Hi everyone,
I'm new to the site and I've been reading like pages after pages of threads and I have not noticed too many talk of the traction control. I maybe looking at the wrong spots but after reading stuff up to 2003, I noticed it is enough reading and just posted a new thread. I know everyone is not interested in burning tires or have the traction turn off, but my question would be, does anyone know how to fully turn off the traction control because it takes the fun away when you really want it off. So I've been reading alot about the chips but do they also shut the traction off beside gaining hp? Thanks in advance in any answer to this frustrating feature. Don't get me wrong, I like the traction control but wish I can fully turn it off on my own terms. Thanks again.

 

The only way to get it to turn off completely is if you had a new ECU and Transmission control module. The cars ECU has the Traction Control relay wrapped in with the Electronic Hydraulic system. If you turned it off completely, your car wouldn't be able to shift properly. It would potentially get stuck in shift lock. Your traction control system is one of the key players in regulating the pressure solenoids. If you don't know what I'm talking about. What it does is regulate the amounts of pressure applied based on the Voltage levels running through it. Here is an example of how it works. Say the that you driving and your running temp is 221 degrees(F), the voltage running through there is 1.83 Volts w/ a resistance of 1695.0. Now if you car was running at lets say 293(F) the voltage increases to 2.11 volts w/ a resistance of 2148.0. So you see when the voltage increases, so does the pressure, and the traction control helps to regulate, as well as make sure that its getting done as well.
I guess the only way you can trick the car is, if you some how fooled the speed sensors around on all four tires, as well as your Horizontal Accelerator sensor. If you can get them to all read at the optimal levels at all times, then you would be able to burn out and have the traction control system thinking that your fine. It wouldn't be easy to do, but I'm sure someone could do it. I hope this helped you a little bit. Oh ya and by the way welcome, were all a bunch of performance freaks, looking for the stuff to make our cars look cooler, or go faster. If you have any other questions, you can email me or PM me anytime.

 

Yeah thanks saskins, I been reading alot about your dual intake and saw it for sale on ebay recently. Good work on it. Thanks for the break down of the sensors on our car, I didn't know about all those sensors that existed. I was hoping for a quick fix like a aftermarket chip, ex. powerchip, Eurorev or upsolute to trick the car and be able to have an on and completely off traction feature. The only disadvantage I see with the traction is, a higher chance of lowering track time because when I launch at the tree light usually in between 1st to 2nd or during launch I peel off or the wheels chirp and the traction would kick in and bog the car down and slow it up a bit. Even if I was not at the track just to start 0-60 side by side rival run with a friend a civic would blow by me til I get to the smooth gears. I guess I have to be gentle til I reach the safe zone. I still love the car.

 

I completely understand about the Jump. Mercedes is famous for poor acceleration. You have to roll on the throttle, you can't just grip it and rip it, if you will. The other thing that you might be able to look into... You might want to check your intake manifold. If you have a real poor idle, and seems like it could be diving in the RPMS. You may have a bad one. The SLK, & CLK classes apparently have a 50/50 chance unfortunately. I guess they have a high rate of failure.

 

I completely understand the workings of an auto- but how about for us 6 speed folks? Is there any way to get rid of that dumb 4000 limiter to get a "real" launch out of the car? Any of the chips or re-flashes address this? Thanks in advance.

Joe

PS- BTW- first post here, I am a highly experienced tuner/modder and have been doing this for years- just new to the xfire and would like to know more about the options I may/may not have.

 

Kwiktsi,

Let me be the first to welcome you. For the most part everyone here are very cool, and open minded to new ideas. I myself am a tuner/Fabrication Designer. As far as I know there are know chips that will kill the traction control, but for the rev limiter. There are a couple of companies that re-map the mercedes ecu's. There is SuperChip, Upsolute, Renntech & Startech. The two techs are the most expensive of the bunch. They're around 1000.00 for about 10 Hp + you have to run 93 octane.
Other performance mods for the car is in suspension. You have Eibach, & H&R. Eibach has a sport package, if you kind find them, they also offer a sway bar for front and rear as well, as a Camber Kit.
H&R, has lowering Springs, Spacers and now have a coilover kit, for about 600.00-800.00 depending on were you go.
As far as Air Induction Goes, I myself have designed and manufactured a Dual Cold Air Induction System. Other then that K&N, offers a performance filter. GreenFilter USA, had a cone filter set up for it, that they borrowed from me. However, they pulled it from being produced. So the selection is very minimal unfortunately.
There are other misc. mods you can do, like door sills, dash kits and varies chrome pieces.
Oh ya I forgot. Brembo offers a Cross Drilled Rotor and steel Braided Brakeline for it.
That pretty much covers it. I know if I left anything out, one of the guys here will mention it.

