I've got an interesting question for you guys.

As we all know, all 6MT Z's come with VDC, Nissan's version of Mercedes's ESP program. We all know what it does so I'm not gonna go into that here, but it leads me to my question.

AT Z's only come with TCS and not VDC. Is TCS on the AT Z's tied to the transmission and EBD system or are AT owners simply SOL when it comes to going into a skid?

 

Well my G35 5AT has the VDC .... and i noticed when the tail starts to spin out, the VDC kicks in and stops the slide and the car slows down. Strange that the Z would not use a VDC even as an option

Not sure if its the TC going on... but with the VDC OFF the tail can whip out.

 

350 enth at or mt - no vdc
350 tour mt - vdc , at - no vdc
350 35th mt - vdc , at - vdc

if im not wrong -_-

 

http://www.perfnissan.com/350z.shtml#touring

according to this info

350z touring both AT and MT have VDC

 

The Touring does NOT come with VDC in automatic trim. I am asking, does TCS in the Auto work with the auto tranny to ACT like the VDC(therefore making it unneeded) or is Nissan just trying to kill off the AT drivers?

 

35th Anniversary 5AT Z does have VDC.

TCS on both the 5AT & 6MT can control the throttle.

In addition TCS on the 5AT can control gear shift, shift point, shift speed and torque management. The 5AT is continually monitoring driving environment and the driver input and can adapt to what the driver or changing conditions.

Both 5AT and 6MT have lots of driving nannies even without VDC.

Except for the 35th Anniversary Z, the 5AT won't correct for oversteer and understeer but the there are a lot of controls built into the transmission and into TCS that will help prevent or help the driver manually recover. The automatic yaw correction is the only thing that is really missing. It would be nice to have it as an option on the regular 5AT but it's not that big of a loss since they replaced it with more controls to help prevent, maintain and recover manually. Some might even consider it an advantage.

I'm just speculating but I think that they added VDC to the G35 because of marketing reasons and not really for performance reasons or a significant increase in safrty. If you look at the cars that compete against the G35 they all come with stability control. Most people are unaware of just how advanced the Nissan 5AT is and will overlook that. What they will see is a car without automatic yaw correction and that would be a major negative in their mind when in reality it is very little.

 

So popping the car into Manual Mode and switching off the TCS will actually disable MORE nannies on the 5AT model than you can disable on the 6MT model without pulling fuses.

Interesting.

 

35th Anniversary 5AT Z does have VDC.

Yupp, little button on the left side next to the alarm valet button.

 

Turning off VDC/TCS will disable both on the 6MT and 5AT. VDC will not automatically correct yaw and TCS will not control wheel spin. What doesn't get disabled is ABS and the Brake LSD. They are always on. The Brake LSD is different from the Mechanical LSD. It's mentioned in the Owner's Manual.

On the 5AT, turning off TCS will not affect the driver and environmental adaptability of the transmission. Turning it off will prevent TCS from taking over automatically to correct or assist in recovering traction. If you don't turn TCS Off and it gets activated it will take control whether you are in manual mode or auto mode. No shifting in manual mode and no overrides while in auto mode while TCS is triggered.

What a lot of people think is VDC or TCS activating is actually one of the LSDs re-directing torque to the drive wheels. Also, the 5AT has a protection protocol that many think is TCS. If you go significantly over the stall limit with the brake on, the transmission will cut your throttle to protect itself. This is not TCS because the wheels have not loss traction.

Turning off VDC/TCS on the 6MT or the 5AT only disables those systems. All the other Z nannies are still up and working.

 

My original question was as follows, will TCS on a 5AT control the tranny and power flow to wheels to act like yaw control on a VDC-equipped 6MT?

 

i think ill ask same thing
if u turn off TCS on 5AT , will car act same like u turned off TCV/VDC on 6MT ?

 

Yes and no.

TCS on the 5AT can control the shifting, throttle cut/increase and torque management going to the drive shaft. On the rear axle, both the 6MT and the 5AT rely on the LSD to re-direct torque to each wheel. On the 6MT, TCS only controls the throttle cut only. The 6MT has a manual clutch and manual shifting and no electronic controls to handle torque management from the transmission. The 6MT has to rely soley on the mechanical LSD and the Brake LSD to control and direct torque. The 5AT can control torque output from the transmission because it uses a torque converter and variable gearing, the 6MT uses fixed gearing and friction plates. TCS on both the 5AT and 6MT only work on the rear wheels. All Zs come with 4-channel ABS. ABS is a sub-system for TCS and VDC so if any of the four wheels lock during any type of situation each wheel can be modulated individually depending on the physical dynamics at each wheel.

What VDC can do that TCS doesn't do is apply variable pressure to individual brakes at each wheel if necessary to actually correct for excessive yaw. With TCS only, unless you lock one of the brakes or spin the rear wheels there is no brake control. VDC has individual brake control, TCS doesn't.

So, yes the TCS 5AT has better controls to manually prevent and recover from excessive yaw. It can control torque going to the driveshaft. And, no it doesn't have yaw controls like the 6MT because it doesn't have individual computer-controlled brakes at each wheel.

 

Doesn't EBD take care of the individual brake thing and I'm pretty sure its tied into the TCS function.

 

Just to let everyone know... the 5AT on the 35th... is called VDC on the lower right part by the steering wheel... and when you press it ... it says VDC OFF... dont know if that helps

 

it supposed to be both VDC and TCS , no ?

 

EBD will balances the brake forces between the front and rear wheels. It senses how much weight is in the back and adjusts front to back brake pressure to prevent the rear from swinging out or assists in shorter more composed stops in regular driving. Yes, this is related to TCS and VDC. On a TCS only car you still have to apply the brakes and EBD will adjust how much force is transferred by how much initial pressure you apply to the brakes. EBD is always active even if you don't trigger TCS or VDC. To add to the mix the Z also has a Brake Assist (BA) System that will apply full brake pressure automatically if it senses a panic stop. BA will alternate with ABS until the car comes to a stop. On a VDC equipped car if you trigger the VDC system the computer can adjust how much brake pressure gets applied to each wheel and when to apply and release it automatically. When VDC is active you no longer have control. A TCS only car can't do this.

As you noticed, there isn't much difference between a 5AT with TCS versus a 6MT with VDC. The real difference is do you want the car to do yaw correction for you automatically (6MT VDC) or do you want to have the car help you do it manually (5AT TCS). It sort of funny, the MT has the automatic correction and the AT has the manual correction.

 

You have to have TCS to have VDC but you can have TCS without VDC. VDC is a stage build up from TCS.

Stage 1: ABS
Stage 2: Traction Control=ABS+Slip Control
Stage 3: Stability Control=ABS+Slip Control+Yaw Control
Stage 4: Gyroscopic Stability Control=ABS+Slip Control+Yaw Control+Roll Control

Each stage up requires all the components of the previous stage.