How To Disengage The Vsc (?)

bostonsnowboarder · February 1, 2008

I ran across this in a review of the IS250 in Car and Driver:

"And for that occasional run through the woods, when you’d rather not have the electronics interfere with your tire-sliding ambitions, here’s how to shut down the stability system. Start the car with the hand brake engaged. Press the brake pedal twice and hold. Engage the hand brake twice and hold. Repeat until the “skid lights” appear on the dash. The ABS does not shut off. When the engine is subsequently turned off and then switched back on, the stability control is reactivated. (Presumably, this trick works on all new Toyota and Lexus models, and it’s easier than it sounds.)"

I wonder if it would work on the 05 ES330 or later models? I am not bold enough to challenge my car to try to find out. Has anyone tried this?

Boston Snowboarder

05 ES330 Silver/Blk

99 Honda Civic LXBlk

04 Subaru Outback LTD Blue

Lexusfreak · February 1, 2008

As far as I know (depending on the equipment package on the ES 330 as the base & 'appearance' packages does not have TC or VSC) there is a VSC off button on the lower right drivers side of the dash.

It also explains things in detail in the owners manual.....if you don't have one, I highly suggest contacting Lexus to get one.....I think they are free. B)

:cheers:

wwest · February 1, 2008

As far as I know (depending on the equipment package on the ES 330 as the base & 'appearance' packages does not have TC or VSC) there is a VSC off button on the lower right drivers side of the dash.
It also explains things in detail in the owners manual.....if you don't have one, I highly suggest contacting Lexus to get one.....I think they are free. B)

Insofar as I know, have been able to learn, only a few of the '08 models have a Trac & VSC sequential "off" button. TC must be turned off first and only then can the same button be used to turn off VSC.

But more to the point I suspect that you would NEVER wish to turn off VSC whereas there have been many requests, posts, regarding the need, justifiable need IMMHO, to turn TC off.

TC, Traction Control, is the system that prevents wheelspin/slip resulting from too much engine torque being applied to the driven wheels fro current roadbed conditions. There are times when a slight bit of wheelspin can be of help, say in roacking the car back and forth to get unstuck.

bostonsnowboarder · February 1, 2008

As far as I know (depending on the equipment package on the ES 330 as the base & 'appearance' packages does not have TC or VSC) there is a VSC off button on the lower right drivers side of the dash.
It also explains things in detail in the owners manual.....if you don't have one, I highly suggest contacting Lexus to get one.....I think they are free. B)

Insofar as I know, have been able to learn, only a few of the '08 models have a Trac & VSC sequential "off" button. TC must be turned off first and only then can the same button be used to turn off VSC.

But more to the point I suspect that you would NEVER wish to turn off VSC whereas there have been many requests, posts, regarding the need, justifiable need IMMHO, to turn TC off.

TC, Traction Control, is the system that prevents wheelspin/slip resulting from too much engine torque being applied to the driven wheels fro current roadbed conditions. There are times when a slight bit of wheelspin can be of help, say in roacking the car back and forth to get unstuck.

My car does have the button to turn off TC on the lower right hand side of steering wheel, which I know about. The owners manual mentions only that this button would turn TC off, in the setting that you mention which is to rock car out of hole. It does not say anything about turning VSC off.

I have personally NO DESIRE to turn VSC off. I think that car and driver was implying that someone might want to turn it off if they purposely wanted wheel skid, say if they were going to go off road on a dirt track. Or kind of llike we did when I was a kid where we would take our cars into an empty snowy parking lot and try to skid and slide as much as we could! Would make more sense to do this with an IS than an ES. I dont think anyone in their right mind would want to take an ES off road on a dirt track! there are much better cars to do that with. However, in case anyone did have such a desire, this might be the way to turn off VSC....I think I will never try it or have any desire to!.......