S3 drives like a pig at speed in ice/snowy conditions??

Rob_B

Rob_B

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hi chaps,
as the title suggests, i have an s3 it obviously has the haldex 4wd system on it

i was just wondering if anyone else stuggles to drive their car at speed in ice/snowy conditions?as mine is a bit of a pig to be honest!

when i hit a slightly icey piece of road i can feel the car shifting the power about causing the car to twitch and become unstable at times - i can noticably feel it at speeds over 40mph and worryingly it even happens when im completely off the throttle

its quite a concern as a couple of times now i have been driving at 70mph down a dual carriage way and the back end starts twitching badly and feels like it could spit me off the road at any moment.

just wondering if this is the norm for these cars??
 
Try slowing down?

OK seriously dude its terrible weather at the moment..why on earth would you want to drive at speed in this weather? the 4 wheel drive ain't gonna do a thing different compared to my 1 litre yaris in the braking department either!
 
I drive like a grandma in this weather.
 
Try changing your driving style to suit the road conditions, if your doing 70MPH down icy dual carriage way's you are asking for trouble, all it takes is for 1 person to pull out infront of you from the inside lane and you in the S**T. Slow down.

Other than that if your car is shifting the power about to much you may have an issue with you haldex controler, just a guess.
 
CammadyTami said:
здравствуйте, давно искала такой форум. всем спасибки, отдельное спасибо админам)
Click to expand...

see even he says slow down
 
Rob_B said:
hi chaps,
as the title suggests, i have an s3 it obviously has the haldex 4wd system on it

i was just wondering if anyone else stuggles to drive their car at speed in ice/snowy conditions?as mine is a bit of a pig to be honest!

when i hit a slightly icey piece of road i can feel the car shifting the power about causing the car to twitch and become unstable at times - i can noticably feel it at speeds over 40mph and worryingly it even happens when im completely off the throttle

its quite a concern as a couple of times now i have been driving at 70mph down a dual carriage way and the back end starts twitching badly and feels like it could spit me off the road at any moment.

just wondering if this is the norm for these cars??
Click to expand...

I am glad to hear you find that the handling of a car at 70 mph in snowy/icy conditions is worrying. But i am quite concerned that you feel the need to question the capabilty of the car rather than the speed you are attempting to drive at. I think the general consensus is slow the f'#k down
 
Yes clearly innapropriate speeds. Ive experienced the same when suddenly hitting an icy patch. Not sure whether it was the haldex or esp but it was very easily controllable.
 
I had the back come out in my Mk2 Golf driving @40ish on a dual carriageway in icy conditions, and that has no Haldex. A bit of opposite lock with a steady throttle corrected it, then I dropped to 30mph lol.
 
guys!!! im not driving like a **** so the slow down comments arent really necessary...honestly i am driving to the road conditions

when i say icey/ snowy conditions im meaning a very small amount of slush if anything - sorry if i didnt explain myself correctly, for example i was driving down the a1 the other day, snow started falling and i noticed it was settling on the road as slush so i eased of the throttle as it was twitching at 60-70mph(which was just keeping up with traffic, was wasnt blasting past everyone in the inside lane) i slowed to the point that artic lorries were overtaking me whilst i sit there in the inside lane wondering why my car is all over the road whilst others are driving fine??
 
I travelled from where i live in derbyshire to leek in staffordshire last sunday morning for a tae kwondo competition and on the roads i was on it was pretty bad conditions foggy icy snow/slush on the roads so i was doing about 40ish on a national speed limit road and the back end of mine kept on twitching about, not a nice feeling but controlable all the same, but i need 2 new rear tyres as mine are almost down to the markings now, i put my experience down to worn tyres, not saying its the same for you but just a thought.
 
nah ive got nearly new kuhmo ku31 tyres on the car...cheers for the suggestion though mate
 
Oh and if they are directional, are they the right way round??
 
i check my pressures frequently but will do so again tonight, all tyres are round the right way :)
 
OK cool.....you just never know sometimes...lol
 
had them and all the suspension bushes checked recently
 
have you had the tracking checked? is the car lowered? steering rack and track rod ends worn?
 
