Why does car stall with traction control?

Answer 1

Some traction control systems back off the engine throttle when a certain amount of wheel spin is detected; when over-done, this often makes the car feel as if the engine has stalled. My '05 Honda Accord Hybrid has such a system and it's bad to the point of being unsafe. You'll get halfway through an intersection and the car just stops moving. It won't start again until the gas pedal has been released for a second or two, but you have to turn off the traction control in order to get going in a reasonable amount of time. In a recent storm, the traffic light changed while I was trying to disengage the stupid thing. I should add that not all traction control systems behave this way; my '99 Chrysler LHS had excellent traction control that only had to be disabled once or twice a year (when the snow got really sticky). I've heard that the worst traction control systems are on Toyota Priuses.