Thread: Traction Control Issues in a 2010 Defender Puma

That's odd.. so it thought the RHS was spinning. Is there any chance of different tyre pressure or something like that causing it? Different corner weights? It would have been interesting to use lockers if you have them for a little test and see if that stopped it. The centre diff was locked of course??

If it was consistent.. what else could cause it? An issue with the sensor or wiring? AFAIK those sensors are pretty simple and I've never heard of them playing up. Has the sensor partially moved out of the housing? Occasionally mine has fallen out and hung on with the wiring when the dust shield at the back fails. I imagine it's possible the could be sitting out a bit affecting sensor function.

I've never seen the TD5 exhibit this kind of behaviour. In my experience the defender brake traction contol is excellent and i've never wanted to turn it off. The reason why toyota people all need to turn theirs off is because it's bundled with stability control.

Following with interest.

This was happening in a straight line with same tyre pressures but CDL was not locked in due to having a Ashcroft ATB. The sensor was all the way in otherwise I would have had the ABS light on the dash stay on (had this before).
It felt like the front RHS because that's the direction the car pulled "most" times.

Not sure by not having the CDL in that this added to this issue but it did happen in a straight line... Again, not sure if there is a signal sent to the ECU when u lock the CDL that turns OFF the Traction Control? I cannot remember if I tried this and if it still happened... I was hoping someone on here might know?

Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

That's odd.. so it thought the RHS was spinning. Is there any chance of different tyre pressure or something like that causing it? Different corner weights? It would have been interesting to use lockers if you have them for a little test and see if that stopped it. The centre diff was locked of course??

If it was consistent.. what else could cause it? An issue with the sensor or wiring? AFAIK those sensors are pretty simple and I've never heard of them playing up. Has the sensor partially moved out of the housing? Occasionally mine has fallen out and hung on with the wiring when the dust shield at the back fails. I imagine it's possible the could be sitting out a bit affecting sensor function.

I've never seen the TD5 exhibit this kind of behaviour. In my experience the defender brake traction contol is excellent and i've never wanted to turn it off. The reason why toyota people all need to turn theirs off is because it's bundled with stability control.

Following with interest.

Originally Posted by Robmacca

This was happening in a straight line with same tyre pressures but CDL was not locked in due to having a Ashcroft ATB. The sensor was all the way in otherwise I would have had the ABS light on the dash stay on (had this before).
It felt like the front RHS because that's the direction the car pulled "most" times.

Not sure by not having the CDL in that this added to this issue but it did happen in a straight line... Again, not sure if there is a signal sent to the ECU when u lock the CDL that turns OFF the Traction Control? I cannot remember if I tried this and if it still happened... I was hoping someone on here might know?

Hopefully someone will pop in. You're the only person I've ever heard ask how to do it though.

So I've got a centre ATB too. The only time we saw the traction control activate was when we didn't lock the diff climbing sandhills. The ATB does allow some slip and we found that it was enough slip to activate the TC. The fix for us was just locking the diff.

My Td5 has a dedicated fuse for ABS and traction control. I assume that this is the same with the Puma. Plulling that fuse in my Td5 disables ABS and traction control with no adverse side effects. I also noticed that the ABS started plaing up when the same ABS fault occured multiple times. Clearing the fault with the Nanocom fixed the problem temporarily.
As for the reason for ABS issues like you described: loose wheel bearings or kingpin bearings can cause this in my experience and also metal shavings that made it on the tip of the ABS sensor. Also, I noticed that if the ABS sensor gets pulled out or reseated multiple times, it has a habbit of dislocating on rough roads. I always replace the little cage it sits in when I have to pull the sensor out.
Hope that helps.

Did you plug in diagnostics? If so, any trouble codes?

Yes disable it by removing the fuse, off the top of my head I cant remember on a 2.4, have a look in the same place as a 2.2, fuse box under steering column, right hand row about half way down?

Traction control on a Defender TDCi tends to be a dumbed down version of what was used on a discovery 2, and it gets confused at times

Originally Posted by HardCharger

Did you plug in diagnostics? If so, any trouble codes?

No I Didn't but I doubt there would be any codes as I assume the ECU assume the TC worked correctly...

Originally Posted by DazzaTD5

Yes disable it by removing the fuse, off the top of my head I cant remember on a 2.4, have a look in the same place as a 2.2, fuse box under steering column, right hand row about half way down?

Traction control on a Defender TDCi tends to be a dumbed down version of what was used on a discovery 2, and it gets confused at times

Does removing the FUSE bring up any LIGHTS on the DASH? Last time I did this (6yr ago & cannot remember which fuse I exactly removed) it bought up the ABS Light along with the Handbrake light all permanently on while the engine was running...


I don't think this is associated but I have disconnected the Plug to the High/Low Switch on the Transfer case. I did this to prevent the ECU from knowing I was in low Range as I had some bad experiences when 4WDriving and trying to reverse back down a hill I didn't make it up. When reversing back down I was trying to go as slow as I could (ie: Clutch out & in gear & foot on the brakes as you do) & I found the ECU fighting against me and wanting to increase the Revs, thus increasing the speed - very dangerous when reversing down very steep hills... I found disconnecting this plug solved that issue