jazz_123

So i had a question. If i have VSA turned on it will show as a triangle symbol on the dash right! So when are you supposed to turn VSA on? What are the benefits when in use? Better traction, better braking?

TeknoKing

It's always suppose to be on. When the triangle is on, it means you have turned it off.

I only turn off VSA when there is a bunch of snow, and I'm stuck, in this case tire spinning may help me to get out.

VSA, some say the ride is smoother with the VSA off, I always keep it on, just in case.

jazz_123

Are you sure when the triangle is on the dash the VSA is turned off. So then how about while your driving and all of a sudden the triangle symbol lights up which means the VSA is being performed on the vehicle.

Thorin78

Generally if your VSA if off the triangle with the ! will be on. If your VSA is on, that light will not show up. If all of a sudden, you lose traction, it will flash. If it comes on and stays on, and you have the VSA on, you should take it to the dealer.

S PAW 1

Whenever one of the safety features built into your Acura activates, whether it be VSA, ABS, etc. you will see a corresponding alert on the dash. Normally, those lights are all off except at initial start up. If your VSA light stays on, you have a problem in the system, and your VSA is NOT working. You need to take it to the dealer asap if that happens.

fish008

If you didn't know VSA stands for vehicle stability assist. VSA does a whole lot more than just help you maintain better traction. VSA does not however help with braking unless the car is out of control. Even with VSA turned off the ABS is still completely functional and should still allow you to maximize your braking potential. Now back to what VSA does. VSA combines two very helpful electronic programs; traction control and stability control. Traction control helps keep the front wheels (drive wheels) from overpowering the available grip and allows you to maximize your acceleration potential. This is especially helpful when accelerating from a stop but is perhaps more beneficial when accelerating while at speed on slippery surfaces. The latter can help keep your car in control and out of the ditch on those slick roads. However, the most important part of VSA is the stability control (which is really a combination of everything). Unlike ABS, stability control does not require some level of knowledge of how it works to maximize the benefit. Provided stability control is left on it can help keep a car on its intended path without any drive interaction. All stability control systems are incredibly complex but I will do my best to explain exactly how they work. All cars with stability control have multiple sensors and attempt to detect if your car is out of control. First there are individual wheel sensors that compare individual wheel speeds to determine whether there is grip available (how the traction control works). There is a sensor that measures steering wheel angle, the assumed intended path. There are yaw sensors that measure rotation around a center axis. The stability control system puts all of that information together and determines if you are on your intended path. There are two basis ways for a car to be out of control; oversteer (back of the car tries to beat the front of the car thru the corner) and understeer (car pushes thru corner). Understeer is widely considered to be the safer of the two and most cars a designed to understeer at their limits. As a rule most front/all wheel drive cars understeer and rear wheel drive cars oversteer. The last sentence makes the assumption of a car with a neutral setup and what occurs when the level of grip is exceeded. So what does all that have to do with stability control? It stops it. The car will automatically brake an individual wheel to bring the car back to its intended path. According to several studies from the NTSB and the IIHS single car accidents were reduced by 50% compared to the previous model year not equipped with stability control. And of those accidents that did occur your survival rate was also improved by 50%. So yea, I leave mine on. Oh, it is also going to be required to be a standard feature on all cars in 2012.

fish008

I am not sure that I did a good enough job explaining exactly how it works. Say you're understeering. The car will brake the inside rear wheel to correct the intended line. If the car is oversteering the outside front wheel will brake individually to correct that problem.

TeknoKing

fish008 great explanation.

But please use paragraphs

fish008

Sorry that's my fault. I just started typing and threw proper writing style to the wind. I realize that makes reading it quite difficult. In my defense the little reply box is not conducive to the overall view of what I just wrote. But I was all over the place in that response, from topic to topic, and should have easily managed to add paragraphs. Sorry again.

Bearcat94

fish008, you made a fine explaination; now lets talk about paragraphs .... ( lol ).


OP - My recommendation is to NOT F'k with it and let it do it's job.

The above posters are correct.

When you push the VSA button and the TRIANGLE comes on, VSA is OFF. The triangle dash light is a WARNING that VSA is off.

When VSA is on (i.e. no light in the dash) and the Triangle Flashes, this is telling you that VSA is Actively attempting to correct your traction and/or your line.



:arrgh: Teckno beat me to it. Just bustin' your balls, fish008.

S PAW 1

TEKNOKING AND BEARCAT94:
You guys need to quit holding your breath when your reading

fish008

Better? Maybe a mod can exchange my first post with still one. But perhaps your point about paragraphs is a good lesson for everyone.

If you didn't know VSA stands for vehicle stability assist. VSA does a whole lot more than just help you maintain better traction. VSA does not however help with braking unless the car is out of control. Even with VSA turned off the ABS is still completely functional and should still allow you to maximize your braking potential.

Now back to what VSA does. VSA combines two very helpful electronic programs; traction control and stability control. Traction control helps keep the front wheels (drive wheels) from overpowering the available grip and allows you to maximize your acceleration potential. This is especially helpful when accelerating from a stop but is perhaps more beneficial when accelerating while at speed on slippery surfaces. The latter can help keep your car in control and out of the ditch on those slick roads. However, the most important part of VSA is the stability control (which is really a combination of everything). Unlike ABS, stability control does not require some level of knowledge of how it works to maximize the benefit. Provided stability control is left on it can help keep a car on its intended path without any driver interaction.

