GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

From what I understand, these two things apply the brakes for when you lose control of your vehicle or when your tires spin out of unison. I'm from MN and winters here are pretty bad, tires spin and traction control prevents them from spinning, and the Electronic Stability Control kicks in quite often during the winter in the simplest little slips. The noise it makes is ridiculously loud, and I was wondering how much it affects the brake wear system. Whether it needs to be checked out yearly to make sure it's still properly functioning...The electronic stability control have saved my life on the freeway before, where I came under a bridge, slightly applied my brakes because of a trooper and car on shoulder. Then bam black ice, my car went straight towards the trooper, but a loud thumping clunking noise from my brakes got my back on track, and I continued on...

Alot of versions of Traction Control is a function of the ABS system. It pulses the brakes when the tires "slip". Yes it will wear your brakes.

During ABS activation do you stab on the brakes in full force constant pressure? Based on my experience, compared with Camry/ Sienna/highlander, or even Rav4, I found the Vibe's pedal is the stiffest by far during ABS lock up. But now i get used to it. I heard the RAV4 have a feature to stiffen up the steering wheel considerably during VSC activation.

I'd like to give my 2c on this but I always drive with those systems turned off... I've found they impede my control over what's going on and what I expect to happen when the car slides a little.I'd turn the ABS off if I could.