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IS AWD actually AWD?


lander12

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Hello to the group.  I have a 2010 Edge SEL with All Wheel drive. Last winter, there were times that I questioned whether all wheels were being powered- due to poor handling and performance in relatively small amounts of snow and ice. With summer time driving, of course- I do not notice this feeling any more. Question- is there a simple way to determine if power is going to the rear wheels? Can I lift the front and rear of the car off the ground and manually turn each wheel to determine if the other wheels are turning? What should I expect to find if everything is working? Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

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There should be a display mode showing the torque split.

 

Remember you still have open differentials so if one wheel is spinning freely the other does nothing until traction co trol kicks in by braking the spinning wheel.  Put both rears on ice and it won’t matter.

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2 hours ago, lander12 said:

Hello to the group.  I have a 2010 Edge SEL with All Wheel drive. Last winter, there were times that I questioned whether all wheels were being powered- due to poor handling and performance in relatively small amounts of snow and ice. With summer time driving, of course- I do not notice this feeling any more. Question- is there a simple way to determine if power is going to the rear wheels? Can I lift the front and rear of the car off the ground and manually turn each wheel to determine if the other wheels are turning? What should I expect to find if everything is working? Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

 

what tires do you have? how worn are they?

 

i had an '09 Edge Limited with AWD and the factory all season tires. i don't remember what brand they were but they were absolute garbage in the snow. we had a bit of snow shortly after i got the car and i wanted to see how it fared. it didn't. no traction at all either accelerating or braking. it was dangerous.

in comparison, i had michelin x-ice on my next edge and they were amazing. loads of grip (relatively speaking for snow.)

i remember years ago when i had an X5 and guys on a forum were complaining about how bad their car was because it couldn't get up their steep driveway. they had high performance low profile summer tires on, duh!!

all season tires aren't very good in the snow and AWD or 4WD is no substitute for where the rubber meets the road.

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5 hours ago, ben senise said:

 

what tires do you have? how worn are they?

 

i had an '09 Edge Limited with AWD and the factory all season tires. i don't remember what brand they were but they were absolute garbage in the snow. we had a bit of snow shortly after i got the car and i wanted to see how it fared. it didn't. no traction at all either accelerating or braking. it was dangerous.

in comparison, i had michelin x-ice on my next edge and they were amazing. loads of grip (relatively speaking for snow.)

i remember years ago when i had an X5 and guys on a forum were complaining about how bad their car was because it couldn't get up their steep driveway. they had high performance low profile summer tires on, duh!!

all season tires aren't very good in the snow and AWD or 4WD is no substitute for where the rubber meets the road.

 

 

This ☝️.

 

If you are running on crap tires or 5 years or older "all seasons" or near worn out tires awd isn't going to do much for you other than be slightly better than fwd with the exact same tires on it.

 

I've had family members insist that their car was no good in winter and would argue it wasn't the tires. ?

Edited by Perblue
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you have to have loss of traction in essence to engage the rear wheels in this AWD system. this is not fulltime AWD, only on demand/as needed.

 

you can track the AWD behavior using Forscan Lite and an OBD adapter on your smartphone/tablet.  there is no display for it until 2015MY IIRC.

 

how many miles on your Edge? maintenance history on the PTU and RDU? yes, the fluids need to be maintained.  the PTU is a gear driven unit, the RDU has an electronically controlled clutch that determines how much power is sent to it.

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On 6/8/2021 at 7:09 AM, WWWPerfA_ZN0W said:

you have to have loss of traction in essence to engage the rear wheels in this AWD system. this is not fulltime AWD, only on demand/as needed.

 

you can track the AWD behavior using Forscan Lite and an OBD adapter on your smartphone/tablet.  there is no display for it until 2015MY IIRC.

 

how many miles on your Edge? maintenance history on the PTU and RDU? yes, the fluids need to be maintained.  the PTU is a gear driven unit, the RDU has an electronically controlled clutch that determines how much power is sent to it.

Thanks for the reply. Mileage is 205000 kms.  The PTU was serviced a month ago with fluid change and drain hole tapped and plug installed.

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