traction control engages and brakes on freeway

Hi Everyone,

I've got an issue with my truck, hopefully someone could offer clues or solutoin:

Whenever i'm driving on the freeway, 70mph-80mph, if there's a small dip and the truck bounces up/down a little bit, the traction control kicks in (traction control light lights on on dashboard for a second) and suddenly forces truck to brake enough to throw me forward. It has been happening about 1-2 times per week.

I took it to the dealer today, but obviously dealer can't reproduce this same issue, so they say they can't troubleshoot it. I'm going to try test drive the truck myself to see if i can find any bumpy / uneven areas of freeway near their shop to show it to mechanic... but it'll be very challenging for me. I have multiple dash-cam videos of these occurrences, but dealer needs to see it happen when test driving with "computer" connected to the truck to gather data... which i'm skeptical about - because it's not showing any codes.

Any ideas on what could be causing this?

I would guess there is a flakey wiring connection or problem with one of sensors causing the truck to think the wheels are spinning at different speeds.

The sway or stability control may also be doing this. It uses brakes to correct sway. You could try turning traction control off, and if it happens again... perhaps the sway or steering angle sensor or loose connection/ground somewhere may be tricking the system into thinking you are about to lose control. Dunno if there is a calibration procedure. Have you had any work done on the steering column or alignment done recently?

Thank you for replies.

If I disable traction control by pressing the button on dashboard, then this issue goes away and truck does not break on freeway over uneven surface as before.

This issue began happening more than a year ago, at first very rare - once every few months, and now it happens once a week on my way home, on the same route. I did not have any work done to the truck since this start happening.

Is your steering wheel straight. ?

Yes, I've got new tires about 10 months ago, from Costco, and steering has always been straight without any alignment issues.

Somewhere around here is a post with what exactly gets turned off with the traction control button in 2013 besides throttle management. The ESC thresholds are different (less sensitive)

I was thinking that the stability control system thinks the truck is about to lose control, turning traction control off desensitizes it a bit.. The truck will brake when it thinks you are about to lose it.

The traction control will do the same thing, applying brake to the wheel it thinks is spinning, and that will slow you down on dry pavement. But you should be able to hear the ABS chatter and it only works if you are applying throttle.

Both stability control and traction control use the same indicator, but traction control only should come into play if you are accelerating (applying throttle) and the system thinks a tire has lost traction.

I've read this can happen with a out of adjusted or bad steering angle sensor. There wouldn't be any codes set, but the dealer can instrument via the ODB port and see what the sensors are reading. They should be able to check the value of the steering angle sensor when the wheels are straight ahead and compare it with what it should be.... but they are likely not going to do that under warranty unless you can show them the problem.

So you will see the traction control indicator light up and feel braking when trailer sway control, roll mitigation, or under/oversteer correction activates. Not sure if a 2013 has all these.

My truck does this also, unfortunately I have yet to find the actual cause....

But I did replace the rear wheel speed sensors and it went away for a long while... bu I have also cleaned them and it helped twice.... I have yet to find the distance that the sensor is supposed to be from the reluctor ring... I believe that is my issues as it has been there ever since the dealer rebuild the rear axle in my truck...

Thank you for replies. Looks like there could be lots of different things at fault. I only have powertrain warranty left, so such thing probably won't be covered at all.
Based on what i'm hearing, troubleshooting such issue could be very challenging, and costly... especially if i'm paying out of pocket.

Any other ideas?

..... trade it in?
A dealer is gonna take u over the coals to fix this most likely...but you really can’t drive the truck the way it is... you could pull the abs fuse... that would keep it from doing it since the systems are tied together.
This is the type of thing that scares the **** outta me... keep us posted.

I know its a different vehicle but my Santa Fe did a similar thing. You would just be driving along and all of a sudden the vehicle would lunge right and the ABS would chatter trying to stop and then it would return to normal. It was a yaw sensor tied into the stability control, stupid amount of money to fix, $1200 at the dealership. I just learned to drive it like that, but it would scare the **** out of you if you were driving late at night.

well.. thank you all.

I'm not sure yet what i will do at this point.

I think it'll cost major money to do it at the dealer, and there you can't even talk to the mechanic, have to talk to the "service rep".

Maybe i'll take it to a local mechanic that i know, and maybe try to make a deal with him to just start swapping out all of those sensors one by one, in a methodical fashion to see if maybe one of those will fix it.

Since they can't reproduce the issue during the test drive, they will have to keep fixing/replacing things one by one and i will do the test drives over the days/weeks to see if issue is still there.

Anyone see any issues with this approach or my logic?

I don't know much about troubleshooting such complex car issues...

Thank you!

How big of a dip? If the truck is moving around a lot it can trigger the sway control or traction control as it can "feel" the center of gravity in motion. It regains control by removing throttle and using brakes on certain wheels to pull the truck straight.

I have to say at highway speeds it would be a monster dip in my opinion but Im not in your truck when you are driving.

WilliamS said:

How big of a dip? If the truck is moving around a lot it can trigger the sway control or traction control as it can "feel" the center of gravity in motion. It regains control by removing throttle and using brakes on certain wheels to pull the truck straight.

I have to say at highway speeds it would be a monster dip in my opinion but Im not in your truck when you are driving.

Click to expand...

It's not a big dip at all. It happens all over different highways.

All it takes is for me to drive 70-80mph and for truck to be half loaded, so that's it's a little bit heavy, which makes the suspension springs a bit more bouncy, and softer, which makes truck to bounce up down a few times after going over speed bumps or smooth dips.

I do have several dash camera videos of this occurring, but you can't see much except truck slowing down about 5mph in an instance, and me starting to freak out and yell as it comes unexpected. At least I can use this video to show to mechanic to prove that I'm not crazy or doing something wrong, but it's definitely not helpful for them...

If their tool scanner can really see which sensor is causing this, maybe they can just plug it into the truck and send me by myself to drive it over that same dip to reproduce the problem, so they can see the recording of what sensor causes this issue.

Would this work or am I dreaming?

It could be many things..... However, one thing came to my mind is the 'Yaw Rate Sensor' in the ABS/TCS/ESC system.

The sensor usually is located inside the cabin on the floor somewhere. It is sensitive to moisture, and could cause malfunction.

When it goes bad, the vehicle could act similar to what OP described.

Just a thought.

Thank you, these are great suggestions and hopefully will help me to figure out!

Do you guys know, if I can actually reproduce this issue with the technician in the car, will his computer reader tool actually show which sensor is bad?