Has anyone else played with the VDC?

From the Nissan site:

Vehicle Dynamic Control (VDC)
Utilzing an array of sensors, Pathfinder's Vehicle Dynamic Control (VDC) is designed to help you stay on your steered path. If a deviation from your steered path is detected, VDC senses it, and can reduce engine power and/or apply appropriate brake pressure to specific wheels, helping you maintain control

I turned mine off today on my commute to the office in the rain, and it really felt like it changed the way the truck drove quite a bit. I guess before I was a little heavy on the foot off the line because it feels much quicker in the rain, before it must have been giving me some rear brakes to keep away the spin. Also the rear comes around in slow speed turns under throttle (for example making a turn at a stop sign) really easily. I had read reviews that the truck's General Grabber tires suck in the wet, but the VDC really masks that. With it off you can tell how on the edge they really are traction wise.

There is that 'Slip' light on the dash, but it seems to me that the system actually kicks in well before the slip light comes on.

I haven't tried to mess with the VDC, because it's mainly the wife's vehicle. My Saab has TCS, which is the same thing as VDC. It is fun to play with when it's wet. I can still spin the tires for a second until the TCS kicks in.

I was going to take the wife's Pathy, but I'm keeping the Saab a little longer. I just put almost $600 in it for a new hub. Trying to convince the wife I need an X.

The VCD will still allow spin in the wet for a sec.

Basically if you just nail it, you will get spin, then a moment later feel the brakes kick in and also the throttle by wire reduce throttle.

I think when the throttle is hit less dramatically it is more subtle, so it does it's job w/o you really knowing it.

It's my first vehicle with VDC, and it's pretty cute technology and fun to play with in the right environment. The last time I did some dirt road driving I was very impressed with how well it worked, though it's not infallible.

Primarily it seemed to work best in a trailing throttle understeer situation. You're off the gas and turn in abruptly while going too fast so the front end starts to plow, and it feels like the system activates the inside rear brake which pulls the vehicle's path right back in line like magic. Very cool.

In a full throttle oversteer situation it doesn't appear that the VDC does anything at all, the traction control is so incredibly aggressive in retarding your throttle that there's little chance of strange yaw moments for the VDC to worry about. I find it kinda annoying actually, when exiting parking lots onto a street, if I even barely hop the inside tire off the curb I loose power for a second or two right when I'm trying to accelerate to traffic speeds

In trailing throttle oversteer (which admittedly is hard to do in this truck), the VDC seems totally at a loss. You enter a corner too fast and turn in smoothly with just enough brakes to keep the nose planted and get the rear end to slide out. The VDC didn't do squat, the truck continued to rotate and I had to aggressively counter-steer into the spin and just wait for it to slide to a stop. I guess it makes sense, what's it going to do? Clamping the rear brakes won't help, those tires are moving sideways not rotating, and clamping the front brakes will just unload even more weight from the rear tires and make the slide worse.

But all that was at low speeds on a wide dirt road, so not the best environment. I'm looking forward to having a big wide open wet parking lot in a few months to play around with it some more

my vdc light keeps coming on and the dealer keeps reseting it o well i like truck that can spin and send u backwards through a hedge at ant given moment

I had to come to an abrupt halt the other day when someone slammed on their brakes infront of me, first time I've heard the ABS kick in on dry pavement.

As an aside how many drive with the VDC function turned off when on dry ground?

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Do you mean VDC or ABS? Were you breaking hard in a turn and the rear end started to come around on you or something?

RacerZX wrote:Do you mean VDC or ABS? Were you breaking hard in a turn and the rear end started to come around on you or something?

Now thinking about it probably the ABS, thanks Carl.

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in my pathfinder i find that the brakes tend to get really loud especially in warmer weather and when you stop aggressively there is alot of grinding iv had brake problems before with it but im so tired of going back to the dealer they are real idiots