Well today I can say that it was a lousy day for driving in general, we in MA got freezing rain over an inch or so of snow so gettting to work took longer than usual but due I think because I had to drive slower because I had the VSA on 1/2 way thru which made me want to try to drive the car w/out any assist from it and see if I really need it after having lived all my live and driven in N.E w/out any of my previous car having this device.
Guess what ?, I did better time and was able to control the car better than with the VSA on, now I know this was put there to help out but I wonder if at times it just works against you when you "think" you're under control.
My wife loves it on the Ody, personally I'll keep it of for now.

 

Personaly, I got no use for it at all.
I think its for really poor drivers, and as a selling gimic.

Just another thing to go wrong.

I would love to perminantly disable my vsa...

Brett

 

VSA is more effective when you are driving on the highway and have to swerve unexpectedly; it will keep the car stable. In the snow, the traction control is what you experience most of the time, in conjuction VSA. I tested it out last night in a mall parking lot that was covered with about 5 inches of snow. I did a mini slalom and the car was extremely stable. I was very suprised how well it performed even with out snow tires. 2 for Acura

 

Acura VSA is useless.

 

I've only driven with VSA on, so far VSA has been OK but the response time is slow IMO.


I live at the bottom of a steep hill. I've been able to drive my neighbor's Pontiac Grand Prix up the hill in snow with it's traction control off (she is not a great driver in the snow and asks me to get her car to the top). If the traction control system for the Grand Prix is on then it gets bogged down. I have found I can do better at low speeds with my seat of the pants throttle management. Next time it snows I plan to try the TL's VSA on and off to see what difference there is.

 

I think in highspeed VSA helps. In low speed, your correction should able to steer car right with lot more fun. Just like what I did on mustang with no TC, no VSA.

 

i have to say we just (my wifes car) bought an '06 this last weekend and just taking an on or off ramp to hard kicks in the VSA, and it's very miss leading...for me at least i'm used to driving hard (type-r modded, wrx modded, crx modded) as i'm sure everyone here but , it's like your expecting the car to do one thing and knowing how far to push and it's saying no you can't...i don't like it but i could see it helping in the snow, rain.....

 

VSA is for high speed "oh s**t" situation. lower speed you'll probably do batter urself if you are decent drivers. but you can't keep it off all the time cuz u don't know when that "oh s**t" is gonna happen.

 

Like others I think VSA can be useful in unexpected high speed situations like a swerve or something like that. However, at low speeds, I find it annoying. Like baysic tl said, it is misleading. I always expect the car to react in a way, but the VSA kicks in and changes that reaction. I prefer turning it off and controlling the car myself.

Usually when I'm driving (my dad's '04 TL) I only leave the VSA on if I'm doin over 50mph... but even then sometimes I have to turn it off like if there's too much snow (like this morning) cuz sometimes it keeps me from correcting the car like it should be corrected...

 

I agree that VSA at highway speeds > * since it has saved my ass. I had to perform an "oh shit" swerve and if I had done that in my 2k4 Altima, I would have lost control.

 

VSA = Very Stupid Accessory!!! Not really, but also not needed except in extreem higher speed avoidance maneuvers. I leave it on unless I'm trying to have fun or want to turn traction control off for low speed snow driving.

 

i may agree that vsa may be bad in lower speed situations. but if it some of ya guys think its worthless, jus go to the a parking lot and start playin wit ur car w/ and w/o vsa. then ull really see the difference, vsa is a verryyy good toool to have in case of an emegency. however if you driving at a race track or spirited drivin, it may be betta to turn the vsa off.

 

btw, youll wonder what u did w.o vsa when u start to fishtail on ice.... theres basiaclly nothing that you can do in terms of using the indvidual brakes to correct the car.

 

Hey you guys and gals,

Try going up an icy hill with twists and turns on a severly bevelled road. Without VSA the tendency is for the car to spin one or both front wheels (6MT) and for the car to slide off the road. With VSA the car is more behaved and proceeds slowly up the hill. Now without VSA I spent alot more time feathering the gas and clutch and had to devote a lot more attention (not a bad thing) to the simple act of ascending a hill. Normally I'm not a VSA fan, but there are situations where it is useful.

