[Craig darcy]

My Q3 put Automatic put me off the road in the winter due to over active ABS. The basic problem is when confronted with snow or ice it gets all confused and opts for no brakes at all.The resutling impact cost nearly £1000 ! Audi responce was nill, but the delivery driver stated it was sharp on the brakes. A service revieled nothing except a fault code i am told ment nothing. Advice... bring the car back when it snows, or before if i am worried !!! They can not tell me when it might next snow so will play an increasing game of russian roulett until it does. Brakes eel fine in the dry.

Any surgestions as to when brakes or lack of them is a danger?

 

[puddy]

I have driven a lot of 4x4 and have been told to turn off abs traction control and lock the diff in snow and ice also set off in a lower gear their my be a switch/button to press near your auto gear stick

 

[Craig darcy]

Thanks.Audi seem not to know this in store, however their off road instructor at goodwood does.You can not lock the dif in a Q3 and it does seem counter intuative to turn off the ABS/Traction control.It is a case of now you know the cars short comings you can do something about it.If it was a Freelander you would set snow and ice and all would be well.

 

[rontheman]

CraigI agree turning off the traction control in snow/off road does appear counter intuitive. But that's what the Audi manual states too! However, the car was never marketed as a Land Rover equivalent.Can anybody clarify why switching off traction control makes for better control off road and in snow? To me, the whole purpose of traction control is to take into account the effect of a spinning wheel, and divert the drive to the non spinning wheel. Unless, of course, all the wheels start spinning at once! Aha, is that it???

 

[SETIG]

My tiguan manual gave the same advice- switch off the traction control.

Having driven it in snow many times, I found the advice was good. All the electronic wizardry tries to take over and causes more problems. With it on it just did not feel as stable.

 

[Simon1233]

Unlike the big land/range rovers with their sophisticated diffs, the systems in our cars (and also in the freelander and Evoque) rely on some wheel spin in order to 'wind up' the diff and get it to do its job. Hence turning off traction control allows the wheels to spin a little which makes the diff lock and work more efficiently and you to make better progress.

Terrain response is proper electronics witchcraft, but essentially on the freelander/Evoque it remaps the throttle and turns the abs up or down. On my old range rover we used to be able to see the different diffs locking on the info screen when using it off-road. Makes it easy even for numpties like me to look like you know what you are doing off road even with normal road tyres on.

 

[rontheman]

Simon, the Audi manual states that traction control should be turned off in off-road conditions, which I equate to extremes of road undulations, where the car might only be supported on 3 wheels.In terms of mud or snow, does the same thing apply, ie should traction control be switched off in snow?

 

[Simon1233]

Hi Ron, you can leave it on, but then the electronic (abs) system will be counter-acting the mechanical as it will seek to reduce wheel spin whereas for the diff to actually work it needs some wheel spin to wind itself up and engage.

In short, in snow and mud I would have it turned off to maintain traction, just remember that you will still need to stop at some point so don't go too fast as Quattro will not help with braking

Edited by: Simon1233

 

[rontheman]

Hi Simon, all noted, butare you saying thatswitching off traction control also disable ABS whilst braking?

 

[Simon1233]

Hi Ron, I am not sure that you can totally disable the ABS system. But I would think that when you are in slippery mud and snow it will be next to useless anyway as the conditions will be outside the normal operating parameters. You would need to be travelling at a slower more controlled speed being mindful of the conditions you are in and the increased stopping distances required. The systems are good, but not infallible and ultimately you are in control.

 

[rontheman]

Thanks Simon. all understood. I think the basic driving strategy should be to make use of traction control initially, and then only disable if no progress is being made. Once under way, presumably traction control can be re-engaged