Does it have traction control?

[FASTBMW]

I've got a 1999 boxster (not the 's' model). Does it have traction control or stability control or were they options? Thanks.

[markk]

TC=Traction Control was an option. It may depend on country though.

PSM (=Porsche Stability Management) eventually replaced TC in, I think, MY01

If there is a button on you dash with "tc" you have it. Otherwise you don't.

Mark.

[MNBoxster]

Originally Posted by FASTBMW

I've got a 1999 boxster (not the 's' model). Does it have traction control or stability control or were they options? Thanks.

Hi,

The easiest way to tell if your Car is equipped with Traction Control (PSM/TC was not available on the '99 MY) is to look at your Center Dash for a Switch labeled TC. This lights whenever the TC is activated by the ABS Control Unit and also serves to manually de-activate it. Hope this helps...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

[markk]

And the more FUN way to find out is to:

1) Wait for a rainy day
2) Start the car
3) Approach a 90 degrees turn with say 40/50 km/h in second gear
4) Lift throttle, steer in hard
5) When it start to understeer / slide over the front wheels FULLY press the accelerator

- If you crash -> you didn't have tc, but needed it badly
- If you don't crash, cought the slide, have a big smile and turned around to do it again -> you didn't have tc, and you don't need it either
- If nothing happend and wonder what's all the fuss -> you have tc and need it
- If nothing happend and really are bored with this kind of handling -> you have tc but you actually don't need it. But hey, it can be turned of with the switch on the console ...

:-)

Mark.

[RandallNeighbour]

I have it on my early 97 and I really like it. I slip and slide a lot with it on in the rain and I can't imagine not having it.

But then again I have crappy, worn out tires on the box right now. That must account for lots of slipping.

[xclusivecar]

I have the TC button on my 2000S, but this last snowfall I turned it off by pressing the button and I still got the little orange flashing triangle warning on the dash and the very rapid clicking sound of the ABS was heard often, especially as the tail end started to come around. (I was in an open parking lot). Does this mean the TC (anti-slip) was turned off but the stability control to keep me from spinning in a circle was on? I didn't think my MY on down had stability control...

[MNBoxster]

Originally Posted by xclusivecar

I have the TC button on my 2000S, but this last snowfall I turned it off by pressing the button and I still got the little orange flashing triangle warning on the dash and the very rapid clicking sound of the ABS was heard often, especially as the tail end started to come around. (I was in an open parking lot). Does this mean the TC (anti-slip) was turned off but the stability control to keep me from spinning in a circle was on? I didn't think my MY on down had stability control...

Hi,

The 2000MY does not have Stability Control. The Traction Control actually consists of two subsystems which operate separately as well as in unision, depending upon conditions. These are - ABD (Automatic Brake Differentiial) and ASR (Anti-Slip Regulation).

ABD imitates an LSD (Limited Slip Differential) by pulsing the Brake Caliper on the Slipping Wheel to allow it to gain Traction. ASR overides some of the Engine Management by altering Fuel Injector Cycles and Retarding the Engine Timing in order to reduce Engine Torque.

You can turn OFF the Traction Control which then lights the TC OFF Warning light on both the Dash and the Switch and does disable the ASR. But, the ABD continues to function up to Vehicle speeds of approx. 63MPH, so this is most likely what you're seeing. Hope this helps...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

[QUOTE=markk]And the more FUN way to find out is to:

1) Wait for a rainy day
2) Start the car
3) Approach a 90 degrees turn with say 40/50 km/h in second gear
4) Lift throttle, steer in hard
5) When it start to understeer / slide over the front wheels FULLY press the accelerator

- A If you crash -> you didn't have tc, but needed it badly
- B If you don't crash, cought the slide, have a big smile and turned around to do it again -> you didn't have tc, and you don't need it either
- C If nothing happend and wonder what's all the fuss -> you have tc and need it
- D If nothing happend and really are bored with this kind of handling -> you have tc but you actually don't need it. But hey, it can be turned of with the switch on the console ...

Ha ha!!

had it on my 97 and basically was always on and loved it but on my S no TC and got scared on a couple of time but option B it is and i am still smilling!

[xclusivecar]

Great explanation, Jim!

[threpwood]

Originally Posted by markk

And the more FUN way to find out is to:

1) Wait for a rainy day
2) Start the car
3) Approach a 90 degrees turn with say 40/50 km/h in second gear
4) Lift throttle, steer in hard
5) When it start to understeer / slide over the front wheels FULLY press the accelerator

- A If you crash -> you didn't have tc, but needed it badly
- B If you don't crash, cought the slide, have a big smile and turned around to do it again -> you didn't have tc, and you don't need it either
- C If nothing happend and wonder what's all the fuss -> you have tc and need it
- D If nothing happend and really are bored with this kind of handling -> you have tc but you actually don't need it. But hey, it can be turned of with the switch on the console ...

Markk, out of curiosity, are you a computer programmer?

Mine has the PSM and I could feel that it works everytime I made a 90 degree right turn blasting out from nearby convenience store. The left wheels stop moving for a few fraction of secs, preventing the backend of the car to spin out.

[markk]

> Markk, out of curiosity, are you a computer programmer?

ROFLOL.

Officially I'm an IT infrastructure architect now which means I write proposals and advise to management and make global designs of IT-infrastructure. So I can't say that I use more than MS-Word and Visio currently...

A long the way, way, way, back, I used to do Unix systemprogramming in C. Damn I even wrote Unix device drivers, programmed (university) a Pascal compiler in C, lex and yacc and ported the Oracle RDBMS over various Europian Unix flavours. Time flies....

;-)


Mark.

By the way:

1) I specifically ordered my new BoxsterS without PSM and haven't regret it for a single day...

2) If you know what I'm talking about I have a nice challenge for you (university challenge I once won). What is the smallest K&R C program which will produce a core dump on a PDP-11 running BSD ?

[BuffaloBoxster]

Originally Posted by markk

on a PDP-11 running BSD ?

You are dating yourself much more than you really want to

Sheesh the people here think I'm old because I remember writing batch files in DOS.

[rteichman]

Originally Posted by BuffaloBoxster

"on a PDP-11 running BSD ?"
You are dating yourself much more than you really want to

Wow a modern operating system! you lucky dog Back in my day we used RSX-11M as the OS on the PDP-11

[threpwood]

Originally Posted by markk

By the way:

1) I specifically ordered my new BoxsterS without PSM and haven't regret it for a single day...

2) If you know what I'm talking about I have a nice challenge for you (university challenge I once won). What is the smallest K&R C program which will produce a core dump on a PDP-11 running BSD ?

Wow that is impressive I always wanted to learn Oracle...

I work daily with biotech so I have to tackle your question with answer. Is it abort (void)? or a SIGABRT signal, which causes the program to abort abnormally without going through cleanup.

[markk]

> Wow that is impressive I always wanted to learn Oracle...

Who says I learned Oracle ?
I just ported the RDBMS / Oracle source code, which was (is?) written in C, to other Unix flavors. Actually I learned a lot that time. Worked with Oracle V7 when everybody was migrating from V5 to V6.

Shortest C-source-code I could think of to produce a core dump is "main;"
(Actual C-source-code is between the quotes and does not include the quotes)

In a K&R C compiler environment this creates an integer object variable somewhere in memory called "main". When that is linked with the startup code which contains a hardcoded JSR (Jub SubRoutine) to the adres of the symbol "main" all **************** hits the fan because there is no real code at that adres...

Now let's talk about Boxster's. I wonder, in what source code would PSM logic be written ?


Mark.