I just had this clarified for me at the service dept. at a dealership.

This is in regards to the ESP "electronic stability program".

When you start your vehicle, it automatically turns on the ESP function everytime.
There should not be any ESP warning light showing on the dash.

When you are driving and you get some slippage from snow/ice, then the ESP engages
and the ESP warning light turns on, on the dash. It's an orange car with squiggly tire tracks.
After the vehicle corrects itself, the ESP disengages and the little warning light dissapears from
the dash.

If you are driving and you get stuck in a ditch or some deep snow, you can manually turn the
ESP"OFF" by pushing a button on the center console.
When you do this the ESP warning light appears on the dash and stays on as long the vehicle is turned
onor up until you manually turn the ESP on again.

But once you turn the engine off and then restart the vehicle, the ESP is automatically turned on again.

The reason you might turn it off when you are stuck is to get more power out of the front wheels.

Chrysler should have a little bit better signal system on the dash to let you know that it it turned on.
And use a different signal when it is turned off.
It's a bit confusing.

Thanks and see you out there,
Loki Sunrider

 

partly true.

have you ever had bad brakes? a situation when only one side of the car was braking?
let's say that brakes on the right side are bad, and when you apply brakes, you brake with left side (front and rear left wheel) only. what happenes?

if you are driving a straight line, your car will pull to left (left wheels braking, right wheels spinning).
that is used by ESP.
if you drive too fast entering the left curve, computer measures acceleration, wheel speed, steering wheel position, throttle, braking and twist (roll of the car body). if the direction does not correspond to the to steering, it will brake rear left wheel ONLY, to help you through the curve.
it can also brake any other wheel, or combination of two or three, or it CAN (not allways) reduce engine power to help.

disengaging ESP will not help you get out of the snow or a ditch (unless you have a smart system which brakes the wheel with less traction) becouse it's not made for that purpose. it's a stability program and that does not apply when you are stucked in a ditch.

 

Loki Sunrider - I'm confused. Why would you want a light that tells you that it's on? Do you need a light that tells you your airbag is active? Safety features are always assumed on, and display a warning only when they are off or faulty.

I wonder - I'd be surprised if the T&C ESP does not have traction control built in. If you disable ESP it should disable traction control. Pretty simple to test...go on snow or ice, disable ESP and let her rip...if she spins her wheels, you know it's tied. I know for a fact, that Mercedes ties their ESP to traction control, and I highly doubt it's any different for the Chryslers.

Erik

 

I was just pointing out the difference.
ESP is not what helps you out of the snow. it's the Traction Control, and I would not know if all T&C have that.
sometimes they are not connected, sometimes they are.
cheaper cars don't have both (becouse it comes with more powerfull engines) and on some european sports cars (or more expencive ones) you can disengage them separately.

 

I can confirm, in my Limited when the ESP button (right above the Climate control and next to the hazard button) is depressed and the light on the dash is illuminated, there is no traction control or VSC (vehicle stability control). The wheels will spin and spin on snow or ice.

 

we also have somewhat a different situation.

I'm in Europe, you are in States.
my voyager is from '97 and no models in europe of that year have traction control (or ESP for that matter). not even the ones with bigger V6 engines.
your car is T&C limited, probablly with all the extras, it's a newer model, and of course it has ESP and TC. and now I know it's all-in-one system.

and that's why I said that I don't know. but I can say that I am happy that you have it, becouse it's an important part of securitiy in any car, though I can't say that I see any logic in disengaging ESP and TC.