Black_6spd

Is ironic as it may seem, the icon in my avatar could have possibly saved my life a few hours ago.

I was driving home on I-15 and heard a 'clicking' sound coming from my driver's rear tire. Initially, I pulled over to check if it had a nail, but didn't find anything. I figured it was nothing as I give it a few good kicks.

About 15 minutes later, I was doing about 85 mph when all of a sudden my car's backend went loose and I re-gained control of my steering. I noticed the car behind me make an emergency lane change as he avoided my tire's debris. At first, I thought it was simply a case of a rough, noisy road surface and my tires following the pattern. After I saw the 'VSA' and '!' indicator on, I knew I blew out the same tire that was making noise earlier.

Who knows what would've happened without VSA. Since the back end wanted to come around, I think the TSX would've ended up spinning and perhaps running into other cars or trucks. Now that I think of it, the VSA system managed to prevent a skid at 80+mph. The tire is toast. It looks similar to the reports here on AZ of TSX owners getting a blow-out due to running low tire pressure.

Aint technology grand?

Lesson learned: especially with chubby-profile, cheap tires like the Michelins, it's VERY important to monitor how much air is in them periodically. A few months ago, I ran the same tire below 15psi or so before patching up a nail hole. I had a bad feeling back then that the stress on the sidewall might come back and haunt me.

xenonhid

VSA is great! I did not know that VSA could stablize the car in that type of situation.

Glad to hear that you are ok though.

treez35

holy cow! glad to know your alright!! that sounds like it couldve been very very nasty!

roxxor

Glad you are ok... Hopefully not a lot of damage happened to your wheel or the area around it, 80+ mph blowout might have cause some issues in other areas

v6cord2k5

iTrader: (1)

technology is grand.

about what you actually said: I noticed something you might be wrong about...
under your name it says "VSA off 100% of the time"... dont you mean TCS (Traction Control System)? because that is what the " /!\ " in your avatar denotes (that TCS is off). When VSA engages I believe green letters appear. and when the TCS is on and it is engaged I believe TCS comes on or was it that little exclamation mark that flashes?

Honda Sales 23

[QUOTE=v6cord2k5]technology is grand.

about what you actually said: I noticed something you might be wrong about...
under your name it says "VSA off 100% of the time"... dont you mean TCS (Traction Control System)? because that is what the " /!\ " in your avatar denotes (that TCS is off). When VSA engages I believe green letters appear. and when the TCS is on and it is engaged I believe TCS comes on or was it that little exclamation mark that flashes?[


From what I understand the two systems more or less work "Hand and Hand " and also use the same icon....Please correct me if I'm wrong and its great to hear that your OK.

moda_way

VSA caused me to buy a new exhaust 2 yrs ago. I'm traveling I-71N to Columbus during winter. It was sunny out and there was snow on the ground, but the highway was clear. However, I came up on a rural area and the car infront did a quick switch to the slow lane. I drove up onto compacted snow with ice on top. I let off the gas and the back end starts to come around. I stomp on the gas and VSA prevents the wheels from spinning, which in a FWD car with the rear coming around is the opposite of what you want. I immediately realize this and correct with a minor input to the steering. Car crosses from the fast lane beginning a 90 degree spin. I correct out of that and go 180 degrees into the median a$$ end first. Only the passenger side took the hit in the rear.

Long story summary... VSA is good, but only if there is traction to be had.

PWPTSX

VSA is a type of traction control, and that's what Acura calls it, some other company might call it some other name like you metioned, TCS or what ever, but they are all traction control.

aaronng

Yup, VSA is just a tool. If the conditions are not right for that tool, it won't work well. If only there was a way to de-link VSA and TCS.

aaronng

TCS in the TSX cuts power to the wheels. VSA on the other hand applies individual brakes to keep the car stable. But other brands do lump all of it under TCS.

waTSX

Yep, all these technologies have their limitations, but that's not really the point. In Blk_6spd's case, it sounds like it saved his bacon. I hope I never need it like that, and at times it's a pain, but it's nice to know it's there if you need it

Black_6spd

The Avatar text was referring to aggressive conditions before I lost my 2nd gear a few months ago.

<--- I just updated the avatar.

PWPTSX

lol...........why don't you put like !!0% VSA off!! hehe

Washington

Traction control differs from stability control. Traction control is pretty simple, and on a two-wheel drive car, its purpose is just to limit wheel-spin. On a fwd car, traction control only tries to distribute traction between both front wheels, preventing the wheel that's in the snow/mud from spinning while the opposite wheel just sits there.

As far as I can tell, there's no lamp on the TSX dash that indicates when traction control is engaged. And there's probably no reason for a driver to ever disable traction control.

Stability control is a different animal. Sensors on all four wheels detect loss or differences in lateral traction, and all four brakes are applied in varying degrees, but in concert, to prevent a spin-out. These systems are much more sophisticated than traditional traction control; some Ford stability systems actually use gyroscopes to detect when the vehicle is about to become out of control. (You may recall Ford's roll-over problems - they have reasons to build a first-rate stability system)

Traction control is easy to do. Saturn used to offer it as a $50 option a decade ago. Stability control is harder to do, but does more to enhance safety and will probably be mandatory in a few years.

aaronng

The traction control uses the same VSA light as well.

