STC Button, Useless??

Hi guys, Girls,

I have a quick question, On most of our cars I'm sure we have a STC button, This disables the frankly "useless" Stability control unless you have a SE model with DSTC which actually works!

I thought I’d "have a go" and turned mine off on my P2 T5, and low and behold the T5 grunt came back, "arrh i missed you" I thought, Much more throttle response/power.

I now have a simple routine:

1. Start engine
2. Put belt on
3. switch STC off
4. Drive away!

So my question is "Why do we have it at all"? As to me it seems useless, I'm considering only enabling it when there's snow or something LOL!

Your thoughts . . .

Hrmm, yes, I’m not exactly enamoured with STC myself – it’s fussy/ annoying at low speed and pretty much useless once you’re on the move. If I’m feeling like there may be some spirited driving ahead, it gets switched off.

Not sure about the STC mine has DSTC which does interfere sometimes definately limits the power in 2nd gear which is a bit annoying however i have tried driving V quick at Bruntingthorope with the DSTC on and off, its a hell of a lot better with it ON. With it off it understeers like the fat overweight front wheel drive car it is, with it on it handles more like a 4 wheel drive with nice predicatable 4 wheel slides, even when you get it really wrong into a corner you get mild understeer which the computers rapidly turn into a 4 wheel drift.

On the road in day to day stuff the DSTC has saved me having 2 big accidents, one which was my carelessness in not reading a wet motorway and hitting a deep puddle at speed with half the car, the DSTC sorted that one out for me real quick although I did need to change my pants afterwards, the other time was some silly idiot that changed lanes when i was level with them on the motorway and caused me to swerve very severely any other car would have just understeered into the central barrier, DSTC came on and just got the car all nice and straight again in no time flat.

Personally I dont turn it off ...... EVER it works both on the road and the track.

I leave the DSTC on mine ON all the time, although I've never been on a track it has certainly got me out of trouble on 3 occasions on the road.

Does it really change the way the car feels ? I must turn it off and have a go....

Valid comments Thanx guys,

Nice to see praise for the newer DSTC as I’ve read glowing reports before, looking forward to "upgrading" to a C30 T5 soon with DSTC.

And Yes, Turning off STC makes a BIG difference, but BEWARE when you do this, no liabilities and all that :)

I take it easy on corners these days (as I’m sure all T5 drivers know) but foot down on a nice straight dual carriageway the Phase II grunts like my old classic did.

As my quattro loving friend always says, “Power is nothing without control”.

If an advanced system such as DSCT can actively assist in a yaw situation; actively help prevent horrific understeer; or generally give assist in an out of control situation then it’s definitely a feature worth leaving switched to ‘ON’. Regarding STC though, whilst I always notice the light coming on in the dash when active I’ve never felt that the situation was requiring input over and above what I was anticipating so I’m perfectly happy to switch the system to ‘OFF’ and run manual.

It’s a more interesting debate if you apply it to motorcycles – modern MotoGP bikes have incredible control systems which allow the riders to extract the maximum and run lurid high speed drifts but do you really want your road bike with TC, active suspension and ‘pitch’ (read wheelie) control? Wouldn’t that be boring?

when you say turn it off can it actually be turned off it was my understanding that it could only be turned "down" not off?

i have dstc and i dont even know why there is a button, why would i want it off/down

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tingymagig

when you say turn it off can it actually be turned off it was my understanding that it could only be turned "down" not off?

i have dstc and i dont even know why there is a button, why would i want it off/down

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You are spot on you can only turn dstc off on the R's any thing else it just turns off the low speed wheel spin mean it will still cut in but a bit later.

hope this clears some stuff up!

Gazbak1

In my opinion, I know that I'm not a good enough driver to have better reactions than a good DSTC system - I know all the top boys switch it off to play lurid slides on the TV shows, but in real life it's a real benefit.

My other thought of course is - why don't manufacturers of high(er) performance cars fit a decent LSD as well? Alfa for example has a 'Q2' system that acts 'like an LSD' but isn't. I can only put it down to cost per unit on a mass production line.

I know older T5 R's are fitted with a LSD as standard, not sure about newer PII's

Please Note the discussion is regarding STC :)

we all know dstc works!

DSTC is a pile of poop! the first thing i do is turn it off, i cant stand it!

no better than any other traction/stability control

i have even experianced situations where the DSTC has got me into trouble not out of trouble.

if some one knows how to dissible it all together please let me know

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shemtek_racing

DSTC is a pile of poop! the first thing i do is turn it off, i cant stand it!

no better than any other traction/stability control

i have even experianced situations where the DSTC has got me into trouble not out of trouble.

if some one knows how to dissible it all together please let me know

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pull the fuse???????

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tingymagig

pull the fuse???????

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excellent!!!!!!

As a D5 owner I switched off the STC (it's an SE but hasn't got DSTC) to illustrate the torque to my (also D5 owning) bro-in-law. . .

We smoked the tyres at 50+ mph in a straight line!

Lesson learned

The STC in mine (and DSTC in his) remain firmly ON at all times

luv'n'stuff

J

In response to the OP

Button - Useless. No need to turn it off. I'm not that good (or stoopid) as a driver. Shouldn't give people buttons to press - especially if they don't know what they're doing!

STC/DSTC - see above. My car won't drive in a straight line without it.

Sorry if this sounds tetchy - I've had 2 hours kip and driven 600 miles since 07:00 yesterday!

John