Is traction control "tunable"?

Flapjack

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Might be a dumb question... but relevant in my case. I recently put twin Hellions on my 2019 GT. It's a blast to drive, but Palm Beach Dyno told me to disable traction control. I know I can unplug it under the hood, but the roads in CO are shit, and my car is a daily driver. If I'm going to get on it, I just disable traction control before going WOT. Of course, if I forget, the car freaks out and loses its mind, backfires, and all the rest.

I'm guessing you can get traction control on a GT500, which makes a lot more power than a stock GT. Is the logic there hardcoded in a different firmware used on GTs, or is the traction control logic part of the PCM's "tune". Is this something that can be scaled for different power levels so Ford can use the same hardware? Even if it was the former and could be swapped out for a GT500 TC module (or something to that effect), it would be useless as the torque curve of the turbos is different than the torque curve of the GT500.

Is truly the only answer here to just disable the TC and be done with it? If so, while lame, I'll accept it. I just wanted to know if PBD is being lazy and could actually tune this for the new power level.
 

Pentalab

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It's either on....or off...via the TC on/off button. AFAIK the TC can also be shut off ..permanently in a software tune, like a custom tune from lito, or vmp etc.

I leave TC on when it's raining, but shut it off when it's dry out. 1-2 days a year when it snow's, and I get caught in the snow, I shut it off. Yesterday, we had a freak freezing rain event, stayed home.... but if caught on ice, TC is also shut off.

In the dry, with the blower on, and TC on, it just trashes ur rear brakes.
 

Flapjack

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It's either on....or off...via the TC on/off button. AFAIK the TC can also be shut off ..permanently in a software tune, like a custom tune from lito, or vmp etc.

I leave TC on when it's raining, but shut it off when it's dry out. 1-2 days a year when it snow's, and I get caught in the snow, I shut it off. Yesterday, we had a freak freezing rain event, stayed home.... but if caught on ice, TC is also shut off.

In the dry, with the blower on, and TC on, it just trashes ur rear brakes.
Palm Beach Dyno said it could no longer be turned off in the tune and had to be disabled by unplugging the harness under the hood (which we did for the dyno tuning).

I guess my question is how do higher HP stock Mustangs get around this?
 

Pentalab

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Is there a TC on /off button on a 2019 ?? Or is it on all the time ? I assume if you want it off...permanently, you have to unplug the harness ?
 

Rich Grundza

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Might be a dumb question... but relevant in my case. I recently put twin Hellions on my 2019 GT. It's a blast to drive, but Palm Beach Dyno told me to disable traction control. I know I can unplug it under the hood, but the roads in CO are shit, and my car is a daily driver. If I'm going to get on it, I just disable traction control before going WOT. Of course, if I forget, the car freaks out and loses its mind, backfires, and all the rest.

I'm guessing you can get traction control on a GT500, which makes a lot more power than a stock GT. Is the logic there hardcoded in a different firmware used on GTs, or is the traction control logic part of the PCM's "tune". Is this something that can be scaled for different power levels so Ford can use the same hardware? Even if it was the former and could be swapped out for a GT500 TC module (or something to that effect), it would be useless as the torque curve of the turbos is different than the torque curve of the GT500.

Is truly the only answer here to just disable the TC and be done with it? If so, while lame, I'll accept it. I just wanted to know if PBD is being lazy and could actually tune this for the new power level.
I'm not sure about that. I got my EFORCE as a kit from Brenspeed with tune. When I would go WOT I'd get the flashing wrench and it would "surge". I was told by Brenspeed that to avoid that, always take traction control off. I've recently gone to E85 and all the tuning was done by AED. Now, it doesn't surge but flashes to service traction control and removes traction control. A few minutes later it clears itself. I don't know if that was accounted for in the tune or not but it certainly behaves differently. So there may be something that can be addressed in the code to handle it.
 

86GT351

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Might be a dumb question... but relevant in my case. I recently put twin Hellions on my 2019 GT. It's a blast to drive, but Palm Beach Dyno told me to disable traction control. I know I can unplug it under the hood, but the roads in CO are shit, and my car is a daily driver. If I'm going to get on it, I just disable traction control before going WOT. Of course, if I forget, the car freaks out and loses its mind, backfires, and all the rest.

