Hi folks,

I had reason to pop my car into low box the other day to shift something. I don't do it often, but I have done in the past with no problem at all, and probably to shift heavier loads than I was working with at the weekend.

It wasn't me in the driver's seat, but my wife. I was managing the trailer end of things.

On a couple of instances - the 'traction failure' message popped up, and then cleared. There was no great distance involved in this work - maybe 5 - 10metres - little bit backwards, little bit forwards.

Is this more or less normal behaviour, or something to worry about, watch out for with something else about to go 'pop'?

I did search, and see that this could be ABS sensor linked, but mine are all 'new' and relatively recently installed, and don't give any other problems that I'm aware of.

thanks.

can be a low battery as well with give that fault up

I rarely use my P38 that much in low and offload, but when the traction control works and kicks in, I remember that at least the indicator sign lights up ... I forgot, if the P38 "speaks" in the message center, too. Maybe just a sign it worked as intended and applied the brake at the spinning wheel(s)? Maybe a check with a diagnostic tool will tell you if there are any errors stored in the ABS ECU. Or traction control kicks in for longer than the intended period (iIrc 20 seconds) and then the brakes have to cool down. Don't know the algorithm/pattern in the ECU and brake control periods.
Were there ABS failure messages, too? Or only traction control? Did the wheels spin a lot? 2 or four channel TC (pre or post facelift 98/99 model year)?

Thanks guys,
I regularly disconnect my battery and top it up with a good charger, just to avoid any low battery issues, so I'd like to think it's not that. I did that just 10 days ago.

This happened under really gentle conditions - not offroad, and with the engine barely above idle/tickover. I just needed something to pull a boat / trailer out of storage backwards. I needed to control the jockey wheel at the front of the trailer, and that's why my wife was driving the car, and I put it into low box, just to be sure that everything was happening really slowly. So no traction control, no wheel spins, just a gentle trundle along my gravel driveway.

It seemed to happen during/just after moving the gear lever across the gate from high to low, or back again.

It hasn't done it since, so it could just be something transient caused by the ratio change, and nothing to worry about. On the other hand, if it's pointing to something else that might be about to fail, I'd probably try to buy that part and then fit it now, or whenever it gets worse.

I'll be very happy if it's just something they all do, and nothing to worry about. I do have a Nano I could check with though.

Seems a bit odd. I had ABS Fault and Traction Failure come up on the Ascot but that was down to one dead wheel sender. For traction Failure to come up when you are doing a bit of low speed shunting seems very strange, particularly as the traction control wasn't even trying to kick in, that only happens if one wheel is losing traction.

There might be a stored fault with it that the Nano can read though which should give you a pointer to where you need to be looking.

Thanks Gd, I'll have a look at the Nano. It certainly didn't come up on my way to work this morning, and I'm assuming it won't reappear this afternoon on the way home. So at this stage it hasn't come on during normal high box use.

I might see if I can replicate it with some hi/lo shifts first, and then check the Nano more promptly.