Well..that is definitely a good technical answer! Some jackass was farting around yesterday so I gave a quick run for his money. However, a two ton car going sideways down the road put him in his place. Now it's raining.....it's uselessness was even more enhanced this morning. So...since it doesn't seem to work anyway...why have the option to turn it off?
Personally, I haven't noticed any change with it on or off in either my SRT or R/T. If the light is "ON" shouldn't our cars SPIN more???
Jeff, you may want to have your rear brake pads checked out, mine works very well, and is very noticeable when it engages... you can disable ESP via Predator, or press ESP button and release to disable 40%, or while vehicle isn't in motion, press and hold the ESP button for about 10 seconds to disable 100%
Yea Jim, you should be able to do a NASTY burnout with ESP disabled COMPLETELY. If you are just pushing the button and release, then you aren't TOTALLY disabling it.
I have been told that MINE, being an 06 will NOT disable 100%! Also was told that IF you hold it in for 10 seconds you will hear a "chime". I don't get any of this. IF I hold mine in for 10 seconds, the "squiggle light" actually goes back off!
I've never heard of that on 06's...mines an 06 and works like I described. Early build date though (Jan 06). May also be a difference in Magnum and Charger...
ESP full on: straight line traction control (spinning rear wheels), lateral traction control. Keeps track of corner wheel rotations, lateral forces, steering angle, and accelleration/de-accelleration. For straight line traction (as well as the rest) the car will first, selectively apply brakes to spinning wheels, the next stage is to also modulate the throttle. ABS is on. ESP partial disable (quick button press). Straight line traction control is turned off. You can spin the rear wheels at will. Lateral traction control is reduced. Both the threshold where it cuts in and the amount of corrective action. ABS is on. ESP full disable (press and hold with car not moving -- or under 10mph?). Straight line traction is turned off. Lateral traction control is turned off. ABS is on. The Predator (canned) tunes do not do anything to traction control directly... What the Predator (canned) tunes do is reduce torque management. ESP uses the torque management tables. So the indirect effect is that ESP is measurably reduced with the Predator tunes. For some perspective. Let's say you make a right turn onto a slightly uphill on-ramp that's a bit damp and get into it a little bit. Stock, you will spin the tires a bit and the rear end will start to kick out. Maybe 1 or 2 feet of lateral slide and it will feel like you hit a curb. The car will first start to apply brake to the inside rear wheel (more than likely the one spinning the most) and possibly start cutting throttle. At the same time it's going to detect the yaw and maybe the fact that you're pushing the front end (since you've transfered most of your weight back there's likely to be some understeer going on up front. lateral forces, acceleration, wheel to wheel speeds, and steering angle aren't going to jive) so it's going to compensate for that. Now if you reduce the torque management in the tables, the difference between doing a 2 to 3 foot step out and getting mostly sideways is not very much... Since it's happening at low speed and low lateral forces you may not get any intervention at all. Sort of like that. That's my understanding. I do believe that later models went back to the 2 stage ESP button (eliminating the ESP full off setting)? or maybe it's the R/T's? sort of remember something along those lines.
It's not a "slippery when wet" on the SRTs... You've turned off straight line traction control. Since we don't have a LSD it means "Your burnout is not likey to happen in a perfectly straight line"...
So it means swervy burn-out? Don't throw stuff at me! I leave my ESP on all the time, when driving the Empress around, when driving in inclement weather and even when out on a road course. I figure driving is interesting enough without wrassling with a two-ton vehicle in addition. The only time I've purposefully turned it off was at a drag strip to get better times since the ESP makes the car bog down at the start if you leave it on. After all, who in their right mind wants to launch their car like that in normal driving conditions. :whistle:
ummm, only in the case of a less than optimal launch... If you spin the tires then it activates and you'll lose more than you would have just spinning the tires. With a perfect launch there is no real tire spin and ESP is not involved at all. On the track it depends on your skill level. Rick is not going to want traction control. You're going to be very limited on your options for throttle steer, brake steer, etc. The partial off is intended for the "intermediate" drivers like most of us. Some constrained ability to do just a little bit of the above. errr... umm... NOBODY HERE THAT's FOR SURE. LOL
I would never consider launching my 300 under normal driving conditions.. wink wink nudge nudge. Also I heard (and tried) putting the key in the start position for a period of time while your tooling down the road also does 100% ESP off. Its like a little easter egg they put in it or something. Anyway it was a long time ago that I did it and don't remember the outcome. I do remember chimes and squiggly lines tho. Im pretty sure it works, dang, Im just gonna half to go out and retest it at lunch time.
I'm sure if I had more regular time out on a track I'd want to work towards turning it off and having more control of the car, but again I don't, so...I don't. Damn, having more pangs for performance driving classes/weekends....
The key trick should be equivalent to the full off. Same as the press-and-hold with the car stopped. Note: ABS is never turned off. The Predator has/had a "dyno mode" which disables ESP as well as ABS. You really don't want ABS disabled for driving the car.
I agree however at the SRT experience when we were drag racing, the Charger I was driving (with ESP on of course) was launching great but twice it kicked in shifting from 1st to 2nd totally blowing my run. With that in mind I think leaving it off and just heating up the tires real good prior to the run works best.
And Rus, your Bill the Cat avatar gives me the giggles...cause that's pretty much how I feel when I'm out driving by myself. :grin:
