What are the actual situations where you would want to turn off VSA?

What exactly does it change about the car? I know it "corrects" you etc but I'd like to know exactly what it does, and why you would want to shut it off for racing or something like that.

About the only thing I have noticed is that when it's off and i turn the wheel suddenly, the car seems to noticably shift weight more than when it is on.

Anyway some educated insight would be great.

 

In a "racing" situation, you want to ALWAYS have complete control of the car's power and when it is applied. Your "weight shift" observation is a very good one. On all cars, regardless of FWD or RWD, the front end "lifts" when applying throttle and "dips" when off-throttle, and more so when braking. Thah determines how much traction the front and rear wheels of the car will have.

Now, let's say you are doing 80 mph (HWY) and 500 feet in front of you there is a turn that you wanna take at a suggested 35 mph (on/off ramp). If you apply the brakes, most of the traction is at the front, so the car's turn in is very good. You take the turn without any problems and exit the turn at 35 mph.

Now, if you wanna take the same turn but, you are doing 120 mph, only have 250 feet to brake, the turn must be taken at 50 mph and you must exit at over 65 mph to avoid being passed or a rear end colission. Now, you must brake mush harder, so the turn in capability of the car is greatly increased, as is the posidility of the rear end to slide due to a possible rear brake lock-up and/or the speed at which the car is traveling. Then, at the middle of the turn, you must start accelerating. This changes the weight distribution of the car and now, most of the traction is on the rear of the car, but in our cars the front wheels are the ones pullinf the car. You apply a certain amount of throttle to pull the car out of the turn and the lest thing you need is a computer thinking you will loose control of the car and while driving over it's "safety" marging, and suddenly cutting engine power and messing up whatever amount of balance you achieved to get the car moving as fast as it can. You have to get into a track with a good instructor to actually being able to notice the difference.

 

I turn it off not just racing but when I need to beat other cars in other lanes.

Only because with VSA on your low-end is pretty limited you could have hard time getting ahead of typical GM 3.8L or Ford 3.0L engine in short distance.

The other time I turn it off is for "show off" purposes. to make tire screech.

Another case I can think of is getting out of snow packed parking lot. You will have to spin wheels to get out of it. Same applies for snow/ice covered hill in some cases.

 

You need to turn VSA off if you are stuck in snow or mud and need to "spin" your way out. I had this happen last year when I was going uphill and the traction control cut so much spark and applied so much brake, I was standing still! I turned off the VSA and applied part throttle and spun my tires all the way to the top of the hill.

Of course, you turn it off for the occasion drag race where wheel spin is to be expected.

dsc888

 

iono if this is a dumb q's.. is it like TCS then..? j/w

 

VSA has TCS incorporated into it. It's controls wheelspin (like TCS), but also corrects understeer and oversteer (hence Vehicle Stability Assist)

 

I turn it off when I drive in a spirited manner. The manner in which the VSA system controls any vehicle slip is Draconian.

 

Ahh word..

 

Forgive me...I cannot control myself.....


But I would think you would turn off the VSA when doing donuts in the school parking lot. Apparently leaving the VSA on will cause you to slam into parked, crappy pickup trucks. No worries though, it is ALL Acura's fault.

<ducking from the Mods>

 

That's funny. Where's TLluvva for his input?

 

Apparently in your case, VSA stands for Driver's Vehicle Stupidity Augment ...

 

No worries here,,,,it flew completely over your head.

Try reading this thread:

https://acurazine.com/forums/technology-16/%2Atechies%2A-windows-problem-124581/

It started off like this:
---------------------------------------------------------------
Wusssssup!!! New TL owner here

Got my new TL Monday nte---- auto/navi/anthracite+ A-SPEC! This ride is sweeeeet! I just got it tinted and was at school on Wed. when some wannabe poser in a modded IS starts giving me crap about FWD, tork steer-- whatever! He's got 4 of his friends with him and they start going off about how I couldn't even do donuts in the TL. The driver (who's a total tool) shows off his IS and does a couple of spins in the parking lot. i know its kinda hard to do donuts in a FWD but I've been to driving school and I know I have a lot more skills than you're average driver. so I floor the TL and get up to about 40 (i luv this engine!!!!) I lay on the e-break and the tail goes out and I get into a nice spin. I punch up the engine but there must have been something wrong with the accellerator 'cause the car didn't go straight and it clipped the back of some pice of crap pickup. I am so pissed!

so now the TL's got a small dent and scratch on the rear bumper. I am SOOOO peeved that the traction control obviously doesn't work but i still like the car. I don't want to tell my parents that the car is defective so I'm thinking of just getting the bumper fixed under warranty...do you guys think I should make the dealer fix the bumper or should i just return the car?

---------------------------------------------

Now maybe you can appreciate the joke.

