'03 A4 3.0 6sd MT, quattro.

Just had an awful experience with my car last weekend that's got me wondering whether I'm expecting more from quattro than can be delivered. I was in western MA, at a friend's house. His driveway slopes down from the road -- it's maybe 100 feet long, 20 degree incline (estimates here).

There was about 6" unpacked snow on the driveway and I could not get more than halfway up before the wheels spun and the car slid back down to the bottom. My friend gave it a try and at one point it slid back down so it was half in an embankment, maybe 8" deep. I was watching him try to get out and I saw the driver side front wheel spinning wildly, while not one of the other wheels moved at all. We tried with ESP on and off and the same thing happened.

Is that right? I expected quattro would put power to the wheels that aren't moving and not more to the one that's slipping.

 

There is likely a problem with your EDL which should apply the brake to the spinnining wheel and result in power transfer to the wheels with traction. EDL utilizes the ABS which has a control module that may fail. Something to look into.
https://www.audiforums.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=120488

 

If your front wheels were moving and your rear ones weren't, something's seriously wrong. The torsen differential won't allow one half of the car (front/rear) to move and the other not to. Is it possible the rear driver's-side wheel was spinning too and you just didn't see it? If so, that makes much more sense and AutoUnionFan is on the right track with EDL. If both rear wheels were stationary however, well that's a whole different set of problems.

 

Properly operating quattro shouldn't have any problem with a small incline as long as there is no ice under it. It should have cut through the snow to the pavement and moved you up that driveway. If you just slid and spun, then either you were on ice or something isn't working right.

 

Your expecting too much. Quattro is not the same as an off-road 4wd with locking differentials that will infact spin all four wheels.
When all four tires are on a near frictionless surface. If there is slipping/traction loss, Quattro will not apply power to all four wheels. Ever. The only time Quattro splits the torque 50/50 is when there is no slipping (dry pavement). If you were to spin all four wheels on an incline, or a level surface for that matter, you would not be able to steer your car in the direction you intend and instantly lose control of the car. That could kill people.
I'd bet there is nothing wrong with your car, and being that Quattro is purely mechanical (although some of the new models are coming out with electronic AWD) with no cases of Torsen failure that I've ever heard of, and is performing EXACTLY as it was designed to perform.

 

it was just the front wheel spinning, on the driver's side anyway -- i couldn't see the passenger side from where i was. if i'm expecting too much just to think even that one back wheel should've been spinng too, then i don't know what purpose AWD serves. I don't expect it to spin all four wheels at once, but to keeping spinning the one that's slipping, and not any of the others seems stupid. Yes, there was ice under the snow, a good solid covering of it, but i rode fine on it the previous day. and when i was stuck, with just the front wheel polishing the ice under it, the rear was on dirt.

 

well there is only so much torque the differentials can split around to each individual wheel!

 

^exactly. The torque has to go somewhere.