What is it with TLA’s? TLA is the Three Letter Acronym for Three Letter Acronym!! Confused yet? I am!
I was driving to the office earlier this week and due to an accident, or animal on the road or some other reason the Highways agency felt the need to close the motorway! On any other occasion this would have really annoyed me, but today the sun was shining and I had left plenty of time for the journey, so I felt quite relaxed. However, the main reason I was happy to park up in the centre lane of the motorway was the fact I was in my new car and I now had the perfect opportunity to read the owners manual! The typical male approach with manuals is to place it in the ‘man draw’ and read it only as a last resort. I quite enjoy reading manuals; I like to have some sort of idea of how things work, before I hurtle down the road at 70mph!
On reading said manual it soon became apparent that I would need a second manual to help me with the acronyms! Now I like to think I’m a technical guy and have a good knowledge of a motor car, after all I have been involved in the motor industry for 15 years, but some of the acronyms left me searching for the glossary.
I thought I would use this column to share with you the definitions of the common and the not so common systems we find on our vehicles today.
ABS- Anti-lock Braking System. Under heavy braking in an emergency situation this system prevents the wheels from skidding
EDL- Electronic Differential Lock. This system detects wheel spin; it brakes the spinning wheel and directs power to another wheel.
ASR – Traction Control System (I know the letters don’t work! I guess it would be ‘Anti Spin Regulation). Similar to EDL but this system reduces engine power to reduce wheel spin
ESP- Electronic Stabilisation Programme. This system controls the ABS, EDL and ASR to provide increased stability and road holding of a vehicle.
ACC- Adaptive Cruise Control. This system is an ‘intelligent cruise control system’. It uses sensors in the front bumper that scan the road ahead. When activated the ACC will control the vehicle speed and adjust if necessary, for example the car ahead on a motorway begins to slow down. Interestingly, the manual for the system comes with many warnings attached! Mostly reminding you that the driver is in ultimate control of the system!
SRS- Supplemental Restraint System. Basically the airbags, with the seat belts being the primary method of restraint
EML- Engine Management Light. Also known as a Malfunction Indicator Lamp (MIL), this alerts the driver to a fault with the engine management system
DCP- Dynamic gear Control Program. This system controls the automatic gearbox and monitors your driving style. When your in a rush the gearbox doesn’t change until much higher in the rev range. If you’re on a Sunday drive, the gearbox changes much sooner giving maximum fuel efficiency.
TPMS- Tyre Pressure Monitoring System. Lastly not a TLA but an FLA
All in, quite a list of equipment, and if the truth be told this is only some of the systems that are available today. You can look at these systems in one of 2 ways. Firstly; “Just another thing to go wrong” or secondly; the by product of vehicle evolution, whereby many systems are designed to make vehicles safer and more environmentally friendly.
I prefer the latter; as long as these systems are maintained and serviced in the correct manner, they will provide years of trouble free motoring. When you choose a service provider make sure they follow the service schedule correctly and used approved parts. Choose a service provider you can be sure will service your vehicle to the manufacturer’s standards.
If you are unsure of any of the systems on your vehicle, contact your local repair centre for advice, or give me a call, I’m still sat on the M6!
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