This weekend I ripped apart the dash yet again and added another of Ian Cull’s excellent circuits. It allows me to toggle the traction control from my steering wheel.
There are times when your traction control kicks in when you are pulling into traffic and need to get moving but it robs engine power for several seconds even after the tires get traction. You can’t look away from the road to toggle it off. But a quick flick of the steering wheel button would immediately cancel it.
I also suspect that during an AutoX–where I already use Ian’s MINICircuit to permanently keep DSC off for the day–that the DSC’s independent corner brake control might do a better job than a human in holding through a slalom. Speed should be held the same so the lack of engine power should be OK during those few seconds. But you can’t take your eyes off or hands off the wheel during an intense autocross… So on my next one on Oct 1 I will experiment to see if switching DSC on quickly just for the slalom sections and immediately back off on exit will allow for a higher speed through the slalom.
The 2-spoke MFSW has a rear middle button on the left side that isn’t used. The problem is the wheel’s buttons do not have their own wires to splice into, they communicate their presses onto the MINI’s iBus network. The stereo and the engine computer see the messages and change function or cruise control respectively. So it takes Ian’s excellent iBusRemote circuit to decode the signal and watch for that button. I had to solder the output and power wires from this board onto my existing MINICircuit as pictured above. After some Sneakers-like signal searching with an oscilloscope to the connectors behind the Radio, I found and tapped the remaining wire into the iBus.
It is working perfectly. I can toggle the DSC on and off very quickly. I can’t wait to make use of it at the next autocross, and for some fun in the snow too!