Driving while on the white stuff..

[neckarsulm]

....snow that is.
first time I have had a proper quattro which there has been a significant showfall.
Inspired by the various S4 in the snow footage on YouTube I was looking forward to seeing what my S4 could do in the snow.
I don't have ESP on my 99 MY and snow driving is the only time I could imagine it being useful.
Still without it I could see the unadulterated benefits of 4WD and straight line grip is pretty awesome, I sailed up a hill that a Peugeot 206 couldn't get any traction on and had to give up!
Cornering at slowish speeds is OK, it does tend to snap into oversteer when the drive shifts to the back, OK if you are ready for it and have the space to handle it.
I did have a hairy moment when at around 10mph on an off camber roundabout with barely any throttle, the front end just washed out and for a moment I was a passenger heading towards a Puma that was waiting to join roundabout. Hit the brakes, car stalled and I stopped around a foot away.
With winter tyres (as the Germans use) and ESP it would be even better!

[david7m]

I didn't risk taking mine out today, its the other drivers you can't control

Dave

[HobsonS4]

I didn't risk taking mine out today, its the other drivers you can't control

Dave

Fancy point that. u may have all the traction in the world its the other people that are going to cause the damage. allthough if you fancy acting like a little boy racer why not go down to your local supermarket car park and have as much fun as you like. driving like this is not big and clever, so my mum tells me not sure i belive her though!

[belgianS4]

Had the same problem with my previous cluster.

Bought new face lift type and i've let a german friend make pcb's to connect to the original wiring with a new fiddle which can keep out the oil level sensor error.

He coded the new cluster and made can-bus connection with my navi.

So now i have a newer cluster with no lines, without anologe clock and can bus for navi radio cd etc...

Costs a little bit less then a new cluster but just depends on how cheap you can find a cluster on ebay...

Cluster costed me 250 euro, work inclusive pcb's etc 230 euro.

Went to germany for the install but if you have vag-com you could do this yourself at home (the programming part).

If someone wanted some info on the chap who did this work no prob can/will help you guys!

There are some but's and if's I had a cluster with the same code as my new cluster otherwise you would need to place a new immobilizer or deactivate the original in some way.

Hope this info can be of some help

Hendrick

[GrahamS4]

Found mine gave considerably more grip that anything 2wd, scary if anything more than feathering the throttle mind. Predicting if it will oversteer or not was tricky, it would kick the rear out travelling in a straight line if provoked. When out of shape, backing off the throttle it seemed to straighten up nicely. Stopping and changing direction as useless as you would expect on the tyres.

Being sensible, it was safer getting away from junctions and less likely to get stuck I guess, so worthwhile.

Once we were down to slush this evening it was back to mashing the throttle and grinning at the grip.

[neckarsulm]

BelgianS4, have you been sniffing the white stuff?! Correct me if i am wrong but you appear to have posted to the wrong thread!
david7m, you are right, the other drivers scare me, lights including indicators covered in snow, sometimes windows too!
GrahamS4, thats exactly the problem and I think ESP may help controlling the oversteer angle.
On the other hand if we all practiced in supermarket as Hobson suggests we may all become driftmeisters which would also help us in these conditions.

[belgianS4]

Yep indeed hum looked into this one but looks like I posted a bit to quick without watching in what thread I was.

My bad

[tartan_rob]

The B6 S4 with ESP on Toyo snow proxies........mmmm. Little will touch it especially when braking hard or accelerating...

[grizz]

How much fun can you have ! ! had the esp off for a few mins but it went back on pretty fast....

[S4TAN]

The night before the 'white stuff' appeared I was out having a bit of fun in the car on the "MRC test-track" ... anyone familiar with this stretch of road will know there's a roundabout at the top of the hill ... so, on Wednesday night the roads were pretty slippy (very cold and wet) and I was able to get my car to back-end slide round the roundabout nearly all the way round it! (drifting the S4!) - I was fully expecting my ESP light to be flashing as rapidly as a furious Frenchmans wanking-hand, but not once did it flash! ... what gives?

P.S> Before anyone says it: Yes, ESP was ON.

[GrahamS4]

Yours is a 2000.125896 facelift where you got the ESP button but no ESP.

[S4TAN]

Funny that - it flashes like an escaped pervert when I pull away from a standing-start at a slippy junction ...

[neckarsulm]

If you look at some of the YouTube S4 snow videos, the driftability of an S4 is pretty impressive. Having spent another day sliding around Bham I have to agree with GrahamS4's comments, it does put a lot of power to the back all of a sudden and it does hint at this in the damp - I've found myself on opposite lock all of a sudden.
Quattro only does so much though - I have been gridlocked in Brum on iced up roads that when you brake, you lock up and the camber of the road throws you into the kerb. I have had to dump my S4 at my parents house and walked home for 1hr. Amazingly my RS4 wheels are undamaged. had I had my Avus on I'm sure I'd have damaged them as they stick out more.

[shineydave]

furious Frenchmans wanking-hand

which is nice

i'm leaving mine at home tonight, off out in the neighbours cherokee to humiliate lesser vehicles although i did manage to get up the hill and on to the main road earlier when the clio 172 cup that lives next door failed miserably. edl was banging on and off though as wheels gripped and slipped

[neckarsulm]

Do proper 4x4's brake any better than cars in this weather?
I've seen range rovers, x5s etc flying along and really cant see them stopping too well with all that weight.
Traffic news has just said conditions are deteriorating further!