Traction control not working

[squirell]

Hey Guys Happy New Year,
On my 96 Mark in the rain my tires keep spinning .
Not usually an issue, but last night while passing someone doing 60...mashed the pedal and almost lost control of the car.
I'm not getting any ecm codes or abs codes...my trac button lights up when I push it.
Any ideas where to start ?

 

[soduka]

Your traction control is working just fine. It's not a modern car. Gen 1 Mark VIII's traction control is not full speed traction control, it's only active at low speed. Above ~25 mph it does not contribute.

 

[Bangster]

If you had a 97 then you could activate TC at those speeds. It is a little crazy to see the spinning wheel at 85+ on the interstate in the rain, I turned it off and am not real sure how much it actually helps, I was never able to loop it, and I tried.

 

[squirell]

Your traction control is working just fine. It's not a modern car. Gen 1 Mark VIII's traction control is not full speed traction control, it's only active at low speed. Above ~25 mph it does not contribute.

Even off the line from a dead stop in the rain.i could spin them as long as I want.

 

[chris2523]

IMO, the first gen traction control is quite useless.
its "ok" on dry pavement with 275 tires.

and yes, it is only "functional" through 30 mph or so.

my suggestion is to purchase better tires and drive accordingly.
a track lock is also helpful of course.

 

[93mkviii]

Or your rear brakes are so weak it's not actually able to stop it from spinning? Could be old brakes, frozen rear calipers or air in the lines... etc

 

[squirell]

Or your rear brakes are so weak it's not actually able to stop it from spinning? Could be old brakes, frozen rear calipers or air in the lines... etc

Brakes are good as well as fairly new michelin tires with plenty of tread.
I recall hearing something about dirty abs sensors ?
Any one know about that ?

 

[Bangster]

I had very fuzzy rear ABS sensors on my 2000 Grand Marquis because I let the brakes wear down to the backing, so lots of steel on iron to create filings. My ABS light was usually on and TC would engage at all sorts of odd times, but would also engage when it should. I cleaned them off and all was good. I had to do a rear axle and remove one (so I could push in the axle enough to get out the c clip) and nearly broke it. I also had to swap the ABS ring with the existing one as it was totally different from the other side.