Maybe a silly question, but I was wondering what the conditions should be before stability control tries to do something? Is there a minimum speed?

Reason I am asking is that we got lots of snow the past couple of days and it seems to me that at least at low speeds (maybe 10-15 kph) the car rear does slide quite a bit in loose snow if you make a sharpish turn, and the DSC light does not even blink. I did notice it blinking for a very short interval at highway speeds. The manual doesn't shed much light into this detail.

(I haven't really owned a car before with ESP or similar so this is all a bit new to me)

Hi mkoskimi, i think there is a minimum speed for ESP activation your guess of about 10-15kph would sound about right but there are others on here (Alex P?) who would be able to you a more definative answer but regarding the light blinking it would only do this if you are driving too fast for the road conditions so if you are driving sensably it would not normally activate I notice you mention that it do's it on the highway where the car is driven just a bit faster than on smaller roads. remember that it blinks to tell you that it has possibly prevented you from slidding off the road basically its helping those with poor driving skills so if yours is not coming on, well done . hope this helps.

Ghyllie

ESP = Elping Stupid People  oo! Shiney!
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55 Nissan Navara SE Black - My Toy.
08 Freelander 2 XS Santorini Black - Her Majesty's Toy.

Thanks for the response Ghyllie, and yes, I don't expect the light to turn on during normal driving but it would be nice to be able to predict a bit about when it kicks in and when it doesn't... so I have actually been trying, under safe circumstances (hence the slow speeds) to get the DSC on (eg turning more sharply on a snowy parking lot), but in these cases the rear has just slided a bit.

But you're probably right about the minimum speed. I'm tempted to go on one of those ice tracks that they use in driving school here just to get a better idea about the behaviour

Had a good demo with a LRE Instructor in the snow in UK last winter. Select sand mode on Terrain Response, accelerate quite hard with DSC switched on and hardly any deviation from a straight line. Repeat exercise with DSC switched off and back hand started to slide and as soon as DSC was switched back on straight line resumed. Speed was no more than 20 - 25 mph but difference was noticeable.