Occasionally sluggish with hard acceleration

[Swordtail]

I've had my M3 LR for about 18 months. Every now and again when I try to accelerate reasonably hard from a standstill the car seems to hesitate slightly before picking up speed.

I don't think this relates to battery condition (temp or SOC) as it can do it one moment and be fine the next. I thought it may be to do with not driving in a completely straight line but often the car will still accelerate hard when turning out of a junction from standstill. I'm not talking about flooring it dangerously, just pulling away quickly using that Tesla "instant power".

I haven't managed to determine a repeating set of circumstances every time.

Could there be something wrong with the car or is it just another Tesla "funny"?

Cheers.

 

[GtiMart]

2 things. if you turn the steering wheel more than just a little bit, the car has a pretty shy acceleration as the traction and stability controls are tuned to prevent any "fun and slides". Power will be reduced quite drastically until you straighten the steering. I have had cases where I was trying to get on a street with an 80kph limit from a stop on a side street. My acceleration is more than enough so I go, only to get granny power and barely make it. Now I know so I'm careful but it can be surprising.
Second thing is "obstacle aware acceleration" or whatever the exact name of that option in the settings. There have been reports of this preventing the car from accelerating quickly even when there are no obstacles. I turned this off but that's at your own risk.

 

[Swordtail]

2 things. if you turn the steering wheel more than just a little bit, the car has a pretty shy acceleration as the traction and stability controls are tuned to prevent any "fun and slides". Power will be reduced quite drastically until you straighten the steering. I have had cases where I was trying to get on a street with an 80kph limit from a stop on a side street. My acceleration is more than enough so I go, only to get granny power and barely make it. Now I know so I'm careful but it can be surprising.
Second thing is "obstacle aware acceleration" or whatever the exact name of that option in the settings. There have been reports of this preventing the car from accelerating quickly even when there are no obstacles. I turned this off but that's at your own risk.

Cheers for this. I've turned off the obstacle aware acceleration setting and I'll see if that makes a difference. I just thought it was a bit hit and miss to be the traction control.

 

[jjrandorin]

2 things. if you turn the steering wheel more than just a little bit, the car has a pretty shy acceleration as the traction and stability controls are tuned to prevent any "fun and slides". Power will be reduced quite drastically until you straighten the steering. I have had cases where I was trying to get on a street with an 80kph limit from a stop on a side street. My acceleration is more than enough so I go, only to get granny power and barely make it. Now I know so I'm careful but it can be surprising.
Second thing is "obstacle aware acceleration" or whatever the exact name of that option in the settings. There have been reports of this preventing the car from accelerating quickly even when there are no obstacles. I turned this off but that's at your own risk.

Another vote for object aware acceleration. Sometimes the car will think something "next to you" is in the way, and hesitate just like you are describing.

 

[gearchruncher]

if you turn the steering wheel more than just a little bit, the car has a pretty shy acceleration as the traction and stability controls are tuned to prevent any "fun and slides". Power will be reduced quite drastically until you straighten the steering. I have had cases where I was trying to get on a street with an 80kph limit from a stop on a side street. My acceleration is more than enough so I go, only to get granny power and barely make it. Now I know so I'm careful but it can be surprising.

I have never experienced this over 4 years of ownership, Have other people?
Plenty of experience with OOA though.

 

[GtiMart]

Find a T intersection and stop. Try to get on the main road with relatively hard acceleration. Pretend a car is coming and you need to get on quick. You should find that your acceleration is pretty limited compared to leaving a stop sign in a straight line. I understand part of that power reduction, the steering is turned, the rear wheels could slip and the back end could slide. All I'm saying is that this reduction is much worse than I would expect. My previous WRX as an example reduced power much less, even without activating the "traction mode" that reduced the nannies.

EDIT: Note that the last time I had this experience is a little while back. I'm not in that situation every day... but the software could also have changed to solve this. I'll try to pay attention and try to replicate the situation soon.

 

[Swordtail]

Find a T intersection and stop. Try to get on the main road with relatively hard acceleration. Pretend a car is coming and you need to get on quick. You should find that your acceleration is pretty limited compared to leaving a stop sign in a straight line. I understand part of that power reduction, the steering is turned, the rear wheels could slip and the back end could slide. All I'm saying is that this reduction is much worse than I would expect. My previous WRX as an example reduced power much less, even without activating the "traction mode" that reduced the nannies.

EDIT: Note that the last time I had this experience is a little while back. I'm not in that situation every day... but the software could also have changed to solve this. I'll try to pay attention and try to replicate the situation soon.

This is what I'm doing. It's not consistent though. Sometimes I can pull out and take the 90 degree turn without any impact on acceleration and other times it does the "granny power" thing. I'm now wondering if it is the OAA and maybe there has been a car turning in next to me or something which has caused the car to decide it needs to engage granny power. I've turned it off and I'll test it out over the next few days.

 

[tm1v2]

I have never experienced this over 4 years of ownership, Have other people?
Plenty of experience with OOA though.

When I try to really power out of a ramp or similar turn when not in Track Mode the traction control usually holds back the power, feels like very little acceleration compared to what the car would be capable of. Track Mode fixes that of course...

I don't think I've experienced that just from a tiny/subtle turn of the wheel when leaving a stoplight or such though. But I'm also not one to truly blast away from a stop. I'll often accelerate faster than the average driver out there for sure but nothing like the launch an M3P is capable of.

 

[paradoxical]

It's definitely related to steering wheel angle. It's pretty annoying actually! I wish I could turn it off other than putting the car in track mode all the time. It is most obvious putting power down mid-corner and when accelerating from a stop trying to turn right or left.

 

[gearchruncher]

It's definitely related to steering wheel angle.

Is it, or is it actual traction control triggering?

 

[paradoxical]

Is it, or is it actual traction control triggering?

Well, technically both since you can't disable traction control, but you can feel it before any wheel slip. But mainly it is steering angle, I have been told by someone very experienced with these cars on track that the MPP Partybox can fix this.

 

[gearchruncher]

It is steering angle, the MPP Partybox can fix this.

But the party box is literally advertised as reducing traction control and allowing more slip, so I don't think it's clear that it is purely a power reduction due to steering angle.

 

[GtiMart]

I think Stability control is so conservative that it pulls power based on steering before wheels start slipping. If you're able to coax enough power then yes, traction control (which is also very conservative) kicks in. I can feel that on snow.
I don't have track mode. I'd love a simple relaxed mode like my previous WRX had, just reducing assists.

 

[tm1v2]

Definitely feels like it greatly limits power based on steering angle and maybe yaw or lateral g force, without getting remotely close to possibly spinning a wheel. It's proactive in a bad way, not reactive.

Again Track Mode fixes that! Just you can't enter Track Mode in the middle of a highway drive, because of the annoying restriction of needing to be in Park.

 

[Swordtail]

So it's been a few weeks since I turned off obstacle aware acceleration and it's not done it since. I think the feature is another one in the "good idea if it works properly" category.