papashango

the car is slipping and sliding and the yellow traction control sign is blinking. I mean I know it prevent the car from slipping and corrects it if it is going sideways but how does it exactly work? Does it eat into the brake pads of the car or the rotors or is it something completely different? Does the more often it happens the quicker your brake pads/rotors get used or nothing such as that?

Apologies for the noobie question, but I have been curious for a while now.

CarHopper

Combination of a few things. Car braking based on where and how hard the computer is telling it if you're sideways as well as cutting power to the engine.

I'm sure someone else can chime in with a more technical explanation. Google would also be a good source to just find a link under something like "How traction control works"

zibby43

Traction control is similar to ABS.

With traction control, when the ECU senses loss of traction, it applies brakes to individual wheels and reduces engine power in order to correct the slide/slippage.

Example:

You are driving down the road and suddenly you have to swerve to the left to avoid hitting a deer. You encounter an understeer situation (the vast majority of cars are set up to understeer slightly).

Your car's yaw rate sensor determines where your car is pointing, the steering angle sensor determines where your front wheels are pointing, the accelerometer determines if your vehicle is sliding, and the wheel speed sensors monitor each wheel’s speed.

The ECU recognizes the discrepancy between the intended path (communicated by the steering angle sensor) and the actual path (communicated via the yaw rate sensor) and sends a signal to increase braking power to the left rear wheel. This causes the automobile to rotate left (the desired response in this situation). If necessary, the ECU will also reduce engine power by sending a signal to the throttle actuator.

If this were an oversteer situation, the ECU would apply braking to the front outside wheel to keep the vehicle under control.

papashango

Thanks for that explanation..so if it auto brakes of you then the brake pads/rotors must be getting used therefore deteriorating more and more every time that happens?

Dogtag114

Negligible... don't turn it off to stretch out wear.

JeffDL

that's why the rear pads will wear faster than the fronts.

zibby43

No problem.

As another poster said, the wear is negligible unless you are lighting up the traction control 24/7/365. Literally.

QWKSNKE

I think that is because (like a lot of performance cars since mid 2000's) there is more brake bias on the rear than the front compared to previous year cars.

Just as an FYI to the OP. The MB traction control is incorporated with the ESP (electronic stability program) which was explained above in the post about the car sliding.
Most cars do not have this and only have a traction control system which operates by cutting throttle/fuel until the spinning stops