Funkwagen

So, today I scared the crap out of myself testing out the car (first time driving this car in the winter) in a snowy empty parking lot. Feared I killed the car somehow gunning it and drifting about everywhere, as after a while the ESC Inoperative message came on and I THOUGHT it'd gone into limp mode so I immediately shut off the car. I turned the ignition back on, and the ESC message was still present. I thought I'd ruined something.

NOPE!

The wheel wells were jammed full of snow, more so than they looked. The rear wells were especially bad, they were almost hard packed with snow. I used an ice scraper to clear them out, then drove the car 10 feet and the ESC warning switched off and all was okay. Whew.

So, if you get this message on a particularly snowy day, your wheel wells are packed with snow. You'll probably have to spend some time going sideways for it to happen, it didn't happen all day driving normally on snowy roads. Just thought I'd mention!