S3 permanent 4WD?

[S3-ROB]

Bought the original Audi S3 2002 sales brochure off ebay, been reading through it and it says the car is permanent 4 wheel drive, says it on quite a few pages

Exact words from page 1 are "latest generation quattro permanent four-wheel drive"

Then on the technical data page it again says "quattro permanent four-wheel drive"

The word Haldex is not mentioned on any page?

Any comments on this?

 

[Prawn]

interesting way to put it......
it IS permanent 4 wheel drive in that you cant switch it from 2wd to 4wd (without removing the fuse) so i guess they can call it permanent.

although its obviously not 4wd in the sense that all 4 wheels are being driven permanently.

 

[jojo]

 

[Olly_K]

i disagree. its not permanent at all.

Most of the time your car is 2wd drive. Once the haldex starts to sense slip in the front wheels, it shoves drive to the back.

 

[Prawn]

oh yea we know that olly, im just saying that they can probably legally market it as permanent 4wd because theres no 2wd option.......

 

[Ryanc]

Good idea for fuel economy,wear and tear. Not good for a all out sports car.

 

[S3-ROB]

Most of the time your car is 2wd drive. Once the haldex starts to sense slip in the front wheels, it shoves drive to the back

Thats what i thought and why i was surprised when i read the sales brochure

 

[Ess_Three]

Well technically is IS 4WD when it needs to be.

It's not as if you have to move any lefers, lock hubs or anything...it's 4WD that just disengages the rear wheels when they aren't doing any work.

 

[BIG MUS]

if u pull the fuse out is it front or rear then?

 

[S3-ROB]

It's not as if you have to move any lefers, lock hubs or anything...it's 4WD that just disengages the rear wheels when they aren't doing any work

Makes sense

 

[Ess_Three]

if u pull the fuse out is it front or rear then?

Front.

It has to be...the Haldex is at the rear and there is no way of disconnecting the front diff from the gearbox...so you'll always have front drive, just with varying degrees of added rear drive.

 

[mattyboy199]

i understand that 5% of the power goes to the back not much but enough to warrant what there saying. Think of it like this if for example the car driven without any front wheel slipage surely something would go wrong mechanically after a few years.

 

[neil.c]

All 4 wheel drive cars (dunno about off-roaders though) disengage the rear wheels under braking for better stability and when reversing.