JTso

iTrader: (2)

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31045

v6cord2k5

iTrader: (1)

I thought in FWD cars only one of the wheels receive power... the one that is attatched to the driveaxel? and in cars w/ LSD it is distributed among the two fronts.

am I wrong?

Tsx536

Wow....I'm just glad to hear that you're okay man. I always drive with my VSA on, mostly just because I don't like seing that symbol on my guage cluster, but hey it's nice to know it can help out

Benz_05_TSX

iTrader: (1)

Damn....and I know people who drive with the VSA off!

DeeCee

When my dealer was giving me the tour of my TSX he recommended that I leave it off at all times unless I planned to do some drifting?????

Anyways I haven't taken the time to fully research the pros and cons of using the VSA so until then I'll leave it off.

aaronng

I leave it off permanently now ever since I was taking a nice curve at 45mph and the VSA detected a slight slippage in my outer front wheel. A split second later, the car was entering a spin in the opposite direction (VSA light came on) and I can to catch it with opposite lock. Same thing happened to another TSX on our convoy following behind me. Had VSA not intervened, I could have just reduced the amount of thottle to pull the car back in. VSA is good on the street, but not save for enthusiastic driving (btw, that road had a speed limit of 50mph)

moda_way

I have a module from KPTechnologies that keeps my VSA off unless I turn it back on. It basically remembers the last state the VSA was in (beit on or off) after the car was turned off and returns it back to that state with ignition on.

aaronng

According to my friend, me starting up my car is like a pilot starting up his jet.

1) Get into the car, close door and lock. Seat belt on.
2) Hold down Dual + Auto, start the car
3) Press the rear demister 3 times
4) Press the VSA button
5) Wait 30 seconds
6) Drive off.

moda_way

What, no pre-drive checklist. You are forgetting to check the tires, make sure there is no water in the fuel tank and checking for birds in the nose cowl.

I forget, what is the Dual + Auto doing for you?

aaronng

LOL, only thing I fear is a cat sleeping underneath my car.

Dual + Auto put the driver's side climate control temperature setting display into diagnostic mode. Scrolling to option #4 gives the engine coolant temperature.

moda_way

Ah, I was thinking that is what it was, but couldn't remember.

michelc

Here's another reference from Honda Japan of this impressive technology ...released already 10 years ago.

curls

Traction control (throttle control is more like it) WILL flash the /!\ light when its activating. And, our cars have yaw sensors that detect slight drift and correct using the VSA sub-system, by applying one, two, three, or all 4 corners' brakes.

aarong: Does that DUAL + AUTO thing work for non-NAVI cars? If so, I gotta try that today!

Bigtimebooch

Glad you are alright!

ABS has saved my ass more than once.

Here's a VSA related question. The entrance to my workplace is on a large road (speed limit 45 MPH) and you take a right turn and immediately go over train tracks. These tracks have a big metal stripe between the tracks. When it is wet and I take the corner any faster than about 10 MPH, I always get the back end flying out.

VSA has never come on when this happens. It just seems odd because at times I have forgotten to slow down and I end up having the back end of the car swing a good foot or two out before I pass over the tracks and regain traction. I would think VSA would at least come on (though I doubt it could do anything about it). Could it be because the front tires have traction?

curls

BigTimeBooch: That definitely sounds like a situation where VSA should kick in... although it depends - maybe you aren't noticing it trying to intervene because it happens so fast (ie: you might not see the momentary flash of the VSA light, because driving voer that metal strip only takes 1/4 of a second). Even if it did try to intervene, I don't think it'd be able to do much, as wet metal = slippery as heck.

aaronng

Yes, it should work with non-navi too.

aaronng

That sounds similar to what I experienced. Sudden oversteer when it is meant to be understeer (loss of traction in the front while rear still has grip). The VSA should correct it to be neutral, but in my experience, it using the ABS means that it brakes at full power. That's why it "overcorrects".

fdl

It probably cant. Most likely, he got lucky.

curls

Yes, it worked, thanks! Although this struck me as strange -- When I was on the Coolant Temperature option (option 4), when I first started my car, it was at 32* C. However, the car had been sitting outside for about 14 hours, and the temperature overnight dipped to a cold-as-heck -22*C. How the coolant temp stayed so warm is beyond me!!! For what its worth, the coolant temp gets to about 82*C and no higher -- I'm assuming that's when the thermostat opens fully and the radiator fan starts becoming operational.

aaronng

I think the temperature sensor is not accurate at low temperatures. But mine, I've always seen it at the same temperature as the surroundings all the time. I've only been down to -2 ēC though.

Tsx6363

yeah the tire pressure is a problem, they only decided to put the tire pressure indicator on the 07's