Traction control engaged on dry pavement

Yesterday I had a regular service done at my dealership which included rotating my tires .

Today I was driving to work on dry pavement , going fairly quick around a rather sharp corner and my traction control engaged , applying braking to one of the rear tires . The audible alarm sounded for a second as well , I was unable to see which idiot light came on as the dash array was blocked by the wheel which was cranked over .

I called the service manager and we discussed what may be the issue , he said he would talk to the tech and I agreed to call him back after lunch . On my way home , the same happenend again , in the same type of corner , turning in the same direction for what that is worth .

I pulled out the Tacoma manual and read the section about rotating tires , and it says that after rotation you need to reset the TPMS . A call to the service manager left me feeling that this was not done , as he said it wasn't necessary for a tire rotation , at which point I said " well the manual says it is necessary " , kind of went silent on the other end of the phone .

At any rate I reset the TPMS , and it hasn't happened again yet , I talked with a mechanic friend of mine and he told me that the sensors not only read the air pressure of the tire but they know which tire they are in relation to the truck .

So this is what I think happened , correct me if I am wrong please .

The truck is in a tight turn , which means that the front tire on the outside of the turning radius is turning faster than the front tire on the inside of the turning radius , but because the TPMS was not reset the truck reads the tires that are up front as still being on the rear , it senses that one of the rear tires is spinning faster than the other and the traction control kicks in .

Does that seem correct ?

Thanks in advance ,

EDIT;

, after much input it was more than likely that it was the VSC engaging and not the traction control , I also had the tranny re flash done at this servicing and feel the VSC has gotten more sensitive since the re flash , I have driven this same road 1000 times since I've had my truck in every road condition and today the VSC ( or other ) engaged twice on dry pavement at nothing near the fastest I have ever gone through this section of road .

Thanks for all of the input ,

OZ

 

Any thoughts fellas ?


OZ

 

That is quite interesting!

Are you sure that your AUTO LSD was not on?

 

I don't think the TPMS has anything to do with Traction Control. Otherwise everyone that runs their wheels without the sensors would have a problem. The reset button you have access to is just to reset the light after a low pressure warning. When the dealer rotates the tires they are supposed to reassign the sensor to the new location, again shouldn't affect Traction Control.

 

Yes ,

OZ

 

I rotated my tires and did not reset the TPMS and have not had any issues. Tires were done about 3500 miles ago.

 

But if there are no sensors on the truck , there would be no input telling the computer that one tire is spinning faster than the other ,

OZ

 

Not crazy fast , and I should point out I live on a small island and this is the one main road to town , I have driven this road everyday since I've had my truck ,( over a year ) , in all conditions , dry , wet , snow , this is the first time this has ever happened ( twice ) and my tires were done yesterday ,

OZ

 

Then how does the speedometer in a car WITHOUT tire pressure sensors know how fast you're going?

It's a completely different system man; not related at all. Just because my brake light is burned out doesn't mean my stereo display is going to tell me to get it replaced.

 

No , no potholes or waves in the pavement , and I know for sure I didn't dip a tire off the pavement , I was really paying attention the second time on the drive home ,

OZ

 

I tried to replicate it after I had reset the TPMS and couldn't get it to occur again , I'm not saying it is the TPMS , just stating the order of events . I am unfortunately not on the same island as the dealership so it's not a matter of just droppin in , requires a ferry ride etc ,

Thanks to all for the input ,

OZ

 

My point was that both traction control and VSC still work even when you run the car without the sensors, so they are not related to one another.

 

If the VSC was what kicked in , which makes sense because there definitely was an audible alarm/beep , would I feel it in my accelerator foot , I know I felt a pulse through my foot which is why I assumed it was brake being applied to one of the wheels ,

OZ

 

x2

 

OK I searched everything I could find here on VSC and if I'm not mistaken it applies brake in order to do it's job as well . So I guess the thread should have been called " VSC engaded on dry Pavement "

The thing that makes no sense to me is that as I said I have been through these same corners literally 1000 times since I bought my truck , in all road conditions and at slower and faster speeds than when this occured today .

Now get your tinfoil hats out , the other part of my service was the transmission ecu re-flash , any chance that the margins for the VSC or A-Trac are reset as well ?

OZ

 

What is the condition of the tires in the rear like, how often did you rotate your tires and what is the mileage of the vehicle (mileage of the tires). I don't expect you to have replaced the tires on an 09 yet. What are the tires tread depths.

 

How about just slow down and it wont do it. Taking the sharp corner fairly quick cannot be safe your truck is saving your life.

 

I do not believe the reset had anything to do with solving the issue as I had a similiar problem just after buying new tires. I was going about 80 and tried to increse my speed to avoid a car changing lanes. I noticed the truck shudder and govern the power down as if I were sliding.

I slowed down to 60 and then incresed my speed with the same result. It seemed as if any sudden increase would cause my traction control to activate....if I slowly increased it worked fine.

After parking the truck all day I drove home that night and could not duplicate the problem regardless of speed or sudden increases in speed. This was the first drive since my new tire swap and I believe the computer had to simply calibrate to the new tires....I went from a 245/75/16 to a 265/70/16 so it should have been close in actual diameter.

Of course I may be wrong however it seemed to repair itself after I drove for a while and then parked the truck. I have been about 700 miles on the tires after that first day and have yet to have the problem return. Sounds weird to me however when I called the dealer that first day the shop guy said he had no idea what could be wrong and wanted me to bring it in for testing. Now I have no idea how our trucks computers work so this is just a guess on my part....good luck.

 

Tires are 6 months old , in great shape , this is the first time being rotated .

My stock Dunlops were replaced with my current Hankooks 6 months ago .

OZ

 

While I appreciate all input , as stated above I was not driving like a mad man and have taken this same corner 1000 times at slower and faster speeds , in all conditions and the VSC ( or other ?) has never kicked in , today it did it twice on two seperate but similar corners .

OZ