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Noob question, why do you want to turn off traction control? I read on the later model mustangs that are drive by wire that it retards timing and and closes the throttle, what does it do on these older stangs?
The primary reason for me is that it kills any chance at a good pass at the dragstrip. I stalled the car once in the staging lane before a pass, and got a huge surprise to realize that I had failed to turn the TC off when I restarted the car. That pass sucked!!!
A little wheel spin is a good thing when launching a Mustang. However, if the car detects this wheel spin, it will drastically cut your power to stop it and the effect lasts much longer than wanted.
It pulls timing and if needed disables injectors in a "round-robin" fashion--it will also apply and release the brake on the spinning wheel, again if needed...
I am on Jazzer's side as to traction control and ABS, they both remove control from me--also cars have always had anti-lock brake and traction control.
The pedal in the middle controls brake lock-up, and the skinny one on the right (sometimes combined with the left pedal) controls traction...
To get the traction I'm ridin' the clutch
My pressure plate's burnin' that machine's too much...
Cool, thanks for the info. My old truck didn't have all these features, so I've never looked into them too hard. I got my old Dakota R/T sideways several times and always pulled out of it just fine. I'll turn off TC when I'm having some fun. haha
any sct tuner can turn it off. When i had my dyno my tuner offered to turn mine off and haven had a problem since. Not just the old tuners, mine is less than a month old so i know the new ones can also.
A tune created by a tuner using SCT Advantage or one of the other "pro" systems can have any parameter in the tune modified, however I believe that disabling the traction control via the handheld unit's "User Adjustable Options" is no longer possible, though it was on the earlier models.
The same hold's true for the rear O2 sensors and EGR. Again, a tuner using Advantage can still change them and that tune can be loaded into the handheld, however you cannot change the settings using only the handheld device as was once possible.
I got my SCT tuner from BAMA. After this round of snow, I decided I no longer cared for TC seeing as how it is next to useless (I have found that if you get into a sliding situation and tc kicks in while you are sideways, it is damn hard to recover...) I called BAMA up and they are sending me a new set of tunes with the TC disabled. Go BAMA!!! Your will not be disappointed with their service.
Anyway to set up my traction control so that it is always off on when I start my car? I read that it might be possible with an SCT tuner but I am curious if anyone figured out how to do it without a tuner.
There is no way to permanently turn off the T/C on an '02-1/2 to '04 Mustang, other than to "tune it out", because of it's being controlled by the instrument cluster's reaction to the pressing of the momentary contact t/c switch--the cluster montors the switch and sends a message to the ABS module telling it to enable/disable the traction control. The T/C powers up ON each time your turn on the ignition, and then "toggles" ON/OFF each time you press the switch.
It would be possible to design an electronic circuit that "pushed" the switch after some delay, after the ignition was turned on (I would use a 555 timer and a SCR or FET "switch"). However even you had 500 of them made up they would likely cost $35 to $50 each if made to be PnP (I.e. with compatible connectors); tack on something for profit and one would have to sell them for a minimum of $45 to $60 just to make it worthwhile.
Very few owners, certainly not 500, would pay $60 for such a device...
You need one of these little guys. It always remembers the last position of the traction control switch. If it was 'off'' when your turned the car off it will be 'off' the next time you start the car. Better than using a tuner because you still have full use of the TC switch and can turn it back 'on' or 'off' at any time. Easy to install, behind your inst. cluster with some simple wire splices....
07-23-2011, 08:13 AM
