Can 'safety features' be disabled easily?
Discussion
Hi all,
Just wondering whether it's possible to permanently disable the Traction control, automatic hazards on hard braking and electronic diff?
The car is a F21 M135i but I assume these features afflict other models too.
Further reading for those questioning why:
Traction control:- It's frustrating having to hold the traction control button down again every time I change from sport to eco or stop for fuel etc and if you forget to turn it off I find that rather than simply controlling the amount of wheel spin, the system seems to confusedly and violently slam on all the brakes and cut the power wildly if any kind of steering angle is applied. This is extremely unhelpful on the roads I drive to work as they are very steep and twisting and some uphill hairpins require good dollops of torque to climb smoothly even at sub 10mph. If TC off the car climbs perfectly with just the odd slip of the inside rear wheel but when on the car violently jerks, struggles and stops and starts repeatedly.
Automatic hazards:- these only ever activated for my on my Mini JCW when I was on track at 95-100% braking force but in the M135i (perhaps due to much bigger braking forces) they seem to activate at anything over 70-80% braking force. I can easily activate them at will without troubling the ABS and they don't always deactivate when you prod the throttle as it says in the manual! It is extremely annoying.
The electronic diff (not something real M cars have to worry about) is 100% counter productive at low speeds (when you want it most). At higher speeds it seems to do its job very well but at low speeds it brakes too hard disproportionately increasing load on the engine, which makes it very hard for the driver to gauge the amount of throttle required and amplifies the effect of the open diff by spinning one wheel and then the other violently from side to side in a wave pattern even when the car is travelling in a relatively straight line. In a natural open diff it happens much more elegantly and throttle to wheel speed is more intuitive.
I would be very interested to drive the car without the electronic diff to see how much better/worse it is overall.
Just wondering whether it's possible to permanently disable the Traction control, automatic hazards on hard braking and electronic diff?
The car is a F21 M135i but I assume these features afflict other models too.
Further reading for those questioning why:
Traction control:- It's frustrating having to hold the traction control button down again every time I change from sport to eco or stop for fuel etc and if you forget to turn it off I find that rather than simply controlling the amount of wheel spin, the system seems to confusedly and violently slam on all the brakes and cut the power wildly if any kind of steering angle is applied. This is extremely unhelpful on the roads I drive to work as they are very steep and twisting and some uphill hairpins require good dollops of torque to climb smoothly even at sub 10mph. If TC off the car climbs perfectly with just the odd slip of the inside rear wheel but when on the car violently jerks, struggles and stops and starts repeatedly.
Automatic hazards:- these only ever activated for my on my Mini JCW when I was on track at 95-100% braking force but in the M135i (perhaps due to much bigger braking forces) they seem to activate at anything over 70-80% braking force. I can easily activate them at will without troubling the ABS and they don't always deactivate when you prod the throttle as it says in the manual! It is extremely annoying.
The electronic diff (not something real M cars have to worry about) is 100% counter productive at low speeds (when you want it most). At higher speeds it seems to do its job very well but at low speeds it brakes too hard disproportionately increasing load on the engine, which makes it very hard for the driver to gauge the amount of throttle required and amplifies the effect of the open diff by spinning one wheel and then the other violently from side to side in a wave pattern even when the car is travelling in a relatively straight line. In a natural open diff it happens much more elegantly and throttle to wheel speed is more intuitive.
I would be very interested to drive the car without the electronic diff to see how much better/worse it is overall.
Edited by Niffty951 on Monday 26th August 11:19
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