subarus and a BMW xDrive. I do have Michelin X-Ice 3 on all four corners of the vehicle and working in tandem with the SH-AWD, the vehicle is very confident. I've been driving in Sport mode and I haven't had much issues but like someone mentioned, the SH-AWD alleviates much of the wheel spin.