So again welcome and congrats on the Car, I hope you enjoy it as much as we all here do.

 

Yeah, you left out powerchip for ECU upgrade. I just shipped mine out today. And hoping for the best. Expensive but hopefully, I'll be worth the money.

 

Powerchip is 699.00?

 

Eurorev is $300. PC su*ks!

 

Mercedes is famous for poor acceleration? Have you looked at any of the acceleration figures for the AMG's? An E55 wagon hitting 0-60 in the mid-low 4's and the quarter in the 12's, stock. Do you consider this poor acceleration? How about the SL65 1/4 mile time in the 11's stock? Or the SLK32/SLK55 running the quarter in the high 12's stock. Not sure how this is considered poor acceleration.

As for just grip & rip it. You are correct. The car takes a little more finesse than that. It has to do with lots of low end torque and rather small (compared to the hp/tq figures) rear tires.

 

Unfortunately, the research I have been doing on it doesn't look like it's going to be possible without MAJOR modification. The traction control seems to be part of the ABS system and not it's not too easy or recommended to go monkey around with that. I will post further after a little more research.

 

Thanks for your efforts and appreciate the feedback. I just feel it is one of the crossfires flaw is the traction control. I like the feature just wish I am able to shut it off fully and have it on when I need or want it. It's like a cupholder issue for me, it's annoying being in first gear and dropping the clutch to see alittle wheel action and it just bogs and then accelerate. Very frustrating, it take away the skills and respect points when your trying to impress someone with burnouts. I guess it's just me. Thanks.

 

Doesn't look like you can turn this off without disabling the ABS system. I am pretty sure the ABS system can be disabled but I am not going to provide that info for general reading because it would not be recommended to disable the ABS. It's just plain dangerous. Without testing it I don't know for CERTAIN if the brakes would still function without the ABS system. If the ABS system FAILS the base braking system SHOULD still work. I am not willing to test it on my car. That being said it is possible to design a system to turn the ABS on and off manually. Back channel contact me and we can discuss it.


ABS TRACTION CONTROL FUNCTION
The vehicle in the traction control TC (ASR) mode. If the drive wheel is spinning and brake pressure is required to reduce its speed. The normally open TC (ASR) valve is energized to isolate the brake fluid being pumped from the master cylinder and to isolate the driven wheel. The normally open TC (ASR) valve bypasses the pump output back to the master cylinder at a fixed pressure setting. The normally open and normally closed valves modulate (build/decay) the brake pressure as required to slow the spinning wheel.

The primary functions of the Controller Antilock Brake (CAB) are to:
² Monitor the Antilock Brake System (ABS) for proper operation.
² Detect wheel locking or wheel slipping tendencies by monitoring the speed of all four wheels of the vehicle.
² Control fluid modulation to the wheel brakes while the system is in an ABS mode.
² Store diagnostic information.
² Provide communication to the DRBIIIT scan tool while in diagnostic mode.
² Illuminate the amber ABS warning indicator lamp.
² Illuminate the brake assist (BAS)/electronic stability program (ESP) lamp on the instrument panel when a traction control event occurs.

The CAB constantly monitors the Antilock Brake System for proper operation. If the CAB detects a fault, it will turn on the amber ABS warning indicator lamp and disable the Antilock Braking System. The normal base braking system will remain operational.
The CAB continuously monitors the speed of each wheel through the signals generated by the wheel speed sensors to determine if any wheel is beginning to lock. When a wheel locking tendency is detected, the CAB commands the CAB command coils to actuate. The coils then open and close the valves in the Hydraulic Control Unit (HCU) that
modulate brake fluid pressure in some or all of the hydraulic circuits. The CAB continues to control pressure in individual hydraulic circuits until a locking tendency is no longer present.
The CAB contains a self-diagnostic program that monitors the Antilock Brake System for system faults. When a fault is detected, the amber ABS warning indicator lamp is turned on and the Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC) is then stored in a diagnostic program memory. These DTCs will remain in the CAB memory even after the ignition has
been turned off. The DTCs can be read and cleared from the CAB memory by a technician using the DRBIIIT scan tool.
CAB INPUTS
² Wheel speed sensors (four)
² Brake lamp switch
² System and pump voltage
² ESP OFF switch
² Diagnostic communication
CAB OUTPUTS
² Amber ABS warning indicator lamp actuation (via CAN Bus)
² Instrument cluster communication (via CAN Bus)
² BAS/ESP indicator lamp
² Diagnostic communication

