Today I pulled off the panel on the dash that covers the radio and heater/ac *****. This panel also houses the swithes for factory fog lights and traction control-if equiped. Once I got the panel off, I noticed in addition to the correctly plugged in fog light wire and switch, that there was another wire (with appropriate connection end) that was not plugged in (i.e. no switch because my car doesn't have Traction control or does it?) Could my car have all the equipment necessary for traction control, but it is merely not plugged in? The switch hole where the TC switch would be is cover with a factory cover.

Anyone have any ideas or comments?

 

It's just the wiring harness.

 

Your car doesn't have the controller box under the hood that's connected to the throttle body, or the one that ties into the ABS (I'm pretty sure there's a controller on the ABS too? ). GM just built all the cars with the wiring in place so it's easy to hook up if your car was ordered with trac-control.

 

my friend used traction control to help him launch his auto LS1, is that a good idea? ?? ? but once he got going he turned it off real quick. he launched hella good doing this, i was surprised.. any responses to this??

 

Maybe on the street it worked, but at the track I think you'll get better results running with ASR / TCS "off" 99% of the time.

 

Launching with traction control is completely useless since the system in this car is designed for safety not performance... and if it activates you CANT shut it off until you gain traction. Theres no way in the world its helping launches.

 

Exactly, it's not doing anything unless the wheels spin a good amount, then it kicks the gas pedal up. That process slows it down quite a bit, but if the wheels aren't spining it doesn't matter if ASR is on or off.

 

Actually Traction control is a regulator of the trottle bottle. It allows you to punch the gas pedal in hazardous conditions but regulates the fuel by computer so you pull out "theoritically" without spinning. However, it is not as efficient as say the ABS system. You will spin if you punch the gas.

 

Maybe TCS and standard traction controls work that way, ASR (acceleration slip regulation) waits untill your wheels "slip" before it "regulates" by kicking up the gas pedal.

 

The kicking up of the gas pedal is not directly related to how the system works because if you notice and you keep your foot in it, it modulates the throttle and abs system too. The pedal puch back is just to tell you to get off the gas a bit basically, but it doesnt just shut down the throttle (that would snap you into a spin faster than you can say "holy ****"). TCS and ASR are exactly the same thing......