my friend's 03 v6 accord has the TCS system. when it is acctivated, the light on his dash flashes. i know our cars have a VSA system. I can feel the system work on hard corners, but i've never seen the light come on or flash. is the exclaimnation mark on the dash supposed to flash when things get out of hand?

 

it starts beeping and flashing say if you're losing traction in the snow or if you yank the e-brake trying to drift. the traction control system worked remarkable in 12 inches of snow which amazed me even with the stock 17" tires.

 

I took a turn too fast one time and that VSA indicator flash 3 times....I guess the car was losing traction and it wanted to tell me.

 

Someone made an observation which I believe is correct given my experience. When the VSA system is doing traction control, like burning out from light, it intervenese without a light. Only when it's braking a certain wheel to correct a skid or do some other kind of yawe control does it come on.

 

hmmm..i'm not so sure about that. I think my light comes on even for traction control. I remember seeing it when peeling out, even when shifting hard to second i get a VSA flash. I'll check again to make sure.

 

It's hard to say for sure. I know i've had it intervene without the light flashing. It's just hard figuring out WHEN it decides to flash and when it doesn't.

 

I noticed this on some ice driving this week. I could feel throttle intervention on slight forward only traction control situations, with no VSA light.

As soon as a bit of brake intervention was required, meaning more aggressive intervention, or yaw control, etc... then the VSA light would come on.

 

I've only had the VSA triangle blink at me when I was trying to go up a snowy driveway. Does the car actually beep at you, too?

 

i've never had the vsa beep when it was working.....the only beeping i've experienced is when you drive with the e-brake pulled

 

I found myself an empty parking lot today. There were no lights, and no parking blocks. It had just rained a few hours ago and the pavement was wet. I had a chance to make the exclaimation mark light on a few times. And a few times i felt the car's throttle bog down and the brakes applied without the light coming on. i haven't had the car beep at me yet.

So from this, i'm guessing that when you aren't too out of shape, the car will seamlessly correct itself. when you are in trouble, the exclaimation mark will flash at you. when you are in deep shiet, it beeps at you???

 

It probably says something like "You stupid a$$. what were you thinking?" after air bag deployment!

 

This is correct, the beeping is only for if the e-brake is on when the car is moving... nothing to do with VSA.