Well me and a few friends decided to go backroading lastnight. Well I turned off traction and esc. But coming out of several hard turns the car would cut power while I was floored.
This isnt the first time this has happened either. I live off an extremely busy road so often you got to give it some gas to get out my neighborhood. And often if I cut the wheel the slightest amount with the esc on or off it will cut power (cant tell you how many times ive almost been hit!)

So what gives can the esc not be fully turned off? Anyone else have this issue? Its something id rather not ask gm as I can only imagine the answer id get

 

i just hold the traction off for like 10 sec, and ESC goes off

 

This.

 

^ yup, TC guys have the same issue

 

Push it once it will say Traction off, then push it and hold it 8 seconds and it will then say ESC off. No traction no esc = fun. And I tested it at 3am 2 days ago on my snowy street....its fun, but my Blizzaks straightened me out lol.

 

Guys im doing that. Its still cutting power like the esc is stepping in. Its like if you turn the wheel and it starts to lose traction it will cut power instead of letting it spin. If you turn both off and floor it then it will just keep spinning. But any direction change or anything and it decides game over.

 

my 2.2 auto with Traction Control had the same problem, putting it into L would show the "T/C OFF" light and it generally would be off, but if 1 tire spun it would cut ALL power and I would continue sliding, I'd check my posts but there was no way to disable it that we could figure out..

 

Yeah its rather irritating especially when it cuts power while your watching cars flying towards your drivers side door or when your trying to keep up with friends on some deserted back roads.

 

You're only the 4th or 5th person who has experienced this exact issue, here is my post from last winter!

https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/problems-service-maintenance-69/traction-issues-153404/

and if you scroll down to:

"has nothing to do with braking or being aware of surroundings fyi. one tire (or multiple) slip, throttle cuts nearly 100%, you keep sliding until you hit something or dry pavement "

It seems like TC can be turned off, but ESC cannot.. perhaps there is a way, maybe a fuse? idk.. but we never solved the issue so good luck. My 09 LS does not have TC or ESC so I don't have the issue but my 07 LT does, and it still does that..

 

Even though it says otherwise in the manual, it seems as though you cant turn off ESC in all models.

If you never get the ESC light(trianlge, swirvy car) lit up constantly then your ESC is still on.

 

I get the orange triangle with the tc off but the esc im guessing just cuts back a bit. But either way its highly annoying!

 

Yeah, the orange triangle is kinda dual purpose TC/ESC, but you should also get an ESC OFF message on the DIC if its off. If you really need it off, youll need to make a switch for the EBCM, that way youve got one quick click to turn it all off (ABS/TC/ESC)

 

If you hold it down like another 10 seconds it will come on and say "ESC off". Promptly followed by "Yeah Right".

I dont really need it off but it is annoying the hell out of me.

 

lol. gotcha

 

It just hindered me a bit on the backroads. I got a bunch of buddies who do scca racing and keeping up in a stock suspension 2.4 na is a bit of a task.

 

Sounds like the torque-based engine management is coming into play and not ESC. To limit torque as to not overpower the tires when exiting a turn in lower gears the Bosch controller will look at the steering wheel angle and limit boost. I'm not sure if that's something HP Tuners can currently modify or disable.

 

Hptuners isnt available for the 08s... I hadnt thought about the torque management on that... Maybe once I can find a bcm tcm and ecm and get them all synched together at somepoint then I will have someone do a full on tune on this thing and see if that helps the issue.

 

It turns off completely for me i tested it many times including in the snow. I tried to purposely slide the car with ESC on, and it wouldn't let it. Took it off and weeee sliding I go.

or just unplug the sensor on the wheels but you loose abs doing that too.

 

When I first discovered the issue, no one else knew what I was talking about. The dealer CLAIMS its fine but maybe it's not supposed to be that way..

 

Hey guys,

i have the exact issues with my tc/esc, i drive over the santa cruz mountains everyday to go to work and have almost been rear ended dozens of times because the esc kicks in and cuts all the power. it seems to be unpredictable and very annoying. i have taken it to the dealer a few times and was told that it is acting as normal. i then pressed the issue on the notion of safety and had a GM regional engineer come and take alook at it. he refused to drive the car or inspect it. told the service manger that it was working as designed. 'case closed' according to them. so i am going to corporate, hoping to get a better response. driving like a mad man and exceeding the limits of the car is one thing, but driving the flow of traffic and almost getting an accident because your car cuts out is a safety issue. i will keep you guys posted on the responses i get.

 

Sweet!! I'm excited that more people have experienced this issue, honestly everyone I talked to this last year looked at me like i had lobsters on my head.. they were so baffled

 

You'd also lose the electronic brake force distribution too which could potentially make the car more tail happy and the rear end want to step out in a threshold braking panic stop.



Might be good to mount a camera in the car to catch what it is doing. More than likely the regional rep probably just thinks you're pushing the car too hard on public roads. Maybe there is a chance you are but you don't realize it, then again maybe there is a problem with the lateral accelerometer, yaw rate, or steering angle sensor. At least having some video to show when and under what conditions it is occurring might help your case.

 

In my case im honestly driving a bit too hard. But then again sometimes its about the only way to get out of my subdivision unless you want to wait 15 minutes for a hole in traffic

 

So with esc off it will let u treat ur car like u stole something right.

 

No. with TC and ESC switched off you can be more aggressive but any turning of the steering wheel seems to cut power especially if theres any wheel spin. If the wheel(s) start to spin and the steering wheel is turned even slightly then it seems to cut power down to almost what id describe as 10% and its left me in a bad spot many times as I was planning on using full power to get out of the situation.