[GoranBonn]

Not sure really where to post this question, might fit into Tires, Suspension or Racing section...

Basically, at one point during the summer I wanted to test the car's traction control to see how it would react and what to expect in such circumstances. I've already done a safety training course with a skid pad some years ago with my previous Civic and it was quite enlightening to understand how a car behaves with and without stability control. But I digress.

This time I had the opportunity to take the car to an empty track for an hour and purposefully drive slightly too fast into the corners to see what happens. This was actually a somewhat large go-kart track wide enough for car practice and the owners are friendly to rent it out to people.

The thing I learned is that Michelin PSS are very good at keeping traction, and also once the car loses traction, it's really good at staying pointed at where the wheel is pointing it at. Getting the car to slide it's butt through corners with an automatic, on dry ground, was not easy.

However, the thing I was not expecting is a kind of "brrrrrrp" noise when the car actually loses traction, coupled with quite some vibration.

Here's a sample from my dashcam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nGnrsoTxJk

At first you hear the normal tyre squeal at limit of traction. Then the car loses traction and starts sliding, and this is when you hear a loud brrrrp noise. In the recording it's loud enough to be distorted but still is recognizable. The "beep beep" is the dashcam thinking it's an impact event from the G sensor .

(Edit: the constant rattling noise in the video is the Thinkware dashcam buttons rattling before I fixed them.)

After this testing I realized that my tire pressure at the time was low, and attributed the noise to that fact. This was with Michelin PSS tires. But just recently, running Bridgestone winter tires inflated to max load pressure, I had a small slide situation on a wet roundabout and heard the same noise.

My suspension is stock, and car was recently checked for alignment etc, and everything is fine.

Is that kind of noise normal or should I look into something with the car?

[Wires]

My first guess would be traction control kicking in. Have you tried turning off DTC/DSC and seeing if it still happens?

[GoranBonn]

Originally Posted by Wires

My first guess would be traction control kicking in. Have you tried turning off DTC/DSC and seeing if it still happens?

I did during that testing on the track. That's how I got the rear end of the car to slide a bit further out. I don't remember from that day if it made a difference, and I just tried checking it on the full dashcam footage, but it's difficult to say with the vibration noise from the dashcam itself.

But you may be right. I will definitely try to test it somewhere without traction control again and see if that's what's causing it.

[chiefneil]

Agree it's probably traction control hammering one of the brakes. It sounds a little more high-pitched than what I'm used to hearing from ABS though.

[GoranBonn]

Originally Posted by chiefneil

Agree it's probably traction control hammering one of the brakes. It sounds a little more high-pitched than what I'm used to hearing from ABS though.

Agreed, ABS usually sounds more like bapbapbapbapbap pulsing.

But some digging on youtube found this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj7WIlliwgQ

and through the vibrations and distortions, it sounds to me very similar like the noise I was getting. So seems that it indeed is the DSC.

[Wires]

It could be that during cases of major wheel slip, DSC is a lot more aggressive as well. (or a combination of squeal/ABS/throttle cut).

[nicknaz]

Originally Posted by Wires

My first guess would be traction control kicking in. Have you tried turning off DTC/DSC and seeing if it still happens?

+1

If its DSC OFF, it might be the tire gaining and losing traction quickly (e.g. sort of like what happens when you try to launch the car on a wet road)