New poster

Congrats on the new car - what part of the country and how was the dealer experience? (just curious)

Welcome Marc Make sure that you read the owner's manual a few times. there are several items that are programmable and others that just are not intuitive even if you have driven for years.

The 'Trac' works rather impressively. Given the power and weight of the L300, some means of maintaining traction in less than ideal conditions is a good feature. One key item to be aware of is to check your tire pressure often and rotate wheels on schedule. The traction control works by monitoring wheel RPMs and taking action if they are not even (on a straight-away at least). Any change in pressure or tire wear makes a measurable change in tire radius and rpm. On acceleration, if one drive wheel starts to slip, the traction control applies a slight braking action to the spinning wheel to divert torque to the non-slipping wheel. If this is not successful, the engine power is automatically cut back. Default is on but it can be turned off by pressing the trac button. Good for the testosterone just to spin the wheels once in a while :))

All in all, I was very pleased with the performance of my '01 lw300 the first winter I owned it.

Oppie

Thanks

I thought I read the trac light would illuminate upon start... and the ligth would go off in 8 to 20 seconds.... then if trac was needed it re-illuminates...

Mine either stays on light all the time, or you hit the button and it stays off.

so does your light come on and then go off?

Marco

Oh, I see the confusion now. On engine start, all the instrument panel lamps come on for a few seconds as a lamp test. This includes the 'low traction' indicator. This indicator comes on (after the lamp test) if the traction control ever has to take control. Don't recall if it comes on when the ABS also engages on braking. I've usually been too focused on avoiding an incident to look down and see if the indicator is on .

The 'TRAC' lamp/button on the dash center is on by default (traction control enabled) and can be turned off by pressing the button. The user manual suggests that you might want to do this when trying to get loose after being stuck in the snow (I live in lower NY and never had to disable the trac at all last winter).

Hope that answers your question.

btw - read in the morning paper that among the vehicles that are stolen, Saturn wagons are at the bottom of the list. Gee, don't know if that's a plus or a snub...

Oppie

so it just stays on and lit?

Now you've got it :) The TRAC lamp on dash above the radio is just telling you that the traction control is enabled when the lamp is on. Just for gits and shiggles, try to floor the gas from a standing stop. Try this twice, once with and once without the traction control and learn how it works. You might want to do this in a large parking lot. If you are not sure that you can handle the power, just use enough power to get an initial wheel spin before the traction control takes over. When the wheel starts to spin, you do NOT have to let up on the pedal; the trac system takes care of that. Very similar to the ABS where, if you previously drove a non-ABS car as I did, there is a bit of re-learning. Without ABS, you have to pump the pedal if the wheel starts to lock on a abrupt stop. With ABS, you use whatever brake pressure is appropriate to the conditions but do NOT pump the pedal. Keep a steady pressure; the ABS ensures that the wheels do not lock up by modulating the brake pressures... and you get a nice foot massage in the bargain. Have found this very nice in the past that as I made a panic stop and my life was flashing before my eyes, the abs came on and actually had a calming effect. (luckily missed the sob that ran the red light missed t-boning him by inches)

Oppie