All stability control systems are incredibly complex but I will do my best to explain exactly how they work. All cars with stability control have multiple sensors and attempt to detect if your car is out of control. First there are individual wheel sensors that compare individual wheel speeds to determine whether there is grip available (how the traction control works). There is a sensor that measures steering wheel angle, the assumed intended path. There are yaw sensors that measure rotation around a center axis. The stability control system puts all of that information together and determines if you are on your intended path.

There are two basis ways for a car to be out of control; oversteer (back of the car tries to beat the front of the car thru the corner) and understeer (car pushes thru corner). Understeer is widely considered to be the safer of the two and most cars a designed to understeer at their limits. As a rule most front/all wheel drive cars understeer and rear wheel drive cars oversteer. The last sentence makes the assumption of a car with a neutral setup and what occurs when the level of grip is exceeded.

So what does all that have to do with stability control? It stops it. The car will automatically brake an individual wheel to bring the car back to its intended path. According to several studies from the NTSB and the IIHS single car accidents were reduced by 50% compared to the previous model year not equipped with stability control. And of those accidents that did occur your survival rate was also improved by 50%. So yea, I leave mine on. Oh, it is also going to be required to be a standard feature on all cars in 2012.

TeknoKing

SPAW, lol, I was just getting lost, and I start reading same line over and over again

Fish08, yes!!! Thank you

fish008

I just highlight the lines as I go along when someone does the same thing that I did.

I think we might be off topic at this point.

jupitersolo

When you're trying to get up a hill, you turn VSA off. My first time really having to do that today. About 3 inches of snow.

S PAW 1

You know, I read where someone else said that too. If you turn off the VSA, doesn't your traction control shut off also? I would think that would not be to your benefit in snow.

jupitersolo

I couldn't get up the hill until I turn it off. It kept my wheels from spinning, which is what I needed to get up the hill.

Bearcat94

As I get older, I've noticed 2 things:

- It's harder to see/read, especially on a computer screen

- I'm turning into a grumpy old man; Like the Dad on Everybody Loves Raymond (Peter Boyle ).

Shalooby

It's like landing gear indicator lights in a cockpit. If the gear is down and locked you get three (or six, depending on aircraft) green lights. If the gear is in-transit they may be red or yellow basically saying 'something is happening'. If a unsafe condition is detected, i.e., down but not locked, retracted and not locked, you'll get red. Normal in-flight indication, retracted and locked, is no lights at all.

fish008

WHAT?

Crysophylos

You have to be a pilot or familar with airplanes to understand what he said, but he's right. In otherwords: No Problems = No Lights (at lease for red or yellows)

S PAW 1

Originally Posted by Shalooby
It's like landing gear indicator lights in a cockpit. If the gear is down and locked you get three (or six, depending on aircraft) green lights. If the gear is in-transit they may be red or yellow basically saying 'something is happening'. If a unsafe condition is detected, i.e., down but not locked, retracted and not locked, you'll get red. Normal in-flight indication, retracted and locked, is no lights at all.

Too short to paragraph, but just as hard to read!

jokerunm

VSA becomes useless in deep snow because the tires never achieve the right amount of traction(wheel spin no matter what) so VSA will keep trying to cut the throttle in order to get traction,------>so the car will not go anywhere. So, for deep snow, you can turn the VSA off, to allow wheel spin...and perhaps rock your way out of a situation.

Shalooby

I write technical manuals too!

Shalooby

Basically a correlation between systems and indicator lights.

VSA on and all is well ---- No Indicator

VSA on and all hell breaking loose ---- Flashing Indicator

VSA off (could mean trouble) ---- Indicator On.


Aircraft operating in primary use configuration (cruise w/gear up)
Systems armed and all is well ---- No Lights


I also write technical manuals. I'm the answer to the "Who writes this crap" question.

S PAW 1

That explains it .. Thanks
v

geekybiker

I just wish acura would let us disable TC separately from SC. I always want SC on in street situations (on the track I'd rather have it off). TC I want off most of the time however. I'd rather control my wheel slip through my right foot.

S PAW 1

When I went to the Acura High Performance Driving School this last year, the first thing we did when we got in our TSX's was to turn off the dreaded VSA before putting them on the track. Big difference!

geekybiker

Yah. First time I had my corvette out at road america I had the tc/sc on and I was wondering why the heck I could't apply any throttle out of corners. Disable TC and everything got much much better. Few sessions later I tried taking SC off as well and the car felt even better. I was able to enter a controlled drift in corners and steer with the throttle. Lots of fun. Miss that car.

fish008

The corvette has one of the best TC/SC systems out there, at least for track use. From what I have read they have a track or sport setting that is somewhere in between on and off. It lets you have a little fun but can still save you when you get really out of control. That makes sense on cars like that but I am not sure that makes sense on a TL. 99.99% of the owners would never need it and would be a waste of R&D money.

If you sent the average TL owner out on the track and told them to go all out I would bet at least half would never be able to push the car hard enough to even engage the SC let alone continuously be near the limits of adhesion. Plus, by creating a setting like that in a car like this would almost certainly cause more accidents. I bet that percentage wise a significantly larger number of corvettes go to a track in their lifetime compared with TLs. Someone else mentioned this but having separate buttons for TC and SC could at times be helpful. Hopefully someone at Acura is taking note.

geekybiker

Well the C5 had "sport mode" Which disabled the TC, but not the SC. Can't really tell you if it toned down the SC or not in that mode. SC even on a track is a good safety net if you're not experienced. It does slow you down if you know what you're doing though.

As for the TL. I dont care about additional SC program settings. I just want to control individual systems being on or off. (I hate electronic nannies I can't shut off) Not much R&D there.