lldknyll26

(08-TL-s)
so yesterday this e class benz was tailgating me so i just floored my car to 5500 rpm. after i floored it, the car felt as if it lost power. the car felt sluggish. is it just me or something wrong with the car? does it hurt to floor the car too often? I heard my friends brother's tl-s trans died on him within 2 yrs of purchasing the car due to abusive driving.

94eg!

Did the traction control (VSA) light come on when you floored it?

Keep in mind that traction control shuts the motor down to keep from spinning the tires. It's best to switch it off when you want to punch it, and control wheelspin or wheelhop with your foot...

alexSU

iTrader: (3)

^^ any transmission is going to die after abusive driving. if you take car of it, it will take care of you.

^+1 on traction control

flyromeo3

Light on = traction control off right?

stillhere153

iTrader: (1)

^ bad way to look at it... if you press the button you will have a /_!_\ on the dash, that shows vsa is off

if you floored it and kept on the gas and it felt really sluggish poor quality gas or time for an oil change

csmeance

^ Do NOT SHUT OF VSA unless you know how to control a car properly in a skid! Experienced drivers should only attempt this

Flooring the motor to 5500 RPM's should hurt it, the old TL-S had transmission problems from the start, which affected nearly every TL made from 2000 and on.

It was probably VSA activating...

94eg!

How are you gonna learn if you don't try?

D-MacTL

iTrader: (2)

So now I am not understand does the / ! \ light indicate that Traction control (VSA) is on or that VSA is off and needs to be turned on. Haha very stupid question but this thread just messed up my perception on the VSA. And I have pushed my J32 without traction control.

csmeance

trust me, for an inexperienced driver without VSA, spinning out or going into to a wall is pretty frightening.

ray-ban

For me, when I want to punch it or get that extra kick out of spirited driving, VSA comes off ONLY on warm dry roads. On wet or contaminated roads, VSA remains ON. On a dry road in the winter on a cold day with cold tires, VSA remains ON. If your tires are balding, VSA ON.

Stick to using VSA this way and you'll be fine.

SebringSilver

I'm still confused as to why some of you are saying that the OP's experience of the car "losing power" after having gone WOT is in any way related to whether VSA was on or off.

csmeance

Going WOT usually causes a loss of traction, thus engaging VSA which makes the car seem like its loosing power.

PhilB81

Come on you are not very encouraging! You should be more supportive.
My recommendation is to go pretty fast on a highway ramp with a concrete wall and as you are turning pump the brakes once or twice. If the cat understeers grow some balls and do it faster! I'm a real good driver cuz I shift real fast and I can go 140mph on the highway so this is super easy for me.

Btw if you can't tell I'm sarcastic ignore my post

SebringSilver

But I think he meant that after having floored it, he felt that the engine seemed sluggish, not during.

SouthernBoy

The default condition of your VSA is on. So when you start your engine, it is going to be on and you will not see the yellow triangle with the "!" inside. If you deliberately press the VSA switch, you will deactivate VSA and the yellow triangle will come on and stay on. If it is on as normal and you begin to lose traction, the yellow triangle will flash on and off which indicates that VSA is controlling your vehicle as it was designed.

As has been stated, if you accelerate at WOT and start to spin the tires, your VSA will activate to control that behavior unless, of course, you previously turned it off.

TeknoKing

May I recommend innovative mounts? Yes? May I?

You'll forget the notion of a wheel spin...

lldknyll26

my oil life is at 40%. would that make my car feel sluggish? and by flooring my car to 5500 rpm, its going to mess up my trans? so that means i can't abuse the car once ina blue moon?

SebringSilver

Is it still feeling sluggish even now, ever since you floored it hard that day?

94eg!

-I run my oil down to the 5% mark every time using Full Synthetic 5w20 (Mobil-1, Penzoil Plat, Royal Purple, Q-horsepower, etc). I've never noticed any difference in performance from beginning to end in my 6MT. Your car should easily pull to redline every time you try.

- If VSA is on (dash light off), it will shut the throttle when wheelspin is detected. You should know when this happens because the dash light will blink when VSA takes control.

- You will loose performance if you put anything but premium gasoline in it. The hotter it is out, the worse it will be effected. The engine is very high compression at 11:1 and requires gasoline with a higher detonation threshold. If the engine senses detonation (via the knock sensor), it will retard the ignition timing and reduce the motors performance. Timing stays retarded until the next time you fill the tank.

- If the transmission is slipping, it should be pretty noticeable. The revs will go up, but the car won't be accelerating.

94eg!

This is just a silly notion! No matter what sort of mounts you use, you will always have enough torque to overcome the traction of the tires if only in the lowest gears.

There are only two outcomes of this sort of loss of traction, wheel-spin or wheel-hop. Wheel-spin is the better of the two. Wheel-hop breaks axles and other things...

TeknoKing

^ Welcome to AZ, stick around, maybe you will learn something

P.S. a Honda enthusiast knows how to launch a car, but most won't ever do it unless on the track.. accelerating that hard on a street is already sub-dumb. Stock mounts are useless and are garbage.

TeknoKing

I do wish that our cars were RWD or AWD... I don't believe I ever turned off my VSA, maybe a few times when I was really deep in the snow...but I'm glad I have it and that I use it.

BLACKURA_NY

iTrader: (6)

well spoken

i will probably never install stiff mounts on any car again... BUT.... man, wheel hop, was a thing of the past.... wheel spin?? you must be CRAZY....when i punched my car at a stand-still... i would burn straight through 1st gear, on a 5AT.... i knew how to drive my type-s really well

in fact, you cant punch it.. you had to ease into the throttle, otherwise, you would go no where....

i was racing an IS350 (ive beaten them before) but i saw a nice shiney catback system... so when i punched it extra hard, all i heard was tires spinning.... i looked car, the IS was gone, and i hadnt moved 5 feet

TeknoKing

Why not? Did it lead to problems, please do tell.....

Blazing GT

was it a Red IS350 with black roof and hood?
that guy tries to race everyyyyyyyyyone

94eg!

I must have missed your point...

phee

iTrader: (5)

fixed

Majofo

^ that's what I was thinking.. and an explicit description of VSA.. if wheels spin occurs on one side.. VSA will control throttle so it WILL reduce power.

the feeling of sluggishness after is probably just your mental perception.

lldknyll26

my car doesnt feel so sluggish now. i think its fine.