Unexpected traction control intervention

[Dippy]

I have sometimes seen the ESC light flash when I accelerate hard but the intervention has been brief. However last night the intervention was longer and unexpected. I accelerated from the lights, briskly but not particularly hard, and then was surprised at a loss of power for perhaps a second. I noticed the ESC light flashing. I think I may have lifted, and the light went off and power was back. This was in a straight line and off course the road was very dry. The rest of the way home I gave it a few blasts and all seemed fine again. I'll do a VCDS scan but in the meantime has anyone else had a similar experience?

 

[voorhees]

Tyres contaminated ? or the road for that matter ? or tyres wearing a bit ?

 

[Dippy]

Well my tyres are down to 3-4mm and I have felt that these Pirellis are losing grip the more they wear. Maybe the road was a bit dusty too.
There were no DTCs in my VCDS scan and I also looked into the gearbox and AWD modules to see if there were any interesting counters which might have flagged something, but I couldn't find anything.

 

[voorhees]

Tyres it is then

 

[arad85]

Had that twice recently. My PS4S are around 4.5mm I think. Car didn't seem to squirm when it happened. Not scanned with VCDS though.

 

[Dippy]

Thanks @arad85 - that sounds the same - no squriming - totally unexpected. Car seems OK now so maybe its just a quirk of the traction system that we have to accept?

 

[arad85]

For reference, 6mm rear, 5mm front. I'm quite impressed with these PS4S's, I think I've put 9k on them so far. My old A3 quattro would go through a complete set of ContiSportContact 3's in 15k miles - and that was only 180hp...

 

[Dippy]

I really should say **** it and get a set of PS4S's but I am loathe to actually change my tyres whilst they still have tread. Maybe when the fronts reach 3mm I will.

 

[arad85]

I wondered if it could be a safety system activating due to a limit having been reached somewhere, but would have expected a code to be stored. I've lifted both times it has happened to me (only in the past month or two and I've been tuned for > 1 year) and wondered if it was anything to do with the weather. The first time it happened was about 9:30am so not too warm yet, but the other time was after 4pm from memory).

I feel better that someone else is seeing the same - particularly with a different tune!

 

[Dippy]

No, I saw the "traction control" yellow symbol flash, so it was just a regular activation rather than any other safety feature. We are having an exceptionally dry period so maybe the roads are dusty. Then maybe with a bit of breeze the dust collects in patches and I hit one with my ageing tyres which have lost most of their grip?