Drivers warned to 'turn off' safety feature in car or face £230 charge
Drivers have been warned to "turn off" a safety feature immediately - or face a huge bill. A motoring expert has highlighted how a safety feature needs to be switched off - especially when a motorist is faced with four key situations.
Toyota Jeff took to his YouTube channel to explain why the system designed to stop accidents can actually leave you with a hefty repair bill. Traction control (TCS) is a safety feature in cars that helps prevent the loss of traction of the driven wheels.
It works by detecting when a wheel is losing grip on the road and automatically applying the brakes to that wheel or reducing the car's engine power. "If this is such a great safety feature, why in the world would you want to turn traction control off?" Jeff asked.
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He added in his warning to motorists: "The main reason I can think of is let’s say your car is stuck in mud or ice, or gravel or dirt or that type of thing. Sometimes we want to rock our car backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards. Reverse, drive."
In the UK, emergency breakdown rescue can cost £150 while a local mechanic call-out fee on top of this could be £80 - a £230 total. Jeff said: "When you turn off the traction control button that is going to allow you to do that manoeuvre to hopefully get you out of that messy situation." In reply, a driver wrote: "Every car manufacturer should invest in a personable sales rep like yourself, to go over every single option their automobiles could have on them and have them available on YouTube for understandable instruction as you have done here."
Another added: "I love it when I find the exact video I needed, simple and to the point." Auto Express said: "We wouldn’t recommend turning traction control off during normal road driving – it doesn’t matter how good a driver you are, the traction control system can act to prevent a loss of control far faster than you are able to react behind the wheel."