Hiya folks,

my T5 -98 is getting a lot of snow under his tires and I cant avoid noticing that the skidcontrol doesnt seem to work. Now i understand that you cant even begin to compare a -98 version skidcontrol to a new one, but all the same it should work at least a bit dont you think? If i manually via the button on the right of the wheel turn of the control, also visibly shown on the dash, I cant feel any difference from when its turned on.

I can throttle all i want and it spins right away..perhapse something ive misunderstood when it comes to function? Anyway, if its ON, i get a "strange" "liquid/spring-being-stretched" noise from the front whenever i spin though.

Well..sorry for the english, im swedish ;-)

Regards,

Niclas

That "strange liquid spring -being-stretched" noise from the front is your traction control (TRACS) working by activating the ABS to slow down the spinning wheels. In the snow, I like to turn it off because I feal it's just a momentum robber. At times spinning your wheels can be useful, at others, being smooth in all your actions will keep your wheels from spinning.

Koz.

On a '98 Volvo T5, at least in the US, the car doesn't have skid control, or yaw control. It has a system called "TRACS" which is low speed traction control. It's function is to brake one front wheel, transferring power to the other front wheel to allow you to move when stuck. On '99 US models Volvo has a higher-speed traction control, but you need to buy a 2001 or 2002 T5 to get true skid or yaw control. And it's still an option, mostly.

On the '98s the switch on the dashboard turns the system "OFF", so if you touch the switch and the "TRACS" icon is lighted, the system is turned "off".

BTW, because of the peculiarities of automobile marketing, a '98 Swedish Volvo may be the equivalent of a '99 US Volvo, so do read your owner's manual for details!

-Bill the Cat