brickboy

I've noticed that my standard Passat PD130 Sport seems to respond more promptly to the throttle when the ESP is switched OFF. Anyone else noticed this?

With the ESP ON, even on a bone-dry, warm day in 3rd and 4th gear, there seems to be a fraction-of-a-second delay between poking the throttle, and the car responding .... as if the ECU is checking it's "safe" before it gives the order to dial in the power.

However, with the ESP OFF, the car seems to pick up instantly, without the fractional delay. To me it seems most noticeable when flooring the throttle especially in third gear at around 2000rpm (i.e. peak torque).

I know the traction control element of ESP "reduces engine torque" if it detects wheelspin, but I wonder if it works actively, to "cushion" and shape the torque output as well?

Any thoughts on this?

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

One less computer program having to examine the numbers and interupt the throttle signals I suppose.

dteagles

I have the PD 150 so I'm keen to try!

I'll let you know.

Cheers,
Darren.

Gren

VAG 1.8T engines act similarly. Try flooring it out of a junction and you can be left stranded.

Not lag either as ESP off sorts it.

Gren

ChrisB

Interesting - I shall prod the button next time I'm in my Ibiza and see what the change is (if any)...

RB5#295

The Beezer only has TCS tho Chris - I didn't notice any difference with mine, except on track where a bit of wheelspin is sometimes preferable to having the revs reigned in.

Fen

ChrisB

Yeah, I knew that Fen. Opps

Taxi!

RS2 JIM

iTrader: (5)

I noticed this in my mum's 225 s3 the other day! I was driving north on a very twisty country road with few switchbacks and tried to floor it round a few of them and found the car wouldn't accelerate. I then pushed the esp button and found it so much more driveable. The road was bone dry, it gripped the tar like the tyres were made of glue and there was deffo less time taken for the throttle to respond.
James

Mungo

I'll certainly give it a go on the way home.

There are a few too many electronic interventions anyway - I guess trying to get the engine to burn as clean as possible. Have you tried left foot braking? Don't! The power gets cut as the electronics think you're doing an emergency stop!

I also don't like the way the revs continue increasing when you lift off to change gear after accelerating hard in 1st or 2nd.

brickboy

I believe I've now been able to quantify this, using a stopwatch and a series of repeated runs over the same road, accelerating from a constant 40mph up to 60mph in 4th gear (Passat PD130 Sport, 3000 miles from new, dry weather, about ).

By doing three runs each with ESP on and ESP off, I got repeatable results as follows:

ESP ON: best time was 5.1 seconds, worst 5.2

ESP OFF: best time was 4.9 seconds, worst 5.0

It's a small difference, but 0.2 seconds at 60mph is one
car length

I should say that the "ESP off" times were done AFTER the "ESP on" times, so intercooler heat-soak was arguably working against the faster times.

Flat 4x4

I've got ESP on my 4x4 Volkswagen-Audi, sorry, Skoda.
I occasionally get the same effects as the S3 owner above (has the same power) and have just started experimenting with this as well.

So the best dry time with ESP on is worse than the worst time with it off. Thanks for that. I might as well leave it off in the dry and on in the wet as the car already has 4x4.

brickboy

Certainly with the Passat, you can get the tyres to spin up, but you have to provoke it to do so, even in slippy conditions. With the Octavia's 4x4 system you'll have no worries.

I'm sure the ESP programme is handy in p*ssing wet weather, but even the owner's manual says it should be switched OFF in icy / snowy conditions 'cos the car will just grind to a halt.

Gren

Never had a problem with ESP in ice/snow. Now if only I could switch off the ABS......

I tend to keep ESP on for most of the time but if I'm wanting to really drive - it's off.

Came round a corner a little too fast last week - understeer. Foot off throttle to bring back into line and ESP kicked in at the same time - brown trouser moment. Safe but scary.

Gren

asifR1

hhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmm eenteresting!!!

wil try it out and let you know!!!

in fact, think i'll go for a blast now.....i'm bored