or read through this- http://www.torsen.com/files/Traction...ol_Article.pdf

 

i read some of it but still dont understand why quattro isn't always on.

 

Maybe you don't have quattro

 

No, I definitely have it, all four would spin once I hit about 3500 rpms.

 

soooooooo you were just slidding? i don't see what your asking exactly, but if it helps no there is no possible way you can shut off your quatro,

 

I'm asking if quattro means that all four tires are always engaged all the time instead of power being randomly distrubuted to the tires that need the power at certain times. I was stuck trying to back my way out of this snow and only my front tires were spinning, my back ones were just sitting there as if i have a fwd car. So i was wondering what was wrong.

 

It's odd. From my understanding, Quattro is always on. Under normal conditions its at 50/50 for your b5, but when more power is needed to the front or the back, up to 66% of the power will be sent to either side. So there shouldn't have been a time when your back wheels were not spinning.

How do you know your rear wheels weren't spinning, assuming you were in the car?

 

EDL is only on the rear differential.

 

My rear tires were spinning because I had my door open and was leaning out of my car while trying to smash on the gas. I think that it appeared for my rear tires not to be working but they really were because they were on pavement, and they wouldn't have been able to spin as easily as my fronts. I'm sure that if there was snow under my rear tires they would have been spinning too, so I think quattro did it's job...hopefully.

 

Were you only looking at the driver's side tire? Is it possible that the passenger's side was actually spinning and you couldn't see it? Quattro doesn't mean you have posi too, power will be distributed to the tire with the least amount of traction, spereately front and rear I believe. So you may have had the front driver's side spining and the rear passenger's side spining. I'd bet this is what your problem was. As far as I know Audi's (B5) don't have locking differentials.