AWD Burnout?

[Jeremoose]

One quick SUPER-noob question (bear with me): if I'm parked on some ice and I go to take-off and 1 or 2 of my tires spin and the others go, will this hurt the AWD system at all?
Or, if I go around a corner and do an all-wheel spin or something, can this hurt my AWD system? I've heard that you have to watch 4wd vehicles because if some tires grab and others don't you could have a SERIOUS problem on your hands.. I was just wondering what the deal is; any help is much appreciated

 

[drivemusicnow]

For the most part, the system is designed to allow short term slipping wiht out any ill effects.. the problems that you run into with AWD systems, is with constant slipping. If you put on a different size tire (in terms of "revs per mile") on the back vs the front.. you'll burn up you transfer case rather quickly... but if you have the back wheels on ice, and the fronts on pavement, by the time all are rotating at the same speed, no damage should have occured..
Sorry, i'm not explaining this very well.. something you DO want to be careful of is if one set of tires is spinning a LOT and then suddenly grips.. this causes a LOT of drivetrain shock. avoid if at all possible.

 

[leet]

I wouldn't TRY to burn out, that's a good way to break things.

If you occasionally break a wheel or two loose it will not hurt anything. Knock on wood, of course

 

[David15151]

a friend of mine is trying to find 4 of the donut spare tires to put on his 3Stt... he wants to do a AWD burnout.. maybe its not such a good idea .

 

[blackGSX2g]

Its not good for it if you put your driveline under lots of stress, but I've done AWD donuts in the rain and snow just for fun and nothing happened The only damage you can do to the VC or anything is when the fronts are stopped and the rears are spinning (or vice versa) and the fluid in the VC heats up enough to lock. Other than that, its made for some slipping as posted before. No harm done.

 

[scotthidley]

Are you asking about how the car drives in low traction areas, or beating on it?

If you're doing it to beat on it, you can end up breaking parts (if you're dropping the clutch to do this,...) If you're careful, it shouldn't really bother it. If anybody happened to see a set of 4 tire marks near the train tracks at last years shootout, basically I opened it up in a turn, kicked the back end on the other side of the yellow line, spun all 4 doing it

If you're thinking about driving in the snow, keep this in mind. All 4 wheels are connected, if 1 spins, they'll all spin. Now in a fwd or rwd car, a spinning tire isn't a big deal. But in a awd, once you lose traction, you won't be able to turn, or stop. So in order to regain traction, your entire drivetrain has to slow down again, to let the tires grab. If you're just messing around on a side street, it won't seem like a big deal, but if you're approaching an intersection to turn, then lock up the wheels trying to slow down, you could easily miss your turn, and maybe hit something straigth ahead.

 

[Spln_Hrd]

the tires spinning at two speed for a long time would probly be harder on the viscous coupling than the transfer case

the viscous coupling has a fluid that thikins when the wheels spin differant speed(front and back differant right and left doesn't affect this) and if it is prolongs it can thikin up so much it can split the viscouse coupling open

i would be more worried about your back tires grabbing all of a suddon to break the t-case

 

[Jeremoose]

Excellent, I was kinda hoping just a little spinning wouldn't hurt anything Thanks for the quick replies

 

[johnk]

Sorry to hijack the thread but how many of the wheels get power in the AWD system? Is it just 1 front and 1 rear or do all the wheels lock in like 4wd.

 

[2gGSX]

You'll be spinning 3 wheels--you have an open front LSD remember

 

[blackGSX2g]

If you're thinking about driving in the snow, keep this in mind. All 4 wheels are connected, if 1 spins, they'll all spin. Now in a fwd or rwd car, a spinning tire isn't a big deal. But in a awd, once you lose traction, you won't be able to turn, or stop. So in order to regain traction, your entire drivetrain has to slow down again, to let the tires grab. If you're just messing around on a side street, it won't seem like a big deal, but if you're approaching an intersection to turn, then lock up the wheels trying to slow down, you could easily miss your turn, and maybe hit something straigth ahead.

All 4 wheels are connected, but they aren't locked. If one spins, that means its not getting traction...It doesn't mean all the wheels will spin. Thats the whole point of the AWD system on these cars. I can lose traction in the back left and front right and still be able to drive in a stright line perfectly fine. Slowing down when approaching an intersection has nothing to do with AWD/fwd/rwd/1000000wd...if you dont have ABS and you lose traction, you will slide, period.

Sorry to hijack the thread but how many of the wheels get power in the AWD system? Is it just 1 front and 1 rear or do all the wheels lock in like 4wd.

All 4 wheels get power when you are driving normally, but they aren't locked. If you go around a turn or something, one wheel is going faster than the other, but they all get power.

 

[scotthidley]

All 4 wheels are connected, but they aren't locked. If one spins, that means its not getting traction...It doesn't mean all the wheels will spin. Thats the whole point of the AWD system on these cars. I can lose traction in the back left and front right and still be able to drive in a stright line perfectly fine. Slowing down when approaching an intersection has nothing to do with AWD/fwd/rwd/1000000wd...if you dont have ABS and you lose traction, you will slide, period.

Yes, one can break loose, but in stuff like snow, where there is minimal traction it is very likely that all will follow. That is what my example is based on. Even with abs, you can slide, period