Re: Hitting Rev Limiter
Well, it's starting to make me feel better that I'm not the only one with this symptom. If several other cars are doing this, it makes me assume we're talking about something in the design, and not some mechanical system failing.
If it is indeed the traction control, and not the rev limiter, standing the car on its nose seems a very odd way to stop me from going into a skid on a slippery surface. Having had a 2004 Mustang Cobra, this is identical to the reaction the car would give me when I missed a shift and hit the rev limiter, so I never really questioned if that is what it was or not, because experience told me, "ah, you just hit the rev limiter." Add to that the fact that it always sounds and feels like the car revs just a little too far before it happens and it shifts to second immediately after kept me from questioning this.
If it is in fact the stability control system doing this (wow, it is a fast-reacting system, if it is), is that system defeatable with an aftermarket ECU tune? Maybe a limited slip differential would improve this situation. The traction control on my cobra had much slower reflexes than what this system would have to have to create this problem. In the cobra, you would be in a slipping tire situation for nearly a second before the system would engage and you would get the flashing light on your dash. This is happening before I can detect any ammount of wheel spin from behind, and it would have to be happening just AFTER the shift into second gear, in that 1/100th of a second as the tires were getting ready to break loose. Again, cutting the fuel to achieve the equivalent of slamming on the breaks doesn't seem like its a very safe "traction control" solution.