This morning I was sitting at a stop light in my 13 4GS, 1500 miles, when I heard a beep that lasted about 5 seconds and the TC light came on and remained flashing until I turned off the TC system for a moment. Turned TC back on and no light, all seems fine. Weather was dry and 45 degrees and, like I said, I was standing still. Has this happened to anyone else? Any ideas? Thanks.

 

That's the hill assist. It holds the brake for you so you have time to release the brake pedal and press the accelerator pedal. To engage it you have to firmly press the brake all the way and it will beep once. Once it turns off it will beep twice and the slip indicator will stop flashing.

 

Thanks! Now that I think of it, I did sort of brace myself on the brake pedal a bit to shift position in my seat. I must have pressed hard enough to activate the hill assist feature. Good to know it's not a defect of some sort.

 

Cool, I tried it this morning. Too bad it only holds for 3 seconds. It would be great if it could be used to hold the break until the gas pedal is pushed to function as a stoplight brake hold.

 

I dont think my car has this feature because I tried pushing hard all the way on the brake pedal while at a stop light and never could get this feature working. Nor could I find any info about this feature on my manual or window sticker.

 

All the new GS have hill start assist feature. If your dealer nearby, stop by and they will show you.

 

I had that in my BMW. Rarely used it, more of a gimmick. I didn't like the way that, if you were in stop and go traffic, it grabbed the brake when you were slowly rolling to a stop. You may have still been going 1-2 MPH but it just grabbed and locked. Not smooth. Didn't happen all the time but....

 

That sounds annoying. It's be just about perfect if it had a 3- second delay before braking.

 

The LS has that feature.

 

You don't have to hold the pedal fully depressed. Just hold it until it beeps and you can lightly put your foot on the pedal to trigger the brake lights. It will hold until you let go off the brake for more than 3 seconds or step on the accelerator.

 

My GS 450h has this feature, a button next to the start button, once pressed when the car comes to a stop the break is automatically applied and you can then take your foot of the brake, as soon at you press the accelerator it releases, handy when you are in stop start traffic queue.