TL-Rocket
'04 TL 6MT

 

On streets, I have it off. But once I'm on the on-ramp to a freeway, it goes back on.

 

I know this about VSA, and not to hijack it, but does everyone think about the ABS system. I think the ABS is too easily triggered in this car. It is always coming on - even on dry roads where I hit a pothole when braking, or similar. I HATE how overly sensitive the ABS is on this car.

Again, sorry for the hijack.

 

what is the condition of your tires? I just replaced my oem EL42s at 10500 miles. (still just above the wear bars).

I just put on new Michelin Pilot A/S tires - It seems as if the VSA lights up much less.

 

I had the EL-42's. Replaced em with Pilot Sport A/s. I have about 8,000 miles on the Pilot Sport A/s.

 

i sometimes did 60-70mph on local highway too then deers jumped out. i leave it on all the time. it's not worth it.

 

I had deers jump out or try to make it accross the road in front of me, one thing I have learned is pressing the horn and applying brakes because these animals are so quick that they will move faster than you will stop, now if one decides to cross as you are going by their path, no safety device will save your.a..s.
Getting back to the subject of VSA, last night I took the Ody for some gas and shut off the VSA and I now know that with an automatic it is a must to have ON as I felt the loss of traction on the same road I had driven earlier with the TL w/out the VAS.
Now I'm not knocking Acura for having installed this device on our cars, maybe it comes to good use for those who have auto transmissions but I know that in the 6M models it should have been an option since IMHO you can "drive" a car with a manual tranny and not get too comfortable just aiming it ( disclaimer: not making any negative comments to those who drive automatics, just an observation)
It took 13k miles to figure this out, maybe I should have posted on the thread....
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65417

 

When driving at low speeds, through snow, the Limited Slip Differential part of VSA really helps keep the car moving.

When driving at high speeds, I wouldn't expect the VSA to be able to overcome a large mass in motion. If you're going 70 mph, it's slippery and you're headed for a brick wall, you're going to need the air bags. VSA will not help you.

 

That's interesting. I say that because I have a Grand Prix GTP too, in addition to our TL. The traction control on the GTP is worthless. It's pretty slow reacting. I can smoke up the tires pretty good on dry pavement with the traction control on.

But anyways, I think your problem with the TL is the tires, not the traction control. My wife got stuck in the snow on the hill by our house with the TL. I rescued her with the GTP. When I replaced her tires with Toyo Proxes4, the problem went away, and she never got stuck again.

Personally, I like VSA. But I mostly drive a RWD G35, so maybe it does me more benafit than my wife's TL. On the G35 boards, almost every person that's ever wrecked their car by losing control of their car, (usually taking a corner too fast in the rain), has had the VSA off, because they thought they could drive better than VSA. One time I was passing a truck on a mountain road, and failed to see the sign that said the passing lane was about to end. On top of that there was a 35mph curve fast approaching that I didn't see either. I ended up taking that curve at near 80mph. I broke the back end loose, and ended up power-sliding through the curve. I'm sure if I had VSA off I would've spun out and smashed the gaurdrail, but with VSA on, I actually never even left my lane.

 

Wow really? I almost never engage the ABS on any of our cars, including the TL. The only time I've ever engaged the ABS on dry pavement in non-panic stops, is when I hit a bump while I'm braking. But I can actually feel the car float over the bump, so I know one of the tires lost traction going over the bump. I prefer fast reacting ABS, than a slow reacting one. I used to own a slow-reacting mechanical ABS car, and that was about as worthless an abs system you can get.

 

Is the vsa burn more gas when it is on?

 

No I don't see this is possible.

Yes in theory it is possible because if you are giving gas and computer is retarding it, you are technically burning more gas than doing wheelspin, but in terms of answer I say NO it does not.

 

VSA is default on, but on standby. It is a last resort, Acura designed it to not be intrusive (like VDC for Lexus is). It does not use any gas.

 

The fundamental principle behind VSA is that in case of an unwanted vehicle motion, it will kill the throttle and apply individual braking as necessary to correct the travel path.

So no, VSA does not burn more gas when it is on. It's all electronic, which sends mechanical commands that basically has nothing to do with the fuel system.