I'm guessing you can get traction control on a GT500, which makes a lot more power than a stock GT. Is the logic there hardcoded in a different firmware used on GTs, or is the traction control logic part of the PCM's "tune". Is this something that can be scaled for different power levels so Ford can use the same hardware? Even if it was the former and could be swapped out for a GT500 TC module (or something to that effect), it would be useless as the torque curve of the turbos is different than the torque curve of the GT500.

Is truly the only answer here to just disable the TC and be done with it? If so, while lame, I'll accept it. I just wanted to know if PBD is being lazy and could actually tune this for the new power level.


Sadly the issue here is you now have a highly modified vehicle and you want the best of both worlds. Sorry but reality.
 

Juice

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I dont think traction control is tunable, it is on or off. You maybe thinking of selectable ABS level on some vehicles.

Now clearly some things affect it in the tune as evident by the difference between two tunes.

IMO, and I base this on "beating my copperhead into submission", aka it took me a long time just to get my stock coyote swap to behave stock.
Most tunes are not complete. It may run just fine most of the time, but odd issues pop up over time. This is due to the OS not liking the changes made. Tuners do not have access to the operating system, only the calibration. And tume changes can run into a situation where the OS 'freaks out'. A simple example, I would get a flashing wrench light after a 3rd gear WOT pull when my speedo was way off when I first built mine. Once I corrected the speedo, it fixed that issue.
Anyway, it takes time to do get a tune right, lots of time, unless said tuner has extensive experience with the combo. I suspect that the speed density model is not correct for the boost. Sure, fuel and timing is rigjt, but with these computers, that is not enough.
Again, my opinion, based on observation over years of driving and the tweaking my swap.
This theory also fits with why Roush and Whipple have their propriatery OS.
 

07 Boss

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I have a traction control monkey. When I turn the key to the start position I have a monkey wired into the TC button on the dash. So every time I start the car it turns the traction control off but I still have the ability to turn it back on on the fly. Plus I don't get the "car doing a burnout" light on the dashboard like you do when you turn it off in the tune.

Edit: sorry, clicked on the wrong section.
 
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Flapjack

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Been a while since I posted, but I finally gave up and just unplugged the TC under the hood. Turns out the button on the dash doesn't fully disable it on the the 2015+ cars, and it was still causing all sorts of hell in the tune.

@Juice: Absolutely nothing was wrong with the tune. Everything I thought was wrong (namely, AFRs due to a possible an "off" mass air transfer function) was 100% perfect after unplugging the TC under the hood.

It's just a shame that it can't be scaled like the torque limiting function (ie: wrench light) can be. It worked great at stock HP, but loses its damn mind if you change the power curve.
 

07 Boss

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Yes, When you turn off TCS with the button it does not turn it all the way off like it does when you shut it off in the tune. This was explained to me at Shelby when they dynoed my car.
 

OX1

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Been a while since I posted, but I finally gave up and just unplugged the TC under the hood. Turns out the button on the dash doesn't fully disable it on the the 2015+ cars, and it was still causing all sorts of hell in the tune.

@Juice: Absolutely nothing was wrong with the tune. Everything I thought was wrong (namely, AFRs due to a possible an "off" mass air transfer function) was 100% perfect after unplugging the TC under the hood.

It's just a shame that it can't be scaled like the torque limiting function (ie: wrench light) can be. It worked great at stock HP, but loses its damn mind if you change the power curve.

They must have really messed with it between 14 and 15. Mine was a real late build 14. I have zero issues with TC. So little in fact, I thought it didn't even work.

Finally at the strip when I went to do a burnout (and forgot to shut it down), it kicked in and would not let me. But I've had the car practically sideways, spinning rears, and nothing.
 

01yellerCobra

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For the stock ECU traction control isn't tunable. It's whatever the factory set it to.

If you want tunable you need to go stand alone. Once you have that the skies the limit pretty much.
 

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