 

Unless there is something odd about the Crossfires ABS, just disabling it will not cause brake failure, just no more ABS (which is a good thing for some of us- I personally hate ABS). I know with the Vettes, all you do is pull the ABS fuse and the TC is disabled. I looked in my manual, and of course it does not mention an ABS fuse. Anyone know which one it is? It is worth a shot. I will ask some of the tuners out there if they can disable it with a reflash too. That is a huge downfall of this car for me- I am running a cat back, K&N's and an NX 125 wet kit on the car and the TC really kills the launch with this thing!!!
Joe

 

I understand what you are saying and there is a fuse to pull that disables the ABS system.
It should be safe to do. It will enable the amber warning light on the instrument panel which could get annoying. But without actually testing it there is no way to know for sure that the base braking system would still work.
Anyone willing to test this can simply pull the #3 fuse ENGINE BLOCK FUSE BOX. I am not sure yet what other items this controls. I will see what else I can find on this fuse.
Re-flashing the ECM might work but will the re-flashing of the ECM take care of the programming in the CAB?

 

Don't pull the #3 fuse yet, more info to follow.

 

Hey Vince, you should receive you're little package by friday or sooner.

 

I corrected my earlier post it is the ENGINE BLOCK FUSE BOX not the Underhood Accessory Fuse box. It's a 50 amp fuse. If the fuse you pull is NOT 50 amps you pulled the wrong one. The CAB is the only item on this fused circuit as far as I can tell.
The Engine fuse box is located in the Right Rear of Engine Compartment in Front of Battery
I may try this myself today, we'll see if I get my honey do list done early enough.

See the attached PDF for location.

 

Ok this worked.

You can disable the ABS system which controls the Traction Control.
I noticed no degraded performance of the car or the base braking system.

USE THESE INSTRUCTIONS AT YOUR OWN RISK. FOLLOWING THESE INSTRUCTIONS MAY RESULT IN AN UNSAFE CONDITION AND MAY VOID YOUR WARRANTY.

1. Locate the Engine Fuse Block. It is located to the right rear of the engine compartment in front of the battery.
2. Open the Engine Fuse Block Cover and locate the ABS System fuse. It is the #3 Fuse. It is the MIDDLE fuse and cable between the 2 black cables. It is a 50 Amp fuse.
3. Using an 8mm socket remove the nut holding the ABS System CABLE. It is the one that does NOT have the long silver bar under it.
4. Remove the cable from the bolt. COMPLETELY wrap any exposed metal on the cable in electrical tape.
5. CAREFULLY bend the cable back on itself and tape the now wrapped end connector to it's own cable or an adjacent cable.
6. Put the nut back on the bolt and tighten it up you might want to use a little loc-tite to keep it from rattling loose.
7. Close the Engine Fuse Block Cover.
8. Close the hood and drive the car.

Disabling the ABS System in this way WILL illuminate the Amber ABS System Warning Indicator Lamp and the Amber Brake Assist Warning Lamp located on the bottom right side of the Instrument Cluster.
There is no fuse to disable these lamps. You will need to remove the lamps from the Instrument Cluster to disable them.
see attached pdf's for pictures.

USE THESE INSTRUCTIONS AT YOUR OWN RISK. FOLLOWING THESE INSTRUCTIONS MAY RESULT IN AN UNSAFE CONDITION AND MAY VOID YOUR WARRANTY.
I DO NOT RECOMMEND DISABLING THE ABS SYSTEM.

 

Oh well, it does disable the ABS, but the car still has that stupid 4000 rpm limiter when trying to launch it .

I'll speak with some of my ECU tuner buddies to see if they can do something about it. Thanks anyway!!!

Joe