does anyone know if u can turn of traction control?

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Permalink Reply by Donna on May 9, 2008 at 2:20pm

I believe it is answered in the owners manual

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Permalink Reply by mr bad example on May 9, 2008 at 2:57pm

yes, what's the "answer"?

personally, i think if the proper fuse is removed, it will disable the ESP computer, what other effects happen, i don't know. the first part of the "cannonball run" was a wet road traction test. i think i am smarter than the smart computer, i know when i'm losing traction and when to lift on the gas, i've been driving over 30 years, my first car was a '65 VW beetle, that could spin out on a straight road when wet!

my ESP has only come on for split seconds when driving through my un-plowed parking lot, it has never come on while driving down a road, EVER! slap fatter tires on the front of a smart and disable the ESP, a smart could make 0.85g's on a skid pad EASY! it's a go-kart! smart has over-engineered this car and the ESP programming to the "lowest common denominator", dumbing down the entire car for the use by the dumbest driver, crippling the smartest driver!

the "dumb down" programming on the smart's ESP severely hurts it's performance, my old metro with fat tires could out-perform almost any car in the USA and totally blows away the smart, wet or dry. same weight, longer wheelbase.

i miss my metro, which i sold in anticipation for the arrival of my smart, but i am not sorry for it. i love my smart! sometimes i wish it was "dumber". i've handled 300+hp easily without a computer, i think i can handle 70hp the same way.

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Permalink Reply by dion on May 9, 2008 at 2:29pm

do you know how tho i have looked and can not find ?

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Permalink Reply by dion on May 9, 2008 at 3:20pm

i just wish there was a switch where u can turn it on and off, or if u can put one on do u think that is possible

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Permalink Reply by mr bad example on May 9, 2008 at 6:17pm

if you pull the fuse, it will die, there is no switch. but is there other things on this circuit? i can't say. computers do not belong in cars, period!!!!

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Permalink Reply by dion on May 9, 2008 at 7:12pm

but if i pull it out, will it mess anything else up ? and how would i find which one it is

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Permalink Reply by Ian Pellant on June 14, 2008 at 8:54pm

ESP: a topic that keeps popping up, as on the assiesmarts forum.

Full destructions on how to splice in a switch to turn ESP on and off are on: http://www.fq101.co.uk/espwiring2.asp

The simple how to try it way is to pull the fuse. In the USA owners manual, page 284, fuse #11 seems to be ESP only.

There's a lot of good info on how ESP works on a Bosch web site with convincing videos of a slalem with and without ESP. It does what we cannot do: individually brake a wheel to correct a slide or spin. We'd need 4 brake pedals to do the same. Disable it with caution.

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Permalink Reply by Tony on September 5, 2009 at 11:01pm

Ian, thanks for the clue to have a look at the Bosch.com site. I went to the section for the US (so the language was in english) and watched their ESC/ESP videos. Amazing, truly. I don't think most really understand everything that is there for them "IN AN EMERGENCY" that they would have no way of doing on their own. After I purchased my smart, as a dare from a friend, we went to a local plaza one evening after one of our wonderful Florida summer rains. This plaza had just recently applied new sealant to their blacktop parking lot. When the rains hit it, it becomes very slick. What was the dare? To try to force the smart to slide sideways. Time after time we took it up to speed, jerked the steering wheel left and or right with hard breaking and every time, the car stayed in control of itself. You really could feel the system augmenting the car to keep it on the correct path. Disconnect my ESP... NEVER

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Permalink Reply by mr bad example on August 17, 2009 at 5:57pm

i've heard if you turn the key half on, then press both dash buttons, the shifter display will blink something and the ESP is disabled until the car is turned off.

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Permalink Reply by SATO on August 17, 2009 at 6:25pm

NO! that turns the "homing" beacon on.. you will be picked up by the mother ship in minutes! if you don't believe me look at the video in the video section of this forum...

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Permalink Reply by mr bad example on August 17, 2009 at 6:56pm

LOL, i saw that vid, was gonna show it to dave schembri at the wisconsin meet, but he was pressed for time.
those were 450 models anyways!

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Permalink Reply by smartster on September 6, 2009 at 5:23am

Yes it can be turned off, but the only way to do this is buy removing the ESP fuse. Sorry I don't remember the number but it should be listed in the fuse manual.

As for a "switch" it is possible to create a switch by 2 ways, 1 ways is remove the fuse and then replace with a wired fuse. This is what we had done on the first phase when we were racing the smart, but the wire into where the fuse was before wasn't 100% secure and occasionally it came out (turned off ESP) in normal driving.

So the 2nd way, which works best also means no wired wires will be hanging outside of the fuse box is to remove the fuse box as to get behind it, then clip on of the wires going into the ESP fuse. Then rewire this using a switched line. This would be the best and safest install. You could even go as far as making a nice normal looking ESP on/off switch added to the dash as this would be nice upgrade.

As for it coming on, the way I drive it happens to come on often, even in the smart I push it more then that poor things whats to take it and MBE was right in the cannonball run we had it turned off for all events.

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