TCS issues

[jdryley]

I've been having intermitent TCS problems in that road imperfections, very moderate turns, light acceleration on dry pavement are triggering my TCS to activate (TCS and ABS flash). Once this happens the main TCS stays on and the TCS off switch will no longer work. I have not recently changed wheels or tires (over 50% tread remaining). I see that the 91-94 (I'm '93) all use the same TCS brain and if I do need a new unit could I upgrade to a newer year which could be better as I run 02+ 17" wheels and tires in the stock sizes? I've been to the Wiki but have not yet had time to do the diagnostic.

So today, even though I had the TCS switched off, it still triggered when driving at a steady speed on a road with some minor uneven sufaces while going about 40mph.

Has anyone else had these issues?

 

[nsxtasy]

The most common cause of TCS activation on dry pavement is tires whose size doesn't match the stock ratio between front and rear outer diameters.

Since you have '02-05 17" wheels, you should be using the '02-05 stock sizes of 215/40-17 front and 255/40-17 rear. Are you? And are you using the same make/model of tire, front and rear? (If the answer to either of these questions is no, that could be the source of your problem.) With these sizes, the TCS should not normally activate. However, if your rear tires are very worn to the point where they need replacing soon, and if your front tires are almost new and still have lots of tread depth, that could cause the TCS to activate - in which case it should go away when you replace your rear tires with new ones.

 

[jdryley]

I'm using and have been using the same Goodyear F1GSD3's for three years now and they have 50% tread left. This is a new issue which has started and not due to any recent changes.

 

[nsxtasy]

Are they 215/40-17 and 255/40-17?

Measure the tread depth, front and rear, and see if the rear tires are a lot more worn than the front tires. The tread depth on the GS-D3 is 10/32" (7.9 mm) or 11/32" (8.7 mm) when new.

Tires must have at least 2/32" of tread depth by law, and the Tire Rack says you may want to replace them at 4/32" if grip in rain is a concern.

 

[jdryley]

As it turns out my battery hold down was shorting against the positive terminal. Fixed and all is now fine.