V50: Traction Control Temporarily Disabled

[JaaY]

Hi All,

I'm new to the forum. I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this so bare with me...

I have a 2010 Volvo V50 R Design, I was attempting to got home in the snow today up a hill which was un avoidable to get home, As I was going up the car was struggling. I kept it at around a 1000 rev ish to get me up. The traction control was working, as I got to the top of the hill I got a warning message which read "brake failure, Stop safely". To be honest the barkes felt fine so I carried on but the speedo was miles out. When I got it home, I turned the engine off, Left it for a bit then restarted the engine. The message was gone but I got a different one reading " Traction control temporarily disabled" the ABS light is lit as well as the traction control icon.

I had a look around the car and the front discs look really dirty (rusty/black color), I had the car washed on Sunday so this shouldn't be the case

I've searched around the internet for some information which may or may not be correct, So I was wondering if anyone here shed any light on it.

Thanks for reading

[Marty Dolomite]

Sticky calliper?

[JaaY]

Originally Posted by Marty Dolomite

Sticky calliper?

I'm not sure, I'll be honest I'm not very good when it comes to cars, but alarm bells did start to ring when I looked at the disks

[The Thong]

It could be snow in the ABS sensor if it suddenly started playing up or your ABS pump is acting up. V50, S40, C70, Ford Focus, all share the same unit and it’s known to be an issue on those vehicles. I suggest a trip to the dealer to get the codes read. That particular warning can be a symptom of many issues so getting it hooked up to VIDA is the way forward

TT

[galloot633]

those are symptoms of a fault in the front abs rings or their sensors
dave

[andrewpain]

confession time. I too live at the top of a hill, and a few years back the council didn't grit it early enough. Surface was packed frozen snow; lovely. When I tried to get up it (in the E320 Merc) I really struggled, eventually giving up and going round the long way with a gentler slope. Had the same trouble trying to get up my own drive. Thought I was losing power.
Got home, and realised that if I'd just turned traction control off, the tyres would have eventually cut through to the tarmac. Idiot.....so when driving alowly on ice I turned it off. Worked a treat..

[DaveNP]

Sounds like an issue with the 'ABS' sensor one of which, if I remember right, sends a signal to the speedo. Someone in the V50 section would probably be better equipped to point you in the right direction.

[oragex]

Deep snow or slippery uphill, traction control needs turned off.

Could be that going uphill something got trapped and stretched the cable of an ABS sensor ? I'd give perhaps some cleaning inside the wheels with a water hose if the weather permits, then have a looks at the sensors, reluctor rings, electrical connectors, etc. Hopefully nothing to do mechanically or electrically with the ABS control unit.

[tt82]

I had very similar with mine in the same situation. I will guess that after having the front wheels spinning for a set length of time, meaning they are rotating faster than the rears, the car not understanding the snow on the ground is the issues and suspects a system fault. If you go for a slow drive where you are able to drive normally, the car will the reset itself once it sees readings showing the same speed for all 4 wheels. This is what happened with me.

It also was the same after the car was dyno'd last year.

[blueblock]

Yes, it may be that the system is simply confused after registering that the front wheels were spinning faster than the rears for a long time. ABS/TC sensors monitor wheel speed to decide if they need to cut in, so an extended period of different speed at the front that it couldn't solve may have led it to believe that the sensors were faulty.
If you take it for a long steady drive when the weather clears up that may indeed solve it. However, it may be something that needs professional attention.