What Does Traction Control Do and Should It Be On?

I just got a 1998 Park Avenue. On my way home, I push a button on the end of the shift handle (if I remember right), and "Trac off" light came on.

I tried to look up what Traction Control does, but I can't find a good explanation (No manual). One said it puts the brake on one of the wheels. I don't want to have the breaks on while driving.

What does Traction Control do, and should it be on or off while driving down the street or freeway?

Chris.

Nothing happens if all is well unless you slam the brakes and then it pulses braking pressure to the wheels to give the benefit of a quicker stop avoid sliding/skidding losing control.
When braking traction control will by pulsing break to the slower wheel and allow it to turn to maintain control. Perhaps if one wheel is on gravel. It thinks only one wheel may be skidding. When powering up in ICE or such it pulses the faster wheel to slow it down to help maintain a more uniform rotation of the front wheels and control. It thinks the faster wheel has lost traction.
Turn it off and none of these advanced functions work.

I THINK..

Every time you start the car, The Traction Control will default to on.. No real reason to turn it off.. It prevents the wheels from spinning on wet pavement or in the snow.. It will keep you from lighting them up and burning rubber..lol The Traction Control system and PCM can cut the fuel injectors in the right sequence and drop engine timing to prevent the drive wheels from spinning.

Even if you turn it off, if the PCM sees one wheel spinning faster than another, or wheel spin in general it will consider this abuse mode and cut the fuel injectors and dump the engine timing any how.. lol

I just leave it on..lol

Traction control does not come into play during braking....that is ABS control.....

Traction control is when you accelerate and one wheel spins faster than the other, usually because that wheel is in water or sand and has "lost" traction(or if one tire is badly worn compared to the opposite one)....when this happens the ABS module will quickly apply the brakes to the spinning wheel(it doesn't lock it) in rapid pulses(that's the noise you hear from the ABS modulator, when one wheel spins), just to slow the wheel down to what the opposite wheel is doing....on some cars, the ABS isn't even used.....they will retard the timing, kill an injector, advance a gear, etc., to reduce torque...

If you never do any hard accelerating, it will never even come into play......