High Beam flash when traction control actuates

[skipi]

Now that we have some snow, I have the opportunity to see a problem that I want to make sure is not tied to the cruise control installation.  If I hit the gas on the snow and the traction control engages (the flashing indicator on the cluster) the high beams will flash on and off as long as the traction control system is active.  The low beams do not flash, only the high beams. 

Wondering,
Skip

[John_H]

Suggestion for a fellow owner:
Get a bypass plug from smartieparts.com and test it out for yourself!

Since I'm thinking not many people run their car in this extreme condition (with high beams?!) you might be one of the few with the right environment to recreate the event to your liking.

If I were an automotive system designer, I might include flashing brights (lower intensity then back) with the ESP to warn others.  Flashing the low beams wouldn't be appropriate because you don't want to lose your sight of the road (flashing off) or blind others with the high beams (flashing brights) but a lower intensity sounds peachy to me.

If you put the bypass plug in place of the Area451 cruise control box, your wiring is electrically identical to what you had before the cruise control.  That will give you the piece of mind that your smart appears to do what it was designed to do.

[admin]

I can say with certainty that it is not caused by the cruise control unit itself (although it doesn't necessarily rule out a wiring mis-install).  The cruise has the ability to know if the highbeams are on (it doesn't care) just like every other system on your car's CANBUS network, but it has absolutely no way to turn them on or off or adjust their voltage, etc.  That can only be done with your headlight switch.  I'm fairly certain that even the car's ECU can't do that - the headlight activation signal is an input into the ECU, from what I can tell there is no output back to the light (that's speculation - I'm not privy to the ECU's entire workings).  My thoughts on what you may want to consider:
   

• I feel I need to say this:  you should never be using cruise control in the snow.  Or in the rain for that matter.  While ours does have an immediate cut-out in the event the traction control is engaged, it still isn't a good idea.  I do think from your post that you were just doing this as an experiment but I thought I'd mention it anyway.
• The first thing that popped into my head is that perhaps your high beams aren't flashing at all?  If your traction control is engaged then you car is likely bouncing a little... could it simply be you're noticing your regular lights jiggling?  Does your blue "high beams on" indicator light actually come on?
• You didn't install the cruise switch on the left side of your steering wheel, did you? 
• Again you're deliberately experimenting, but its fairly hard to get the traction control system to engage for more than a second. It cuts power to your wheels, so its not like you can sit there spinning your tires.  How are you getting it to engage long enough to even notice the high beams flashing?  If you're going into a slide, then I'm back to the "bouncing" theory.
• You say its "a problem" but regardless of the cause, if that's the only symptom of your problem I'm not sure I'd bother worrying about it.  Certainly not to the extent that you take it to a dealer and possibly walk out with a significant bill if they determine its not a warranty issue.

John of course makes two good points.  The jumper will let you rule out the cruise box.  However it doesn't rule out the wiring so if it still does it you'd have to reverse all the wiring to confirm its not that.  And he's right that it does make sense for the ECU to flash the high beams in the event of an emergency... I'd be impressed if the manufacturers thought of that frankly  .  If it does, then that disproves what I think I know about the headlight's link to the ECU... but I've been wrong before!  Now I wish we had snow so I could go test for myself.  I'm curious.
 
Art

[skipi]

Here is another thing that I just thought of.... if I start the car with the high beams on, after I start rolling, the high beams will flash... I think this happens when the ABS test occurs.

[skipi]

I feel I need to say this:  you should never be using cruise control in the snow.  Or in the rain for that matter.  While ours does have an immediate cut-out in the event the traction control is engaged, it still isn't a good idea.  I do think from your post that you were just doing this as an experiment but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

Nope.... wouldn't do that.

The first thing that popped into my head is that perhaps your high beams aren't flashing at all?  If your traction control is engaged then you car is likely bouncing a little... could it simply be you're noticing your regular lights jiggling?  Does your blue "high beams on" indicator light actually come on?

The blue indicator will flash and I can see the light change in front of me.

You didn't install the cruise switch on the left side of your steering wheel, did you? 

No

Again you're deliberately experimenting, but its fairly hard to get the traction control system to engage for more than a second. It cuts power to your wheels, so its not like you can sit there spinning your tires.  How are you getting it to engage long enough to even notice the high beams flashing?  If you're going into a slide, then I'm back to the "bouncing" theory.

Just hit the gas harder on a snow covered lot and the traction control will stay engaged (keeping the throttle back to prevent wheel spinning) until either you are up to that speed, or you let up on the gas.

You say its "a problem" but regardless of the cause, if that's the only symptom of your problem I'm not sure I'd bother worrying about it.  Certainly not to the extent that you take it to a dealer and possibly walk out with a significant bill if they determine its not a warranty issue.

I just wondered if anyone else had seen anything like this.

[admin]

It sounds like very strange behavior... but then again, I can't say I really ever looked for it.  Maybe its normal?

Art