The AWD thread

First decent snow here in midwest, and I was extremely impressed with our 2017 CX-5 in the snow. Coupled with a humble (i.e. not torquey) engine, you really don't have to change your throttle input much. That is nice because it doesn't take a professional driver to get around safe with this car. My car (17 Infiniti AWD with low-profile "all_season" runflats) is virtually undriveable, if snow is on the ground.
 
For those who want to have some fun with snow and AWD - DO disable traction control. It is truly not helpful.
 
What does traction control even do on an AWD vehicle. I know how it worked on my previous FWD car but I don't quite get what it does on AWD.
 
7eregrine said:
What does traction control even do on an AWD vehicle. I know how it worked on my previous FWD car but I don't quite get what it does on AWD.
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That's a good question that I hope someone from Mazda would answer. My guess is traction control manages tires/wheels that are slipping due to loss of traction. As bnb stated, it would normally apply brakes in this instance to slow down the tires/wheels, enough for them to regain traction. The AWD system handles torque distribution between all four tires/wheels.
 
I don't think it's as aggressive on the CX but on my GX in 4-Low Toyota has their ATRAC system. Basically open front and rear diffs with a center than can be locked. If a wheel loses traction... the traction control system engages the brake on the spinning wheel to force it over to a wheel with traction on both ends of vehicle.
 
7eregrine said:
http://www.mazda.com/en/innovation/technology/safety/active_safety/dsc_tcs/
TCS from Mazda explained.

We've had quite a bit of snow this week. Not an enormous amount but consistent every day. I'm enjoying backing into my driveway. Normally I would have snownblowed the driveway a few times.i haven't yet. No need to.
What a difference AWD makes.
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Agreed. Once I switched from front wheel drive cars to all wheel drive cars and SUV’s I’ve never had an issue in the snow even with all season tires.
 
Heritage07 said:
Agreed. Once I switched from front wheel drive cars to all wheel drive cars and SUV’s I’ve never had an issue in the snow even with all season tires.
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Yea. I did get snows this year but I am not one of these Snow Tire jockeys around here that think you're a danger on the road with all seasons.
 
The way I understand it, if the wipers are running and the temp is below a certain point then the system sends more power to the rear. If the temps are normal then some power is sent if you turn your wheel. On a straightaway it will be normal. The system may have been updated since 2014, but the video in the grass should have sent some power to the rear It’s not a all or nothing equation either. Might be 20%, 40% etc. depending on the computers decision.
 
Drove my 2017 GT in the snow for the first time and did not have the best AWD experience. Had plenty of rear wheel tire spinning and back of vehicle slippage when making turns from poorly plowed side streets onto main roads. And when turning into side streets with snow from plowed main streets. Car didn't spin out of control but did not expect the slippage I felt, Is this normal for the CX-5?.
 
I've found that adding power on a wet turn can cause the awd to have a counter effect on the turn.. because the dsc doesn't want the wheel speed to differ much. Ironic that the effect is to reduce turn performance.
 
There's 1 post I made Jan - Mar 2016 timeframe where we had an humongous amount of snow.

I had to take my CX-5 out as my son (8 year old) had VERY high fever. My car was (and is) running Toyo OEM tires relatively new as it was just 3 month old. It was a total blizzard with visibility very bad. Already accumulated about 3 feet of snow. I drove out of the garage in reverse, did the usual K turn and then drove 2.2 miles to pharmacy and back. While driving, I was plowing SNOW in fron of me. My hood was constantly under attack from snow collecting there. My car had to be stopped/reversed and then rammed thru the snow. This was the 1st. 1 mile till I hit highway where there were few snow trucks already pushing snow. My both headlights/total front grille was under snow for this 1st. mile completely - just to give you all an idea as to how much snow had already fallen!

I don't think there's ANY car in the market today more capable than CX-5 when it comes to AWD system, except those who are designated off road capable like Jeep Rubicon maybe. My car was slipping: yes but only when the weight of snow it was trying to push got too heavy. There's a stretch where I had to climb, the road goes up but CX-5 was able to do that also.
 
I need to understand something - when you guys say CX-5 drives well in snow - how do you determine "Drive Well"? As for me - as you can see I drove sparingly and for me the ability to drive thru deep snow is good enough. But in reality - let's look at this scenario and then tell me what's good:

Usually, after a snow fall, the main roads are quickly cleaned up while the arteries aren't. In a relatively small city these arteries can accommodate around 4 cars side-by-side and now they are snow packed. When driving thru them at what speed would you drive and not see any slippages/adverse conditions and effectively thus declare that the car's AWD system is really good?
Taking this a step further - within 1 day or 2 when these roads are more traveled those black stripes appear and usually the cars travel thru them - now it may be in those smaller roads or a state road doesn't matter. Once again - at what speeds it'll be considered great?

I see folks driving their puny little cars thru such roads and driving between 5 mph to 15 mph with zero problems. If someone drives at that speed a CX-5 and suffers from zero slippage and reports here that AWD system of CX-5 is awesome then that makes no sense.

This is a question I always bother myself with. In such roads safety is important but depending on the car I drive and the tires I have - can I push myself to higher speed perhaps? Currently I stick to max of 15 mph thru such roads but I have a feeling I don't do justice to my CX-5 as it can possibly handle higher speed with no issues.

Let's keep the condition of tires out of this discussion.. Assume it's the standard OEM all season tires (that's what 95% of folks use anyways).
 
bmninada,

In your previous post when you mentioned your car was slipping, did the TCS/DSC Indicator Light flash? In my experience today when there was slippage, it did not..
 
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