MikeT's C5r 1.6 hdi Estate

[MikeT]

BTW, I'm out of hospital, all went well, in fact way better than I and my family anticipated and I'm currently resting (haha! Can't stop doing odd-jobs I'm that bored) at my mum's as I wasn't allowed to be discharged without 24-hour supervision for obvious reasons. Bless the NHS and their staff, they really are the best and makes me even more intent to actively support & protect them any way I can.
Therein, I've missed the perfect opportunity to charge my battery as the car's been sat on my mum's driveway since Thursday morning and I can't drive it until this evening in case I get done for driving under the influence of drugs.

LED's now fitted to all interior lighting and they look brilliant - literally! Had a quick poke at the number plate illumination light but couldn't see how to safely get the covers off without causing damage. No problem, as I only have one LED left anyway. Also topped up all four tyres to the correct pressures.

[GiveMeABreak]

Glad all is well and you are on the mend Mike. Also pleased the LEDs are illuminating your drive now!

[MikeT]

Wheelspin with ESP

This is my first car with such a system and historically I'll react by backing off to control any detected wheelspin, even with this car.
I've seen the warning light flash rapidly many times before but usually after I've reacted and never given it any further thought.

However, making a quick exit right today I caught myself reacting and decided to keep my foot in to see if there was any benefit.
The wheel kept spinning until gear change and I'd straightened out. Is this to be expected?

[GiveMeABreak]

Yes, just drive as you normally would - it sounds odd, but allow the systems to do their job. It can be a bit unnerving at first if not used to these systems.

One winter I was coming down a 1:10 hill and there was black ice. I was in first / second using engine breaking, but as we neared the bottom of the hill it is basically left or right at the junction or a brick wall straight ahead. I told my sister to hang on as we were unlikely to be able to stop. (the ESP / ASR was going mad but that is what it does to correct the trajectory - I finally thought we were going to head into the wall as we were not going to be able to stop - so I turned right (90 degrees) fully expecting the car to slide around and hit the wall side on, but no - I kept the clutch released and in first and just steered to the right and sure enough the car just seemed to go in the right direction - I could hear the systems doing their stuff - braking the relevant wheels and applying the power and drive where needed. It was an experience I don't care to repeat, but it taught me to have faith in the systems and allow them to do their job. If I had disengaged the clutch as my instinct had been, then it wouldn't of been able to apply drive on the appropriate wheel and power out of the skid in the right direction.

To say I was utterly amazed was an understatement, but seeing how the system worked in practice along with a healthy dose of adrenalin has now shown me how good these systems are. Without the ESP / ASR / ABS system I would never have made it and would of ended up head on into a brick wall.

Regarding the wheel spinning, you can turn ESP off for a short while (under a certain speed) for say when you are in snow and need a little more traction - but I find that the power applied on and off by the driving wheels generally works well. I have some Michelin Easy Grips that I keep in the boot in case of getting caught in the snow 0 they can be put on within minutes.

[MikeT]

Come on the snow and ice then so I can get a better understanding of how this all works (in a secluded car park of course).

[myglaren]

Come on the snow and ice then so I can get a better understanding of how this all works (in a secluded car park of course).

Check with your local police - some will have a skid pan at their headquarters and have 'open days' where you can sail around to your hearts content on it.

[GiveMeABreak]

Here's Tiff from a few years back testing the systems. From time index 3:50 the tests start.

[MikeT]

Come on the snow and ice then so I can get a better understanding of how this all works (in a secluded car park of course).

Check with your local police - some will have a skid pan at their headquarters and have 'open days' where you can sail around to your hearts content on it.

We don't even have police station anymore. Steve - they've been shoehorned into our Fire Station.

[MikeT]

I'm confused. I thought traction control was part of ESP yet my wheel didn't stop spinning.
And what's with the option to turn it off in case of ice? Surely it's needed the most then?

[myglaren]

Come on the snow and ice then so I can get a better understanding of how this all works (in a secluded car park of course).

Check with your local police - some will have a skid pan at their headquarters and have 'open days' where you can sail around to your hearts content on it.

We don't even have police station anymore. Steve - they've been shoehorned into our Fire Station.

That is a disappointment - the one here is of course used to train police drivers and I presumed they were widespread.

It was hallways amusing to watch the Swedes teararsing around on frozen lakes. Dodgems for nutters.
It did seriously enhance their winter driving skills though.

[GiveMeABreak]

ASR is from the German 'Antriebsschlupfregelung' or 'Drive Slip Control' (or Anti Slip Regulation). So the ASR limits the power to the driving wheels when pulling away / accelerating, the ABS stops the wheels from locking and the ESP applies the braking to the wheels individually to maintain stability of the vehicle, using advanced sensors (steering wheel angle sensor, accelerometer, Speed sensors etc.) bringing everything together to control the trajectory of the vehicle.

The option to temporarily disable the ESP / ASR (as it is a combined system), allows you to spin the wheels in some situations where you may want the wheels to spin - although I've yet to find this needed personally. It will self re-arm at a certain speed for safety reasons.

[Hell Razor5543]

I remember once heading towards Oxford (on the A4074) during a winter day. When I got to "The Golden Balls" roundabout (it really is called that!) I found that the gritters had not been out, and there was a fair amount of ice on the road. As it is a dual carriage way at that point (and this includes the roundabout) I and a Porsche Boxster were carefully went round, with him slightly in front. Once he straightened out (or so he had thought) he gently accelerated. His back end spun out (I trod on the brakes, but the ice didn't help), and we both ended up stopped (without touching), looking at each other about 3' apart (driver door to driver door). If I looked like he did I looked very worried. When I tried to pull away the ESP couldn't handle the ice (any wheel spin and she cut the revs), so I switched it off and was able to pull away (allowing the Porsche room to turn around again).

[MikeT]

I keep reading how ESP cuts power, sometimes to the point of stalling on ice, yet mine carried on wheelspinning. This is concerning me now it might be malfunctioning.

[MikeT]

Last night I realised an embarassing disadavantage of having such effective internal lighting! Don't want to give details but it involved a bit of car park romance and unthinkingly opening the door (damn you ecnomy mode) at one point to reduce the steamed up windows. Lesson learnt and all that.

[CitroJim]

Last night I realised an embarassing disadavantage of having such effective internal lighting! Don't want to give details but it involved a bit of car park romance and unthinkingly opening the door (damn you ecnomy mode) at one point to reduce the steamed up windows. Lesson learnt and all that.

I'm glad I wasn't drinking tea when I read that Mike!!!

I hope it's not damped the romance and it will continue to blossom