Hey everyone! With winter and everything, I find myself disabling VSA very often. Obviously when I'm trying to get out of my driveway but also when driving slowly on snowy streets. My reasoning for this is that when there are lots of stop signs/lights, I personally find VSA to kick in too easily for my taste. It gets frustrating when your car bogs down every 15 seconds because it thinks you need help getting going from a stop.

My question is: What do you think of our VSA system? Do you find it works well for you? When do you disable it?

By the way, I'm on very good quality winter tires and I'm not hard on the throttle at all so it's not like I'm asking for VSA to come on. I always apply light throttle, especially on snow/ice in order to minimize VSA action since I dislike it, maybe irrationally :P

 

I have the TL and a Civic auto, I leave it on most the time except when I am climping hills to get home in the snow. It cuts things back too far and I prefer throttle control in that instance.

 

Never use it. The bitches love wheel spin

 

i would like to know too, i dont drive in snow often, but take a lot of road trips to upstate new york and long island.....

 

VSA sucks to get moving in snow. Considering MT has LSD, it feels like it hinders traction. For AT I would maybe leave it on as the wheel losing traction will pull you off traction. Once moving I would leave it on incase you hit some ice patches.
This is in the snow.
Rain and dry conditions, VSA is great on both transmission types.

 

I like it, I turn of off when I need to dig out. Now that the CL-S is retired from winter driving, it never gets used. The Scubie does not have such fanciness, the only nanny that car has is ABS brakes

 

The Subie you mean? As is subaru? Yeah I used to have an Impreza and that thing didn't have a single nanny, not even ABS That car was a blast. What do you have?

 

I live in Los Angeles, so I've never driven on the road with the VSA off.
It's only been off while autocrossing.

 

I don't like it because it feels like my trans slips, when I have vsa on

 

I turn mine off every time I start the car in dry weather. It hinders acceleration big time in first and second gear. In the rain and snow I leave it on and if I need to get up a snowy hill, then I'll turn it off. Haven't really driven the TL in much snow the last few winters though.

 

Mine is normally on unless I am driving stop light to stop light like a "jackass". Of course this is hardly ever these days.

I really wish it was similar to GM's stability control in that you can disable traction control without disabling stability control. Allows you to take off from a stop in the snow/ice without killing the throttle while still keeping the sideways madness under control.

 

I drive my TL in the snow sometimes...best way to get started, manually shift it into second before applying throttle, really limits wheel spin.

 

VSA made that I didn't crash my car in slushy snow not longer than 2 days ago while doing ~60mph. Almost fishtailed, but didn't lose it, didn't get in the ditch, didn't touch anything.

It comes on every once in a while, and it should be that way too. If you're having trouble leaving corners you might be launching a bit too aggressively for your winter tires (I'm on Michelin X-Ice Xi2 and it's just fine) or if you put different wheels on your car you might not have stayed within spec for wheels size which will mess up your VSA readings.

So VSA's staying on in my case, anyway. Only time I would take it off in the winter would be going uphill in difficult traction scenarios or getting out of a parking spot in MTL... ;P

 

Meh I'm launching really softly and my winter tires are Yokohama ice guard 52c. I don't think they're top of the line but still very good winter tires.

You're right though, being very careful on the throttle stops VSA from coming on but that's just so tedious, that's why I've been turning it off in residential areas.

You're lucky about that highway incident, I've never experienced that and I don't wish to :P VSA is always on for me on the highway though.

 

These Yokohamas are pretty good, so unless they're on their last season it shouldn't be an issue, unless they're rotating the wrong way.

I should note that with this weekend storm I wouldn't be surprised if the VSA came on more often. I dropped my GF's brother to his place in Verdun as I came back from Ontario and it looked absolutely chaotic. Snow piled everywhere, crashed cars, ice falling from buildings and trees and no electricity on so many blocks... including my place.

I think VSA is great but definitely shows it's usefulness at higher speeds and not so much as slow speeds such as city driving where you constantly stop and go. It's a great system but it definitely does not replace proper winter driving and should not be regarded as so. It's also not essential, I've drove cars that had no sort of traction control in the past and never even dented a bumper.

 

Yeah this weekend's storm was pretty hardcore, when I got to my street back from work it looked like a war zone. Also the parking guys went crazy and gave tickets to everyone who parked diagonally.. I didn't know they did that. I have my own parking though so I was spared :P

And yeah my VSA has been having a blast these past days with all the ice...

 

'03 legacy L special edition 75K miles on it now

 

Mine is always on, only time I turn it off is if I'm stuck in snow or need to start from a stop real fast. But once I get moving it goes back on. Saved my ass on a back road one day when I took a corner too fast and the ass end started to come around.

 

I live in MN with a 04' 6spd. In the summer I generally leave VSA on unless i'm going to have some fun. In the winter I turn it off every time I get in my car. I short shift and use throttle to limit wheel spin/understeer. I use my experience with rear wheel drive vehicles and parking brakes to keep the oversteer in check. My commute for work is 50 miles one way with 30% being country back roads, 60% freeway and 10% city streets.

 

Its not too invasive for me, only had to use it once so far, since I haven't had the car that long. I'd guess it would need to be turned off if the car got stuck... but only time will tell