This is interesting as my Red car drives brilliantly in these conditions, esp ON and everytime it starts to slip, the esp pulls it straight, no problem. And if we're going down the 'driving like a ****' route, it's more than capable of handling anything I've thrown at it (obviously making allowances for the fact that stopping is a completely different issue!). The Black car with the uprated Haldex is a ****** nightmare! It doesn't feel planted and makes me feel extremely uncomfortable doing anything over 25mph as it keeps trying to swap ends every 2 minutes and doesn't like slippery corners at all!! ESP ON or OFF!!
 
scoobyra said:
This is interesting as my Red car drives brilliantly in these conditions, esp ON and everytime it starts to slip, the esp pulls it straight, no problem. And if we're going down the 'driving like a ****' route, it's more than capable of handling anything I've thrown at it (obviously making allowances for the fact that stopping is a completely different issue!). The Black car with the uprated Haldex is a ****** nightmare! It doesn't feel planted and makes me feel extremely uncomfortable doing anything over 25mph as it keeps trying to swap ends every 2 minutes and doesn't like slippery corners at all!! ESP ON or OFF!!
Click to expand...

yeah you are right pm me your best price about that uprated haldex....even exchange.....lol
 
Rob, are you still on the original rear springs and if so have you checked them recently? I drove round on broken ones that had snapped (common fault) for a while before i realised. Massive oversteer the whole time because the rear arb was ineffective. Its actually quite hard to see the rear springs have snapped and audi missed it at the MOT too although i know thats not saying much!

Worth checking tracking too.
 
scoobyra said:
This is interesting as my Red car drives brilliantly in these conditions, esp ON and everytime it starts to slip, the esp pulls it straight, no problem. And if we're going down the 'driving like a ****' route, it's more than capable of handling anything I've thrown at it (obviously making allowances for the fact that stopping is a completely different issue!). The Black car with the uprated Haldex is a ****** nightmare! It doesn't feel planted and makes me feel extremely uncomfortable doing anything over 25mph as it keeps trying to swap ends every 2 minutes and doesn't like slippery corners at all!! ESP ON or OFF!!
Click to expand...

yes that sounds very similar to whats happening with mine...if i drive on a icey straight road at like 30-40mph it just doesnt feel right i can feel the back end snaking about - other have been in my car and can report the same

could it be a sticky rear caliper??
 
pj123 said:
Rob, are you still on the original rear springs and if so have you checked them recently? I drove round on broken ones that had snapped (common fault) for a while before i realised. Massive oversteer the whole time because the rear arb was ineffective. Its actually quite hard to see the rear springs have snapped and audi missed it at the MOT too although i know thats not saying much!

Worth checking tracking too.
Click to expand...

tracking has been done recently however i do want to get a decent 4 wheel aligment done

its on new lowering springs should should be fine
 
audi upgrades
I think mine's more likely to be either a mismatch of my front tyres or the uprated haldex controller tbh Rob, although it could be a combination of both. Have you got matching tyres??
 
How odd mate? Just jack it up and check the obvious then buddy. Tyres can be funny old things too
 
audi upgrades
mine felt twitchy when the fronts needed changing but the rears were like new but they are 235/19. felt bad if I hit boost but expected that. I was driving on 8inch of fresh snow, first on the roads one morning :)

ESP must be off for getting up hills
 
hi mate,
for your own piece of mind, when not hook up vagcom and do a fault check for the AWD? i vaguely remember an issue with the longitudinal sensor possibly affecting the AWD too. good luck either way!

Danny
 
dany2k said:
hi mate,
for your own piece of mind, when not hook up vagcom and do a fault check for the AWD? i vaguely remember an issue with the longitudinal sensor possibly affecting the AWD too. good luck either way!

Danny
Click to expand...

good point, think i'll give that a go
 
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