Trac Ctrl kicked in, then ABS/Trac/Wrench light

[briandye]

Yeah, that's close to what happened to me, not a fun experience at all! Your situation sounds a bit different though, as my (I think they're called ABS Tone Rings?) were both broke, so with enough force they spun freely as well as werent even. I hope, and don't hope that it was just snow in yours. Hope it was because then you have nothing else to worry about, as in nothing was broke or loose, but almost hope something WAS broke because that's a terrible designed system if some packed up snow can throw the (exposed to the elements) sensor off that easily.

 

But like you said, it's like driving an 80's or 90's model vehicle. Mine driving in FWD is a completely different feel and response level to AWD. I luckily have been carpooling so mines been parked in the garage (rest of my parts will be here tomorrow finally). But I did get one CV changed out, and put everything back together to turn the car around and took it down my street and back and without ABS/AWD it's stupid bad in the snow! The tracks from other cars just yanked my car in them, if there had been another car coming, I think I would have had to either pull in someone's driveway til they passed, or back up back to my house where it wasn't as snowy. Hit the brakes and all 4 tires locked up like nothing

 

That's what I was telling a friend too, all the features and amenities of these new cars where everything's electronic and computer controlled is very nice, but when something fails, that's cause for a disaster! Had there been snow or something on the highway and this happened, I might not be here right now!

[jcas]

Briandye, I agree, it seems too simple, should have happened every winter. It was very inconsistant also, once in a while the lights would go out but the sensors were still screwed as even a light tap of breaks at parking lot speed was causing ABS to start pulsing, basically better off when it was just shut off brake wise becasue it could not read hte speed correctly. I am also assuming it was the fronts that had the problem but could have been something at the rear that I will not see until I get it up on ramps or with wheel off (have to do rear brakes soon so hope it lasts).

And Yes, amazing how spoiled we have gotten from all the electronics. Once I adjusted my driving technique to the last couple front wheel drive cars I had, a celica and an accord mid 80's-early 90's. Not sure I would ever concider one of the FWD edge/mkx after this, not really good or great in snow, though no traction control either.

[briandye]

Yeah, that's definitely odd. I haven't even though to check my rear wheels/hubs etc for anything odd. I saw the broken rings up front and jumped right to conclusion. Definitely gonna go home today and pull my rear wheels off.

 

Mine was intermittent like that too even with the broke rings. I had the traction control issue happen probably over a week before the whole ordeal happened that almost left me stranded. Then it cleared itself right up, then did it again a few days later, then clearednup again.

 

I'm going to be getting a new vehicle once my Patriot lease is up, and I was thinking about a 2012+ Edge Sport but it seems like the AWD models are rare around me (In the Sport models). I won't ever buy another non AWD/4x4 vehicle again unless it's a Charger or something which I've also had in the past. Even then I would still have to get something AWD/4x4 to get me through these Michigan winters. I do not understand how some of the vehicles I see on the road can actually get through some of the snows we get.