rraulston

Today, i got a little frisky and did a few dohnuts in my dirt driveway. My car flashed active handling active in the DIC but it didnt seem that it hampered my fun in any way....should it have???? I sent my unit to ABS fixers 6 mos ago.....just curious......Ray

Bill Dearborn

Find a large empty parking lot and try driving in a circle (skid pad type manuever) in comp mode and slowly increasing speed. As the car approaches the handling limit and starts to understeer you may (depending on how you react to the understeer) feel the inside rear brake kick in to yaw the car in the direction you are steering.

Another manuever to try is to drive in the same circle but as you approach the handling limit let off the throttle abruptly to cause trailing throttle oversteer.

After seeing the posts below I want to clarify. I am not recommending donuts. I am recommending a 100 to 200 ft diameter circle with your foot off the brake. You will be going 40+ mph when the front starts to slip, far from a donut.

Bill

slothy

doubt its gonna help at all when your forcing donuts... where is the vid btw :P

BlackZ06

Two things to keep in mind ....

1) The system is "self diagnosing" ..... it is constantly, for example, comparing the data from various sensors against each other. If a sensor is providing data that is "impossible" (such as the Steering Wheel Position Sensor saying you just spun the steering wheel more than 3 full revolutions in 1/10th of a second) then the system posts a DTC for the problem and issues warning messages to the DIC such as SERVICE ACTIVE HANDLING.

2) The system allows you some "fun" before stepping in. Much like Traction Control allows you to at least "chirp" the tires, AH allows you to get the car into mild oversteer and understeer situations without intervening. You have to push the car past certain limits before AH will step in.

Finally, AH can't do much to intervene when you're doing donuts on a dirt driveway. Even if it tried to apply a brake to stop what it would perceive as oversteer, you already have the brakes applied and are using the engine and steering input to override the brakes. You "brute force" overpowered the AH system

gtzy

I believe certain DTC such as C1283 related to failure of Steering Wheel Postion Sensor will not be set unless an Active Handling event occurs.

BlackZ06

The EBCM continuously monitors the SWPS (Steering Wheel Position Sensor) to detect steering wheel changes for two systems:

1) Magnasteer - This is the variable assistance steering system. When you turn the steering wheel the EBCM uses the angle turned, along with vehicle speed (calculated from the wheel speed sensors) to determine the amount of assistance to command.

2) Active Handling (JL4) - If installed, the EBCM continuously monitors the steering wheel angle to determine if/when an "event" is occuring.

The EBCM is a self diagnosing system .... it even resets all DTC to an "H" status at engine shutdown so that it can run a complete diagnostic of all installed systems at next engine start. It even recalibrates the SWPS at each engine start ..... a C1283 sets if the EBCM is unable to recalibrate the SWPS within 10 minutes of engine start.

Riley P

I don't know about your cars, but my 2000 slows down RFN and displays Active Handling on the DIC when I am about to get "out of control". I'm not up on how it cuts the power, through the ignitions, and/or use of brakes, but as I know part of it involves the brakes, perform a small u turn with some throttle and the car should not allow a fishtail. This should only be done in a safe area and blah blah blah. If it fishtails, check your brakes, maybe they are gone. I know my car seems like it shuts right off when this happens.