NP DiD - WRITTEN OFF!!

[Hopperoo]

Hi All,

Just survived a frightening crash on Sunday evening where, on a wet / slippery bitumen road, my wife activated the "RESUME" mode of our cruise control, after passing through a small rural township @ 50Kph, to return to the 100Kph that she had the cruise set at.

As soon as the cruise "resume" was activated the turbo cut in and the Paj commenced accellerating back to 100kph. Before it could attain that speed (at approx 80Kph) it was accellerating hard enough to break traction on the rear tyres, on the wet road as we were turning a curve, the rear oversteered until we were almost sideways, my wife touched the brakes to cancell the cruise (which made the Paj oversteer worse, then over-corrected back the other way, then it rolled several times along the road coming to rest on it's wheels across the centre of the roadway!!

The issue I have with this is, on several occasions previously, I have thought that when re-acivating the "resume" button on the cruise that the DiD manual Paj actually accellerates harder than I would normally do using the accellerator! Because of this I usually accellerate back to close to the speed I wish to attain and then hit resume. Unfortunately on this occasion my wife didn't do this.

The combination that existed on Sunday evening of a wet road, turning a corner on the highway and only using rear wheel drive (with no traction control available in an early 2003 DiD manual) IS A VERY DANGEROUS COMBINATION that owners should be made aware of in the operators manual.

As my manual was lost in the accident, can anyone advise if it actually has any warnings regarding not using the resume button on wet slippery surfaces??

Dennis.

[Pathy]

bugger, feel for you, as long as everyone is ok. Can't help with the manual,have later.
Marc

[2800ITDNM]

Glad your ok. Do you remember what gear you were in at the time? Presume 5th?? Havent driven an DID M/T, but my Pajeros dont accelerate fast enough in 5th gear to suprise me.

[Yonnee]

I've heard of this and thought it was an urban myth.

Obviously a design fault with a cruise control system that can mash your acelerator flat to the floor when you 'resume'.

Glad to hear you're all OK.

[Ranger J]

Christ, if the 4M41 can break traction at 80km/h - I want one!

but on a serious note, glad to hear you are OK.

[Ridgeback]

Dennis,

Far out lucky everyone is ok! Sounds like the car did its job protecting all.
Regading the manual, I have a petrol NM (2001) manual so, not an NP but close. The manual has 4M40 info as well so I take it the manual is common for both engine types. There are no specific warnings/cautions regarding operation of the "Resume" switch. There is a general caution at the beginning of the cruise section: "Auto speed control is not recommended when driving conditions will not allow you to stay at the same speed, such as in heavy traffic or on roads that are winding, icy, snow-covered, wet or slippery, or on a steep downhill". Thats it.

[Hopperoo]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Yes, we all came out of it reasonably OK, the wife being the worst with fractured shoulder blade, broken arm and finger on right hand (we think her arm must have gone out the window and the car rolled on it).
Myself and three grandchildren received various cuts and bruising but generally all OK.

The NRMA guy, at the holding yard today, mentioned the police believe we rolled four or five times. He also said that Pajeros have a very good reputation for being as safe as possible in rollovers.

Ranger, it is surprising how much urge is in the DiD manuals when accellerating back to the set cruise level (even in 5th gear). In this instance it was enough to break traction on the rear tyres which were five year old Michelin LTX A/Ts (265/75R16) that had obviously hardened to the point of not providing much grip in the wet, even though they are only half worn.

[Hopperoo]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Yes, we all came out of it reasonably OK, the wife being the worst with fractured shoulder blade, broken arm and finger on right hand (we think her arm must have gone out the window and the car rolled on it).
Myself and three grandchildren received various cuts and bruising but generally all OK.

The NRMA guy, at the holding yard today, mentioned the police believe we rolled four or five times. He also said that Pajeros have a very good reputation for being as safe as possible in rollovers.

Ranger, it is surprising how much urge is in the DiD manuals when accellerating back to the set cruise level (even in 5th gear). In this instance it was enough to break traction on the rear tyres which were five year old Michelin LTX A/Ts (265/75R16) that had obviously hardened to the point of not providing much grip in the wet, even though they are only half worn.

[snoop75]

Glad you're all ok!!! Bones will heal and car can be replaced.

Just out of curiousity - does NP have traction control? If so, shouldn't this have kicked-in in circumstances such as this?

[Hopperoo]

Hi Snoop,

No, This was a Dec 02 build which should have had the MATT system fitted but somehow missed having it fitted at the factory. All it had was a LSD, which in this particular case possibly made the situation worse.

The question I would like answered is, as you mentioned, the later Pajs with the Matt (which includes traction control) do they adjust the accelleration on slippery surfaces when resuming a speed already set, to eliminate the possibility of having the same thing happen? If not, why not?

From the feedback I've had it appears this is only applies to the manual versions as they appear to accellerate harder than the autos in resume mode.

[nino]

I still have bad memories of driving an auto GMC truck and pressing the "resume" button in a similar situation. Glad you are OK. Our DiD doesn't surprise us like that, but I could give it a try. 4th gear, press resume on a save and dry road ;-) Actually I often wish it would accelerate a bit faster when using the resume button, but this wish clearly has a downside.

[brett]

Got the exact same car Dec 02 build as well, can't say i find the resume function to accelerate that quickly, especially with the 265/75 tyres which I see you have. I suspect the combination of wet road and 5 year old LTX's played a major part.

Unless you have an Exceed your NP didn't miss out on MATT at the factory, it was an option on all models but standard on the exceed

[bounceferret]

Unfortunatley the cruise will continue to open the throttle untill the set speed is reached (even if it means WOT). There is a big difference between conventional traction control and an anti-spin mechanism such as dynamic stability assist, or Active Stability Control. While they incorporate the ABS the same way the programming is completely different.
Traction control would be predominantly usless in the event of a spin.

Sorry to hear about the crash, glad everyone walked away.