What is Traction Control System?

A friend of mine bought Hyundai Elantra and we were discussing about that vehicle, after completing the telecon I tried the Carwale’s site for the features of Elantra. Will someone please explain what Traction Control is? This is one of the features in the Elantra and three other cars that I was comparing (Link).

I Googled the term, TCS and Link 2 , but could not understand it clearly. Faintly, I think traction relates to the tyre and road connections, but then if it is only tyre v/s road then better tyre would solve the problem, why have the TCS in your car, this means, it is much deeper than simply rubber and asphalt/tar’ relations.

My queries are:

1.   What is Traction Control?

2.   How important it is to have in a car, in regular city driving, long distances/high speeded driving?

3.   How do the automobile company achieve it?

4.   How does the driver get benefit from it whilst driving?

5.   And there are some quotes from -

..........cont.

1.   How do the automobile company achieve it?

2.   How does the driver get benefit from it whilst driving?

3.   And there are some quotes from - Link 3

a.   One notable exception is in the motorsport technique of drifting, in which rear-wheel traction is purposely lost during high speed cornering......... what is this?

b.   higher traction between wheel and ground is generally more desirable than lower traction, as it allows for more energetic acceleration (including cornering and braking) without wheel slippage, giving the driver more control over the vehicle...... what is Energetic Acceleration? Means better the grip, better the acceleration? Or something more?

Thank you.

1) All the wheels of the car at all times may not be on very same surface-eg. the left wheels running on a patch of water-or-the car being driven partly on gravel.

-in these senarios the gripe at each wheel/tyre is different-but in cars without TCS the same amount of power is fed to all the wheels.

-TCS is a clever system by which the car EMS(electronic management system-in other word the on-board computer) makes adjustment to the amount of power going to each of the wheels(driven).

-this explanation is a very rudimentary explanation about the TCS systems on use now(usually combined with ABS/EBD systems).

2) not very necessary-but if present very welcome-in future these will become standard in all cars.

3) Electro-mechanics!

4) better control-lesser chnaces of a skid.

Did not understand the purpose of the 'quotes'.

Kabir, drifting is that stupid motorsport where the driver spends a day smearing his tyres all over the road doing crazy sliding, burning up tyres by slipping them against the road (giving smoke and coating the road with melted tyre compound etc). I find it highly offensive, as it wastes resources and does not do anything productive (anyways it is generally true for all racing)

Because driver retains control of the steering but lets the rear wheels spin without traction, it is said the traction is lost on purpose.

The car translates rotation of wheels into translational linear motion by making the wheels roll on the road. if the tyre grip on the road is not good, there will be relative motion between the tyre and the road where the tyre contacts the road. This will result in only a fraction of the total car engine power getting translated into a forward thrust. Therefore it is said that the better the traction, better the acceleration. Energetic is just a way of saying powerful - better the grip, better the acceleration.

Whats the difference between Traction control system and ELD(Electronic lock differential)?

Traction Control is a system that limits the amount of wheel spin or 'slip' of a driven wheel.The main function of the traction control system is to prevent a condition known as oversteer, which is induced when the lateral grip at the rear of the car is reduced due to excessive wheel spin. This can result in the driver loosing control of the vehicle. The other important benefit of traction control is maximizing straight line acceleration of the car.

LSD increases the torque presented at the tyre contact patch with the road, which increases the force exerted on theroad, and, as Mr Newton states, this increases the rate of acceleration. In the situation where one wheel is spinning, a car with an "open" diff can potentially loose all drive, but this can only happen on very low grip surfaces, like ice and wet grass. The LSD prevents the wheel with the least grip from spinning, traction control is therefore not triggered anywhere near as often, and the car accelerates to it's true potential.

The LSD also improves stability. As mentioned before, many incidents on the road are generally caused by loss of stability as a consequence of a sudden driver reaction input. The fact that the margin of longitudinal rear grip has been increased movesthe limits beyond the torque output at the rear axle, in most conditions. That's one of the causes removed.

Have a look at this for Traction control, ABS and ESP.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-hHWSQhKuc

Wow Vasanth,

That was a great link to the video, Electronic Stability Programme! Henceforth, I shall never curse the Delhi’s scorching summer temperature; it is pleasant to switch on the A/C button than the ESP!!

I remember my trip to this boutique hotel called “Clouds End” in Mussoorie some years back; the location of this ‘Must Visit if you go to Mussoorie’ resort is at a hillock some 10 kilometres above the normal area of Mussoorie and it is located really at the end of the road.

My wife and I have travelled to Mussoorie in my first car Matiz, and whilst climbing onto the snow covered narrow road  which leads to this hotel, I felt the same skidding/slipping experience that that video in the link was showing. I had to abandoned my idea of taking Matiz up there and had to park it in the public park area and use their car during our stay. Upon asking the locals how they drive their car in this snow, one of them told me that they wrap the iron chain (wrap around ribbed chain) on one front and one back tyre – diagonally opposite and this help them to drive in the snow.

I guess this new ESP+TCS would be a better solution now than the ironman’s tips! Am I right?

There is a certain limit to which the TCS systems will function. Its not the answer for any 'traction' related issues.

The 'ironsman's chains' are known as snow chains and is widely used in snowy areas.