So i was up in NH this weekend and on Sunday night it started freezing raining... so my drive from town/ the bar at midnight should have taken about 20 minutes to the house i was staying at. I get on I89 and the road is just a slushy icy mix, and the car is all over the place but i have confidence just because i have driven is similar conditions and i know that i am in good hands with my car... as u can imagine very few cars were on the road, and the ones that were, were either going 35 mph or slid off into a snow bank on the side of the road with flashers going.

and i was going 70-80mph and had complete confidence :redspot ever time i started to drift or get loose she would just straighten right out..

here is where it gets good!
so after i get off at my exit there is a huge hill on the road before i get to the house i am staying at (probably about 600 yards of steep grade), so as i start at the bottom of the hill i realize as i get going that this isnt going to be easy, the traction control light starts kicking in every few seconds and i really start to loose speed fast. I am in the middle of nowhere (no street lights cars or houses, its very rural)... i am literally about 5 feet from the top of the hill and i know once i get there i am home free (but still about a mile to the house)... well not only does the car come to a stop it starts sliding backwards and i take my foot off the gas which has been tempered by the traction control anyway, and apply the breaks, which do nothing... pretty soon i am sliding backwards then sideways down this hill... i shift to neutral and just try to sear as best i can... I end up in a snow bank but still sort of on the road, unfortunately almost at the bottom but still on the hill and on the wrong side, so if any car does come down it will be bad... I call for a tow truck all of which refuse to come because they say they wont be able to make it up the hill and will just be stuck... so i try to rock from reverse to first for like 20 minutes with no luck...

I decide to get out of the car to try to see if i can figure out what the best thing to do would be, and soon as i get out of the car i slip and fall and have to hang on the car to keep from sliding... the entire hill is just one sheet of ice and i have no idea how the car even made it as far as it did. I finally decide that i can probably just push the back end out by standing on the guard rail and push with my hands on the trunk, after a few minutes of rocking it, it worked and i had to jump back in the car as i slid the remainder of the way down the hill:eek:

so at the bottom of the hill i back up into someone’s drive way that is dirt, and rev to 3k rpms with foot on the break, and let go, i get to about 40 mph by the time i hit the hil and the car is all over the place and i made it to the top by inches, the tires hooked up and i was off!!! Surprisingly no damage that i could see

how bad is it for my transmission to rock the car and also to have my pedal to the metal and only be at 1k rpms from traction control?

The E38 actually amazes me in the snow. The car is a winter warrior.

I get stuck in 3 inches of snow.... E32 is nothing to write home about in the winter... and that would be why she's sleeping til. spring

I never had a problem in the winter stuff in Chicago with the e38. It never got stuck and rarely engaged the TC. I didi have snow tires on it however.

1. Snow tires would be an extra plus if you don't have them (totally transforms winter driving in ANY BMW). I used to get stuck in 3" of snow UNTIL I purchased dedicated snow tires. I sold my 4x4 F150 truck and haven't missed it since I got the snow tires (Michelin Arctic Alpins). I driven through up to a foot of snow (just below the bumper) and haven't had any problems in my e34 525it and one winter in a 91 735iL with the dedicated snow tires. :stickoutt

I wonder if you would have made it up the first time if you had used the half on/half off trick (press & hold the ASC/DSC button until the dash light comes on, then goes off). This turns off the ETR (engine throttle reduction) part of the traction control system, but retains the ABS braking to the slipping drive wheels (and the front axle if you have DSC).

Your story is the same example I use every year in describing an example of when it's best to use this "hidden" feature. On a slippery incline...when the gravitational pull is too great for the car to overcome the steepness AND slickness of the hill due to the ETR reducing power as the ABS braking to the driving wheels are being applied... you can wind up in a situation where you can't go anywhere...if you can use the half on/half off feature to keep the ABS braking to the slipping drive wheels but turn off the ETR so that you can continue to throttle the engine...it may just be the trick to make it up the steep incline.

Congrats on the 2nd attempt being successful, though. :D

Here's a great video that shows how effective traction control can be on a icy incline (approx 45 seconds into the video)...although this is a front wheel drive car...you can see how the ABS braking applied to the slipping drive wheels can accomplish the seemingly unaccomplishable: http://youtube.com/watch?v=K3m24bjkfg0&feature=related

my car is worse than my 2wd truck that u used to hav..... next yr i might buy a cheap 4wd for the winter

I don't know how well my car does in the snow, because I park it when that happens. I refuse to put it on the road and give others a chance to hit it. I, too, am looking for another car (like a Honda) for a daily driver, winter driver, etc.

My tires are horrible in the snow. I was in stop and go traffic in slush a couple weeks ago and decided to get off the highway. The off ramp was packed and we were just sitting completely still. Then, out of nowhere, the back end of the car starts sliding towards the side of the off-ramp, which is about a 30 foot tall STEEP hill. The front wheels stay planted, but the rears are just sliding. Man that was scary. One of the scariest moments I've had driving, it just felt like the back was going to slide off that edge and pull me with it!

Luckily it stopped sliding and I let off the brake and crawled forward a few feet. The rest of the drive was shatty too cuz my DSC is bad so I had no ABS or TC in cold slushy icy roads. NOT FUN.

reminds me of a time back when I was about 17 and slid back down a hill in a 1955 Olds with lots of parked cars in the way to boot! got the heart rate up. The Traction control isn't working in my 94 740il right now and it's like a trip back in time to those old rear drive days.

i remembered your mentioning that feature and i did try it although i'm not certain, dont think it helped... for the purposes of keeping it short i dont think i mentioned that i actually tried twice to get up the hill and failed in the same spot twice and the second time went sliding ~ 400 yards all the way to the same snow bank and got stuck again:rolleyes

so the 3rd time i really gunned it and knew it could possible be my last attempt since each time i got stuck it was getting harder to get out (as in took me almost 30 min each time)

does anyone think its bad for the car to rock from reverse to first and also to engage the traction control that much?

It's never good to work a trans like that. yes it's not good for it. But you do what you have to do.

thank god for TC. I used it for the first time last month when we finnaly got snow. than the snow turned to ice and i ran pretty well. But on inclines the system bogs down the engine and it barely moves. Ive tried the button trick but it didnt do well. Next year im getting snow tires.