BMW's sliding in the rain....

[netercol]

i have clipped a barrier in my old e46 with ASC due to the back steeping out in the wet, but never had this problem yet in the newer ones with DSC..

in fact i find the car extremely stable, so much so that i have to switch dsc out if i want to have some fun.

only reason i can think of for such unpredictable behaviour is misaligned back suspension.. not neccesarily out of alignment but skewed in such a way that the thrust angle is a few degrees off?

cant see the cruise control making a differance, the cruise thing could maybe happen if the cruise control was a dumb system , ie trying to keep the car to a certain speed no matter what. but the DSC will cut power the moment the back wheels loose traction (one wheel starts spinning faster than the others) so i dont see this happening in a modern car..

 

[MikeR]

So would you guys agree with this?
i received this email about a week ago and never really gave it any thought
after reading BMW M STORY sounds true........

I wonder how many people know about this

A 36 year old female had an accident several weeks ago and totaled her car.

A resident of Kilgore, Texas she was traveling between Gladewater & Kilgore. It was raining, though not excessively, when her car suddenly began to hydro-plane and literally flew through the air. She was not seriously injured but very stunned at the sudden occurrence!

When she explained to the highway patrolman what had happened he told her something that every driver should know - NEVER DRIVE IN THE RAIN WITH YOUR CRUISE CONTROL ON.

She thought she was being cautious by setting the cruise control and maintaining a safe consistent speed in the rain..
But the highway patrolman told her that if the cruise control is on when your car begins to hydro-plane and your tires lose contact with the pavement, your car will accelerate to a higher rate of speed making you take off like an airplane.

She told the patrolman that was exactly what had occurred.
The patrolman said this warning should be listed, on the driver's

seat sun-visor - NEVER USE THE CRUISE CONTROL WHEN THE PAVEMENT IS WET OR ICY, along with the airbag warning. We tell our teenagers to set the cruise control and drive a safe speed - but we don't tell them to use the cruise control only when the pavement is dry.

The only person the accident victim found, who knew this (besides the patrolman), was a man who had a similar accident, totaled his car and sustained severe injuries.
NOTE: Some vehicles (like the Toyota Sienna Limited XLE)
will not allow you to set the cruise control when the windshield wipers are on.
If you send this to 15 people and only one of them doesn't know about this, then it was all worth it.
You might have saved a life.

Thats a very old story. [i(Circulating since: Nov 2002 extract from Urban Legends)]
One thing not making sense is that they say the car will accelerate....Not true as the cruise control is set at a speed and will only accelerate if it slowing down or in the case of going up hill it meets resistance. But I agree with not having the control on during slippery conditions as you are not in total control.

 

[Lev]

Happens to me whenever there is water on the road. I enjoy it though. I would suggest checking your tyre pressure, if the tyres are to hard, you could have less grip on the road's surface.

 

[Spy007]

I had my cruise controll on as well. My theory is that as I have an A/T, the box kicked back to maintain speed and that is when it happend. There were other factors like passing a truck at the time as I went sideways infront of the truck, Diezel on the road, and hectic cross wind from the storm.

But I do not use CC in the rain anymore, as I picked up afterwards that as the water slows you down the A/T drops a gear and Yes DSC might kick in but then it might also be to late as I found out.

So the storie makes sense from a logical point of view and from My own incident

 

[MFD 187]

so maybe the safest thing to do for now is not to use CC in rain or wet roads
should be safe with that , and ofcourse no high speed

 

[stiovov]

Bought my M3 E46 2 weeks ago and last week Wednesday on my way to work it decided to step out of line. Was on the R21 towards PTA doing 90Kpa... Hit the Barrier..... :banghead::banghead::banghead: Went back to the seen and found Oil on the Road.... But nobody was hurt and obviously will only be getting my baby back in Jan if I'm Lucky

 

[netercol]

guys, the cruise control story makes absolutely no sense.. specially on a modern beemer. everything in the car is integrated with each other, and all the control units talk to each other on the can bus.. there is no ways the cruise is going to make the car step out if there is loss of traction.. i mean dont you think the engineers thought of a situation like that? (and every conceivable situation inbetween)

what they cant compensate for is road condition.. diesel, oil potholes ect....

