Any truth to this statement?

[fielderLS3]

I've heard this from multiple dealers selling multiple brands, usually in-between being told when to refill the turn signal fluid, and how often I need to re-vulcanize the tires.

Seriously, where did the myth of significantly increased fuel mileage with TC off come from? There has to be a source.

[JoeP@TeamBeckyD]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

I can't see how it would. Traction control does nothing 99.99% of the time, so any affect on fuel economy would be next to impossible to see one way or the other.

But if it affects things, I can only imagine that it would help rather than hurt. When it intervenes, it usually does so by cutting the engines power -which (for that very brief moment) would reduce fuel consumption, not increase it.

I agree ...

[PAUL SS]

Originally Posted by CamaroSkooter

TCS will only ever pull timing if there is a loss of traction event, though.

If you know your daughter's driving style leads to losing traction often enough that the event of TCS pulling timing is having that much of an adverse effect on her gas mileage, then I think you have bigger issues to address...

No issues with her driving, just heard that remark and wanted to get some input on it.

[MMC]

I believe TC will also apply the brake to the spinning wheel to equalize traction to both sides of the vechicle. This may be why people "Think" it wastes fuel, under normal conditions it does nothing.

[toesuf94]

If you shut the car off and coast down hills you will improve mileage by a larger percentage...however you will lose powered control of steering and brakes. That would be unsafe...like turning off traction control.

[Higgs Boson]

Originally Posted by toesuf94

If you shut the car off and coast down hills you will improve mileage by a larger percentage...however you will lose powered control of steering and brakes. That would be unsafe...like turning off traction control.

if you leave it in gear and let off the gas the injectors don't pump any fuel plus you don't have to restart the engine plus rolling with the engine off is incredibly dangerous.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by CamaroSkooter

TCS will only ever pull timing if there is a loss of traction event, though.

If you know your daughter's driving style leads to losing traction often enough that the event of TCS pulling timing is having that much of an adverse effect on her gas mileage, then I think you have bigger issues to address...

That gets me thinking though... it might be entertaining to watch someone (professional driver, closed course) driving a Cruze such that the wheels almost never have any grip & have TC constantly intervene. I doubt its even possible without special prep ( such as wet pavement, bald tires, ice, or other such things)

[ParisTNDude]

Traction control is an electronically actuated system that is activated only when one of the wheel sensors senses a loss of traction in one or the other or both rear wheels. There's no way it activates any other time. If you were testing gas mileage on arainy day (as an example) and the Cruze was being driven fiercly, it might spin the tires (doubtful) and that, then would affect gas mileage.

[CamaroSkooter]

Originally Posted by PAUL SS

No issues with her driving, just heard that remark and wanted to get some input on it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying your daughter is a bad driver. I'm just saying that, for the salesman's argument to hold true, your daughter would have to be creating some pretty unrealistic driving conditions for the traction control system to be affecting her gas mileage enough to be noticeable at the pump.

Originally Posted by DGthe3

That gets me thinking though... it might be entertaining to watch someone (professional driver, closed course) driving a Cruze such that the wheels almost never have any grip & have TC constantly intervene. I doubt its even possible without special prep ( such as wet pavement, bald tires, ice, or other such things)

I'll bet some engineers could come up with a laboratory method of forcing traction control to keep engaging and disengaging so as to compare gas mileage against normal driving conditions. They probably wouldn't even need a driver to risk life and limb in the name of SCIENCE

Though, to be quite honest, what would be the fun in that?

[PAUL SS]

An alternator will cause a loss of fuel mileage and if the a/c, wipers, lights and stereo are all turned on it will be a greater loss. In that vein someone could think that traction and/or stability control may be putting a drag on the vehicle while it is monitoring the driving conditions.

[CamaroSkooter]

Electrically speaking, I imagine the TCS system pulls roughly the equivalent of a single blink of the incandescent blinker in amperage from the battery...