TCS and Shiftronic features on 2005 Santa Fe

Bought a 2005 Santa Fe LX last week. Like it so far but have a few
questions.

The Traction Control system has an OFF button. Why? Is there an advantage to
turning TCS off at times? Will I get better mileage without it in nice
weather?

The 5 speed automatic has the Shiftronic feature. Is this useful or just a
marketing gimmick? What situations would really benefit from using it?

Also, now that I've driven 200 miles I've noticed that from a standing
start, the car does not respond to the throttle immediately. There seems to
be ~1 second lag. It does respond immediately to throttle changes when
already moving. Is this due to the TCS, or is the transmission going through
a 'learning' phase or something?

Thanks in advance,
Jon

 

Dunno. Someone else?

The Shiftronic feature allows you to control which gear the vehicle's
in. It's a slightly different interface on top of the "normal" PRND321
you find on most auto trannies. This is useful at times; if you're
going down a long, steep hill, you want to be in a lower gear so you can
take advantage of engine braking and not boil your brake fluid. You can
also use it to remain in a lower gear at a point past the normal shift
point. This can help you pass other cars, as the power peak of the
engine is usually above the normal shift point.

Good question. Is there any change in standing-start behavior if you
turn TCS off?

 

In most cases, there's no benefit to turning off traction. It's possible
that if you're a very skilled driver, that you can react better than the
traction system, however.

For the lag on acceleration, I'm supposing you have the 3.5 liter engine.
This has an electronically operated throttle, so I'd suspect that the delay
has to do with the programming. I've not yet driven an '05, so I don't
know how normal your condition may be, but I suspect it's something they
all do. I checked for reprograms and didn't find any.

 

I don't know about the 05's but there have been many other mentions of
the acceleration lag on the 3.5 when they first came out at
www.santafeforum.net.

I enjoy the Shiftronic shifter. I have always driven manuals so it is
nice to lock it into a specific gear for a bit longer to get past a
truck or creep down a steep grade.

 

Thanks for the reply. I'm checking out the forum now.

Thanks,
Jon

 

Hmmm, react faster than the drive computer... Nah. Maybe 20 years ago.

I do have the 3.5 Liter. I'll just leave it the TCS on for the time being.

Thanks for he response,
Jon

 

Not sure if there's a difference yet. I'll have to play with it some more.

Makes some sense that the TCS could be causing however. It waits to move
'till its sure I'm not slipping. I'll report back when I can try it on dry
pavement again. Right now we're in the middle of a snowstorm so I'm just
gonna leave the TCS on.

Thanks,
Jon

 

Funny but my '05 got delivered to me during a big blizzard and the salesman
brought it down my street which was very deep in snow.....He remarked that
that should be a good test for it and he also told me that that is the only
instance where you would turn off the TCS....as when you're going through
deep snow, you need the wheels to be allowed to sping a bit????
I dunno, I still can't figure it out!

 

It's not a matter of reacting faster, it's a matter of reacting
interactively with the circumstances and beyond the scope of what the
computer is programmed to do. This has always been true of ABS and I can
see where it could also be true of TCS. That's why I opted not to get
them on my Elantra GT. For the typical "ham footed" driver that has no
clue how to modulate the accellerator and/or brakes under difficult
traction condition, ABS/TCS has real benefits. If you know how to drive,
rather than just pounding the pedals in a mad panic, you don't need them
and may even be able to control your vehicle better without them.

 

Quite false. ABS can control brake on a single wheel, while even a good
pilot has only one pedal to work with.
Different matter TCS, as actually in sport driving a good pilot cna decide
to make wheels slipping, but in everyday driving safety has precedence on
fun.

 

As for ABS: When you grow four feet to control each wheel seperately,
then you might have a point. Until then - no.

Hyundai's traction control (at least on my Santa Fe) uses mild brake
actuation on the tire with the least grip to pull the car forward with
the tire that actually has traction. Again the four foot rule above
applies.

The TC seems pretty worthless to me unless you live in an area with
traction issues (ice), or in situations where you may encouter mud on a
regular basis... My SF will paddle its way through mud no problem - TCS
light flashing and module ticking the whole time. I've never seen a
non-TC'd FWD car pull through the muddy crap my santa fe has - with 60%
worn Michelin LTX M/S's (nowhere near as agressive as the factory tire,
but the road noise is a lot more tolorable).

I pay extra for ABS after having been in a situation that would have
turned out a lot better had it been there. Traction control makes
FWD-only acceptable for me as I do sometimes end up on dirt roads for
work. I'd otherwise have to go with an AWD model bringing dimished fuel
economy, higher initial purchase cost, faster depreciation (used AWD
SF's go for less money here), and higher maintenance hassle/expense...

JS

 

OK, got to try the Shiftronic in a snowstorm on Thursday evening and found
it very useful. Much better control for starts and stops in icy conditions.
Caught me by surprise when I looked at the gear indicator and realized it
displayed the actual gear number it was in.

All in all pretty enthusiastic about how the Santa Fe handled the storm.
Course, this is my first 4WD vehicle.

I'll get another chance to practice on my way home from work today as were
getting another storm in the northeast.

Jon

 

Sorry to answer my own post but I did do some experimenting and found it
doesn't make a difference whether the TCS is on or off. It still has a 1
second hesitation when starting from a light.

I'll live with it for now and have it looked at my 3000 mile checkup.

Jon

 

That sounds good on paper, but it simply isn't a true measure of braking
performance. On really low traction surfaces such as ice, ABS
effectively disables the brakes entirely if one stands on the pedal. You
wont' skid, but you won't stop, either. Repeated tests over the years by
car mags and other interested parties have shown that an experienced
driver can stop a car better in such conditions than ABS can, since ABS
does only one thing; it stops the wheels from locking. ABS actually
works best in high traction conditions, where you need it least.

 

I saved my car from more than one crash thanks to ABS.

 

And I've done the same without it. So what?

How did we all survive before the computer age???

 

Making some more crash?