Driving while on the white stuff..

[shineydave]

i'll let you know in a couple of hours when we get back, lol, that is, if we get back

[david7m]

I'd imagine 4WD will have greater braking via engine braking to all wheels, unless you have part time/haldex 4WD

Dave

[neckarsulm]

I agree David7m, engine braking over 4 wheels will be better, problem I was having was locking up at near standstill and the car sliding in direction of road camber. Let's just say its amazing how high you can pull your handbrake when you need to!

[nickb834]

I'd say engine braking won't make much difference, it's more to do with contact patch on the road. Once the limit of adhesion has been reached the tyre's are still gonna slip.

My old Range Rover won't have much more of a contact patch than my S4, but seeing as it weighs 2 tons and the tyres are normal road tyres (not even AT or MT) then it'll slip and slide worse under deceleration.

Maybe you could argue that the engine braking action is gentler and less likely to lock the wheels up in the first place?

That said, there's not as much engine braking in an automatic as there is in a manual, so to that end the S4 wins again....yay!

The name of the game in this weather is set off in 2nd, no sudden acceleration / deceleration, no rapid changes of direction - and try to slow down naturally, as in back off the throttle - then brake gently.

Takes all the fun out of it tho

just my 2 penneth

[neckarsulm]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quattro_(a ... ve_system)

This has some interesting info on quattro and engine braking.
Nickb, contact patch is important though in snow its a slightly different issue as the skinny narrow tyre digs into snow better and thus has a larger contact patch in these conditions but in the dry its obviously smaller.
Square walled low profiles designed to do 155mph all day long at 40 degrees centigrade cant be expected to be brilliant in these conditions.
Having said that there was no occasion today when I span all the power away but I wish I had the skinny steel wheels like the PS2 GT4 cars have on ice as i dont mind kerbing them and they would make best use of quattro.
Still, must be much better off than any 2WD low profile car!

[shineydave]

agree, the jeep just came down the hill that i came down earlier with no drama whatsoever. then again the tyres are designed to grip in adverse conditions.

if i'd have came down behind him i'm sure you'd have been reading about it in tomorrows tabloids but then again, our tyres are basically slicks with a bit of tread grafted on

[neckarsulm]

Thanks for the report back shineydave!
what would you rather have? a car designed to go efficiently in 99% of the weather conditions, or an SUV which is inefficient 99% of the time??
(i'm not a 4x4 basher BTW but after the recent bad weather, I can't help feeling sorry for all the people that depend on them in rural areas who I bet will get penalised along with all the urban 4x4 users).

[BRETTCOLLINS]

when I went out, I just used 2nd and 4th gear.

[GrahamS4]

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

How do you tell EDL was kicking in? Your dash light?

I thought EDL was fitted on ALL S4's nothing to do with ESP, but can't say I could sense it on mine, so wonder how you knew?

[S4TAN]

I think the clue is in "banging" ...

[GrahamS4]

I think the clue is in "banging" ...

but I searched on Audi World and they said it was a dead hooker in the trunk!


Pratting about I am pretty sure I was spinning front and back as snow flying out everywhere, no banging!!

Oh well.

[S4TAN]

dead hooker in the trunk!

Oh yeah - i forgot about that - I think Audi fitted dead hookers as standard on the US models ...

[kevinjs]

oops ! swerved to avoid deer on forestry track 7.00 yesterday morning and hit wall at about 30mph.totalled front passenger quarter and badly dented front and rear bumpers,both doors,front and rear wings, broke windscreen(tree branch), both wheels dented.Looks worse in flesh than on photos below !! Tesco uplifted it to one of their "approved" insurers, but I arranged for it to be taken to Main Audi dealer in Aberdeen today( The one time you want to use the stealers eh:-) )
Not sure if they'll write it off or repair it, but one interesting point the insurance guy said was that because I have moved it to a garage of my choice,tesco wouldn't be held responsible for the repairs, in that if there was a problem, I'd have to sort it out with the garage.Is this normal ? anyone got any experience ?

Kev

[kevinjs]

trying to load photos.hope this works

[lemond]

Oh dear ... sorry to hear that! All that damage sounds expensive.... doesn't seem to take much 'apparent' damage to write these motors off due to parts costs.. well they were 37k or whatever when new

I would ring Tesco up to get 'em to clarrify things straight away...

Paul