Dan 4.2

If I'm off the throttle and losing control in a turn would it be a good idea to give it some power and let Quattro and ESP help me out? Keep in mind that I'm an armchair driver with no driving school or track day experience.

Sia Bani

ESP potentially...if you break loose.

Every winter we have people that aren't in the snow, come on here and say how on the fwy in rain, quattro saved their *** because they swerved and maneuvered away from a hazard.

99.99% of the time, that is ESP saving them if they lost traction; and that feeling of being stuck to the road...that's called owning a luxo-muscle car that weighs 4k lbs.

Audis or VWs 4Life

you over cook it into a turn and esp will brake for you to correct things. Keep in mind you cant break the laws of physics but esp will bring you pretty close to the line. Quattro does nothing for you unless you have foot on the go peddal...

Sia Bani

beat you bish.

4AudiQ

Power is your friend. Quattro works under power, not coasting, not braking.

ruknd

the throttle the weight of the car shifts to the front thus making the rear end "lighter" and rotate out so if you throttle through the turn you prevent this...then again this can be fun too!

Jet Jockey/A4 Pilot

<b>Quattro</b> via the <b>TorSen</b> centre diff can help you out under certain circumstances. On slippery road conditions it will help the car be more stable by providing traction to all wheels. An example of this is, if you ever encountered deep standing water or if you drive in snowy conditions with a FWD car you know what I mean. The car becomes unstable and starts to pull either left and/or right. Generally in a situation like that with a Quattro car you will simply keep going or tracking strait with no or very little torque steer. It can also get the car to oversteer if used properly and push you out of a turn by kicking or sliding the rear end out a bit as you exit the turn while accelerating. However, people get over confident while driving an AWD car in less than ideal road conditions because it does it so effortlessly and this is when things can get out of shape real fast. Because of its stability people don't realize how fast they are going until they have to slow down or stop in a hurry. The laws of physics still apply to a Quattro car and it won't stop any faster. Quattro can get you to the scene of the accident a lot quicker if you are not paying attention.

Now onto ESP. <b>The ESP system works in two ways.</b> One is for <b>traction control under acceleration.</b> If EPS is the brains of the system, ABS is its heart. ESP in conjunction with ABS will try to provide maximum traction. It will do this by applying the brakes to the wheels that are slipping by using the ABS via the EDL system (up to 50 mph). ESP will also monitor the steering wheel sensor and the yaw sensor. If at anytime ESP feels you have exceeded a pre programmed value in its algorithm it will use EDL and then the ASR portion to try to keep the car under control. Again EDL uses the ABS to transfer torque to the opposite wheel and ASR will actually cut power to the engine. The ASR, steering wheel input sensor and the yaw sensor can all be deactivated by selecting the ESP switch on the dash to the "OFF" position. When it is "OFF" the triangular amber light in the dash cluster will be illuminated. Now all that is left on the car that is active is the EDL system and only up to 50 mph. Of course being that it is a mechanical system, the Quattro (TorSen) is always working for you. None of these system so far are going to save you're a$$ because you are going too fast. This portion of the system works under the acceleration phase and thus is preventing you from going too fast in the first place.

<b>The second way the ESP works in under deceleration.</b> This is the portion of the ESP that will save your a$$ if you are going too fast but it as its limitations. Furthermore it will work only if you are using your brakes. In other words if you are travelling too fast for an upcoming curve or manoeuvre and you don't use your brakes, the ESP won't know to intervene. Under the same circumstances as before if you hit the brake pedal, then the ESP because it is monitoring all the sensors will try to keep the car in control by applying the ABS and even selective braking.

Hope that helps you out.

metalevon

well said!

daveak05

Do you own motorcycles?

Kawiracer

This winter has seen my city buried in a ton of snow, cold weather and ice. The roads have been creating a money grab for the local auto body shops...three months to get anything fixed if you're lucky.

I've never used the ESP (minus a couple of times for the sake of trying ESP) in winter conditions and I never will...my 2001.5 s4 and the B6 S4 are much easier to control with the ESP off.

Drivers aids=weak driving skills on the road.

Learn to use the throttle to help steer the car out of situations...or when dry and going fast, it will help you enter and exit higher speed turns with far more precision.