E36 328i traction light question

[addsvrs]

Evening, on 2 occasions now the t/c light has come on while travelling briskly (70ish). The first time (january) it came on everytime i pressed the throttle, killing the power, turned out i had a puncture, changed the wheel and its been fine since.

fast foward to yesterday, lovely warm day, dry roads etc came on whilst accelerating (normal driving), killing the power for a couple of secs. Checked my tyres today and all looks fine, all correct pressures etc.

Any ideas......is it simply no traction (all tyres have between 4-6mm tread)??

[neiljohnson]

I once had an intermittet fault on a friends one that turned out to be an engine mounting, the engine was rocking & the plug on the throotle housing was hitting the bonnet causing the fault although this resulted in losing the traction control not activating it.

[andy665]

Did the ABS light come on as well?

[addsvrs]

no it didn't, just the t/c light, forgot to mention its an auto if that makes any difference.

[WeirdNeville]

By 'light comes on' do you mean 'light flashes as the power cuts cut, then goes out' or 'light stays on until ignition turned off'.

If it's the first then that's normal operation, and you will have simply lost traction and triggered the T/C (or ASC+T). It is a fairly brutal system and really does cut the throttle.

If it's the second one - light stays on - then this indicates a fault with the system and that it is no longer operative. Apparently there are faults with the T/C throttle and actuator, they get dirty and stop moving properly and removal and cleaning can solve the problem.