 

[ivan2terrible]

somehow i think my e30 handles better in rain than my 36 m3. Also took a corner in rain, back came loose, controlled it and slowed down a bit and baam it happens again. Anyway? I tell u, this car hates rain. e30 in strait wet road=120km/h
e36 m3=90km/h

 

[BMW M]

Asked BMW to have codes read to see if there was any interference from the DCS so they said that they could check ECU logs etc. Gonna cost me R800 but I want to know. Looking at the amount of people this has happened to, I would say we need to investigate this further for a definite answer wouldn't you guys agree...? :thinking: We might be onto some kind of mass recall here...lol

 

[moranor@axis]

my CC is my foot im not sure i would trust the CC in the rain :dunno:

 

[Spy007]

guys, the cruise control story makes absolutely no sense.. specially on a modern beemer. everything in the car is integrated with each other, and all the control units talk to each other on the can bus.. there is no ways the cruise is going to make the car step out if there is loss of traction.. i mean dont you think the engineers thought of a situation like that? (and every conceivable situation inbetween)

what they cant compensate for is road condition.. diesel, oil potholes ect....

Yes makes no sense until it happens to you. I had my scare. No CC in rain for me.

 

[netercol]

Yes makes no sense until it happens to you. I had my scare. No CC in rain for me.

each to his own i guess.. never had issue's myself, guess we will have to agree to disagree :dunno:

 

[BMW M]

Guys,

A quick question to you all that took part/commented. What Tires did you guys have on your cars at the time of the incident? And where they Runflats? Spoke to BMW this morning, according to the logs from the ECU the DSC did activate... No damage on the car, she has been given the 'All Clear'

Asked them to check the alignment and thrust angle as well. Apparently my car was not the only one on this particular stretch of road on Sunday, two other BMW's suffered the same fate, one was totaled, and another with minor suspension damage. (1 x 1 Series & 1 x 3 Series - Totaled) Interestingly all three cars has Pirelli's on... all in good condition :thinking:

Any thoughts...?

 

[Spy007]

Had Pirelli p6000 on. Changed them 3 days later No hassel since and it has poured in JHB since then.

 

[Sankekur]

I drove in some very (I mean very) heavy rain yesterday, just to be safe I turned my CC off, but mostly for the reason that I like having more control when the conditions get bad.
I thing I have to say is these continental tyres I have on seem rubbish, the car was all over the place, but then again I use the word seem as the rain was so heavy it was hard to see the amount of water on the road, so the tyres might have been performing brilliantly, I just didn't know it . I luckily got trough it safely though.

 

[MFD 187]

Tyres play a big role on a BMW

 

[netercol]

the Pirelli p6000 gets quite bad reviews around the net.. compared to other pirelli's.. its almost like they are not made by pirelli :dunno:

 

[BMW M]

Interesting Stats we're getting here... 50/50... Should we be concerned about our cars in the rain?? :thinking:

 

[Sankekur]

I think we should all just have a healthy respect for wet roads, and be extra careful when driving in the rain.

 

[JustNN]

Ok on new years day at 2am i was on my way to drop my gf of at hme, traveling on edwin swales i noticed a jetta over the curb on the grass on the opposite side and a town truck behind him so i wasnt sure if it was a break down or accident but since the car was just over the curb i taught he must have broke down.

Now im on my way home im on the side where i saw the jetta and was coming up to it and i saw flashing lights so i slow down to about 60km/h and i see the tow truck and then out of no where i see rocks(just smaller then golf balls) all over the road and i hit them. Next second the back steps out and im heading strate for the jetta:banghead: i counter steer and after 3 times i pull it strate(felt like the man after that:mmm: )

I found out it was sand, stones(looked like a land slide or sumthing) and it was raining so mud does really not agree with a rear wheel drive car:nono: What a way to start the new year of:shocked: