geronimosan

What, did you shave the beard?

CrustyNoodle

Of all the Quattro systems in your examples, (except possibly the second last and last ones) none actually bear any relationship to the Q5 - the others use different centre differential systems.

The video's of the Q5 genuinely depict how the Q5 performs under these roller circumstances but if you knew what you were doing, I'm sure you could get the Q5 off the rollers with very little trouble - just takes a bit of intervention by the driver.

Never a truer word was said!

TIME89

yes, and I take a shower and cut my nails.

jjandersonn

Wouldn't the traction control system get power to the single wheel on the ground in this situation? I thought the Q5 had EDL (electronic differential lock) on the front and rear axles that would apply the brake to the spinning rear wheel?

4Rook

I'm sure you can make any awd system look superior to another, provided you have control over the variables.

xDrive's darkest hour:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/x7nGXpqb3FE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

CrustyNoodle

Very good point and very good thinking. Unfortunately in this test, both front wheels are on the rollers which unfortunately means that the torsen centre diff unloads and is unable to send enough torque to the rear. Somewhere around only 30% of the torque being sent to the front would have gone to the rear and as the fronts are spinning with no resistance, there is basically no torque going to the front so say, 10Nm to the front X 30% = two tenths of stuff all to the rear axle and not enough to push the car off the rollers - even with EDL active. In fact they could have had both rear wheels on the ground and the poor Q5 would have been stuck (under those conditions and they way they were driving it).

All it should have taken to get the Q5 off the rollers was a bit of light brake pressure to load up the front axle and get some torque transferred to the rear - simple!

jjandersonn

Interesting, I didn't realize the center differential worked this way in the Q5. I thought it would lock to get the torque to the rear where it was needed. I'm also surprised the traction control system didn't do the needed braking on the front axle, I assumed with all the traction system electronics the Q5 would manage a way to get the power to the wheel that needed it.

I guess I'm used to my Jeep that has 3 locking differentials, it would hardly even hesitate with three wheels on rollers. It's also a purpose built 4x4 for off road and it handles and rides like a tank on the road.

I assume on snowy, icy roads (rather than rollers) the Q5 rarely gets stuck? Our first winter with the Q5 is just around the corner...

maynard0418

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFDI2T4IOK4


This video is very interesting to me, although, I didn't understand anything that they were saying, but from the looks of the test, you can tell what in the world they were talking about

CrustyNoodle

Nice video - I wish I understood German!

I think this demonstrates that in the real world (or at least under the conditions in the video) the Q5 is not at a disadvantage. So as HotRodW intimated: stay away from single axle rollers when driving your Q5 to pick up the kids!

RobMate

Thanks!
I wish there were someone that can translate to give us just the main points.