Ram 1500 ESC (Electronic Stability Control) help

[texasfan88]

Someone who know more about how ESC works on the 4th gen ram 1500s, please help me out. For some reason, I don't think this required safety feature is working on my truck or I just don't understand how it's supposed to work, which is why I am asking for advice. Whenever I turn too quick and my truck starts to fishtail, there is nothing, no ABS braking feature or anything that engages or any light that appears on the dash to indicate that ESC is engaging to prevent me from going into a tailspin. The only thing that has ever prevented me from doing this is when I take my foot off the gas and the truck straightens itself. In my last truck, which was a GMC sierra 1500, I could feel the ABS start engaging when I started fishtailing. With this truck, I do not feel that at all so I'm not sure if it just doesn't work for some reason or is the fact that the truck straightened itself out when I took the foot off the gas a sign that it does work? I would think that if it were working, the system would override me pressing the gas pedal.

 

[crash68]

When your fishtailing, are you still on the throttle? I know the couple of times goofing around in the snow that the truck would fight to straighten the truck out until I let off the throttle. Although I wasn't moving all that fast and the truck would straighten right out.
The ESC does take vehicle speed, throttle, steering angle and vehicle yaw rate into account for correction.
On a side note, to disable the ESC, you can pull the F-26 fuse, guys who go off roading do this. It disables the ABS completely so it's not recommended for driving on regular roads.

 

[texasfan88]

When your fishtailing, are you still on the throttle? I know the couple of times goofing around in the snow that the truck would fight to straighten the truck out until I let off the throttle. Although I wasn't moving all that fast and the truck would straighten right out.
The ESC does take vehicle speed, throttle, steering angle and vehicle yaw rate into account for correction.
On a side note, to disable the ESC, you can pull the F-26 fuse, guys who go off roading do this. It disables the ABS completely so it's not recommended for driving on regular roads.

Once I take my foot off the throttle, it stops fishtailig. So perhaps, this means that the ESC is indeed working. I only do this because it's a normal human reaction if you think you're about to spin out. Also, my old gmc sierra had traction control which I just found out is very different than ESC. It's just that with that truck, I could feel the ABS engaging when I started to fishtail or lose traction. With my ram, I don't feel that happening but it does stop spinning if I take my foot off the gas pedal.

 

[crash68]

try taking the truck on the grass field and hard over the steering while stomping on the throttle. You should feel the ESC apply the ABS intermittently to attempt to straighten the truck.

 

[ram1500rsm]

Find an empty parking lot and go balls out with it. Should work just fine assuming you didn't buy it used with a tune that disabled the ESC.

 

[Gary2]

For an experiment I disabled ESC with a tuner and that meant a few lights would stay lit on the dash so I turned it back on as I hate warning lights on all the time .

 

[texasfan88]

I should add that this most recent, as in earlier today, episode of fishtailing occurred on a stretch of highway that just got some rain.

 

[texasfan88]

Find an empty parking lot and go balls out with it. Should work just fine assuming you didn't buy it used with a tune that disabled the ESC.

Bought it brand new and never added a tune to it.

 

[muddy12]

On my 2012, when the ESC kicks in, it also cuts the throttle. It’s darn-near impossible to do donuts without pulling the fuse and totally disabling the ESC.


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[texasfan88]

On my 2012, when the ESC kicks in, it also cuts the throttle. It’s darn-near impossible to do donuts without pulling the fuse and totally disabling the ESC.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Does an indicator light flash on the dash, indicating that the ESC is engaging? I never noticed it on my 2018 model.

 

[muddy12]

Does an indicator light flash on the dash, indicating that the ESC is engaging? I never noticed it on my 2018 model.

Yes, the traction control light flashes.
The light looks just like symbol on the traction control switch.





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[texasfan88]

OK so after doing a little bit more reading up on how ESC works, here's what I've found. In many cases, the vehicle's computer may not activate ESC to engage because the loss of traction is so brief that it isn't needed. A good example of this is if you're going down a wet stretch of road and your truck hits a pothole and starts to hydroplane for about half a second. The ESC won't engage the truck almost immediately regains traction on its own. Now if you were to start sliding violently, to the point of spinning out, then obviously either the ESC is turned off or isn't working. So I'm thinking that the reason why I never felt the ESC engaging or saw the light flashing on the dash to show it was engaging whenever my truck would start to fishtail is because the computer didn't feel that the very brief loss in traction didn't warrant the need for it to engage. Also, there's supposed to be an error message or warning indicator light on the dash, to show if the ESC isn't working and I don't have that. Unfortunately I do not have access to a grass field or empty parking lot or whatever to test if the feature really does work.

 

[Tim Garceau]

Only works under throttle, off the gas no nannies will kick in unless you’re on the brake for ABS.

 

[texasfan88]

Only works under throttle, off the gas no nannies will kick in unless you’re on the brake for ABS.

Well that explains it then because the moment my truck started to fish tail, I took my foot off the gas but didn't apply the brakes. Thanks for the input guys! Now I feel I can rest easy knowing there really isn't anything wrong with my truck's stability control system.