 

WTF is Tork Steer, anyway?

 

I love it.... too damn funny.... true too!!

 

<SALUTING>

 

OK, I had my fun....

But per Acura's definition of VSA:

"The new Acura Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) system enhances driver control by adding lateral control to the RL's standard Traction Control System (TCS) and Antilock Braking System (ABS). This vehicle stability innovation is designed to assist the driver in maintaining control during cornering, acceleration and sudden collision-avoidance maneuvers by managing the braking and throttle systems. The Acura VSA system has been specifically tuned to aid in the control of a front-wheel drive vehicle."

By shutting off VSA, the throttle, breaking, and wheel slip is completely managed by the driver's input. There is no passive assistance offered by these management systems in the car. Depending on who's camp you are in, some prefer to decide for themselves, others want the car to watch their back.

 

You would turn VSA off in any situation where you intend to deliberatly slide one or more tires. This can be during a maxium effort launch from a stop, when you are deliberately "drifting" the car, or when you are operating the vehicle through a turn where the wheels are at high slip angles. The infamous "four wheel drift" cannot be accomplished with VSA on. The computer would be dicking with your control the whole time, trying to "correct" you. Turning off VSA will also give you direct control of the throttle for use in balancing understeer vs oversteer through a turn.

All that being said, turning off VSA and attempting these types of maneuvers on the street is a great way for people who's ambition outweighs their skill to customize their car's bodywork.

 

cool alot of good info!!!

 

Last winter i noticed a dangerous thing


When the road is full of snow and sludge and you take a sharp turn you always expect your car is going to understeer (back of the car want to pass in front of you) if you slow down a bit when turning, so i used to turn the wheels in the opposit direction to fight this.

But the VSA does control the car quicker than me or almost at the same time and usualy the car stop in the midle of the turn, it's dangerous because cars following you don't expect that you stop in the middle of the turn

 

i think thats called oversteer.. ie your car is starting to spin out.. understeer.. your car is shooting forward as if your not even turning the wheel

 

BWAHAHA ... LOL Yep, I totally missed the joke. I re-phrase myself: In that guy's case, VSA = Vehicle stupidity Augment system.

Sh1t, all I got in HS was a beated up 1985 Audi 4000S. But I never drove it into a parked pick-up.

 

well you know if it doesnt work right you can just trade it in to acura for a new one. first you gotta bring it into best buy and let the geek squad check it out.

 

I turn it off whenever I am demoing a vehicle to a new customer and they give me the "OK" to show them what their new Acura can do... I've got some roads down here that are beautifully banked for speed and fun.

 

Since I don't race anyone the only time I would turn it off is in a heavy snow uphill type situation. The first time I had this was in a Maxima and I started up a mountain road in several inches of snow, road had yet to be plowed. As I started up I started going slower and slower and slower until almost at a dead stop. Not realizing that I was trying to power through but since all wheels had no limited traction the engine was breaking more and more despite giving it more gas. knowing that there was no way I couldn't push this car through the snow using controlled skidding and muscling I suddenly figured it out, turned off traction control and car headed right up. thankfully late at Xmas night and was only car on the mountain at the time. A lesson learned. Turn it off when you need to skid and power through.

 

In the year that I've owned the TL, I have turned the VSA off once, and that was when I started to get stuck in some soft sand at the beach. Once off, I powered right out with no hesitation.

 

thank you for this post. it was exactly what I needed to read because of a similar hill incident I experienced recently and did not know how to handle well--which is why i went looking for these messages.

 

5 1/2 year bump. FTW!

 

how do people find these threads?

 

 

^
Yep. Glad he's using it. AND he's new FTW.

 

I'd much rather see a thread bumped than a new thread posted. Helps other newer members who probably have never seen the threads before they were bumped. So ludlowl, good work.

 

We need more new memebers like ludlowl

 

Good Job Ludlow!!! Notice the age though... Not sure an 18 year old would have found this thread. Just sayin

 

An 18 year old wouldn't have looked.......

 

When taking your car out to the track for some high speed laps you would want it off so you don't overheat the brakes having the system trying to maintain control of your car. A few laps with it on and you can wear out your pads and warm them until they fade.

With them off you can actually be quicker through the turns . . . WITH practice.

For the road on a daily drive you're better off with the system on, unless you're a professional driver that practices in this car regularly.

 

^WTF?
VSA does not touch the braking system.

 

I have never turned it off in 4+years.

 

Not sure why you say that.

Quoted from above, yes it does. I can feel it using the brakes every time i get into a oversteer situation in my icy neighborhood when i am trolling along at 20 mph through some curves and the ass starts to come around.

 

I stand corrected.

 

The VSA button does not disable the ABS though. VSA moderates power when it detects wheel spin.

I have to disable it any time I want to get up my driveway when there's snow on it.