Understeer in snow

[Nick Stuart]

Well I've found that I have always had under steer on my 5k tq. YES you
can get it to over steer but not my simply hitting the gas to pop the
rear end around you have to play with it a little. Or another really
neat trick is to be going down a snow packed road with a banked corner
at the end then hit the brakes lightly to see if you have any traction
and find out you don't when your ass ends slides out and you go
around/down the corner completely side ways! Great thing with the Audi
though is that I was able to recover with no problems what so ever. The
only problem was that there was another car coming doh!

Anyways that was a bit off topic. I was under the impression that just
about any Audi that you got into would pretty much have the
characteristics of under steering. Am I wrong here or isn't that kinda
what the 4wd was kind of designed to do as in most cases under steer is
safer then over steer. Although I guess if you took pains to set it up
to over steer then I can kinda see your complaint as being truly valid,
other then that that's how I always thought these cars drove.

Nick
	'87 5k cs tq


-----Original Message-----
From: quattro-admin at audifans.com [mailto:quattro-admin at audifans.com] On
Behalf Of Dan Dwyer
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2001 7:57 AM
To: Kneale Brownson; Robert Myers; Phil Payne; torsen at audifans.com;
quattro at audifans.com
Subject: Re: Understeer in snow

Hello,

To clarify, the handling characteristics that I'm complaining about are
when
driving aggressively in ice and/or snow.  I wish to duplicate the
ability to
induce oversteer into corners and come out smiling, similar to what I've
experienced in all the audi's I've been in thus far (4000s and 5000s).
In
fact, I have taken that handling for granted and was taken aback by the
way
my new (for me) car was handling in the snow.

In regards to tires, I have studded snows that show little treadwear.
BTW,
the car normally has oversteer in rainy or dry conditions.  It only has
understeer in the snow.  Their is no traction problems in the snow when
accelerating fast in a straight line.

Basically, any semi-aggressive acceleration through a corner results in
the
car pushing badly.  I suppose that the tires could have poor lateral
traction but the way the tread blocks are staggered indicate that they
should have decent lateral traction in slush or soft snow and I would
think
the studs would help lateral traction in the ice.

In regards to alignment, my car has a little more camber in the front
than a stock aligned car, but I figured it was benificial for reducing
understeer in most conditions.  Is it the case that this would
negatively
affect snow or ice driving?  The rear shocks are pretty worked so the
rear
is softer than the front end.

Also, would the 78f/22r split in the center diff cause the front wheels
to
peel out sooner relative to the rears than a 50/50 locked diff?  Cause
it
seems as if I'm driving a front driver rather than AWD when cornering in
ice
and snow.  Again, for some reason I want to blame the non-locking center
diff for all of my woes, although it may be eroneous.

Dan


----- Original Message -----
From: "Kneale Brownson" <knotnook at traverse.com>
To: <dandwyer at hotmail.com>; <quattro at audifans.com>;
<torsen at audifans.com>
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2001 7:05 AM
Subject: [torsen] Re: (no subject)


> Did you consider a possible difference from tire composition?
>
>
> At 09:23 PM 12/13/2001 -0800, Dan Dwyer wrote:
>
> >Greetings,
> >
> >I have a '89 200 TQ Wagon.  I am fairly displeased with its snow
handling
as
> >compared to the older badged 5000QTs that I've driven before and my
old
'85
> >4000Q.
> >
> >My car wants very badly to understeer me right into a ditch when I go
into a
> >corner with any speed.  At first I thought it was because of the
> >differential unlocking above 10mph so I disconnected the speed sensor
to
> >allow it to remain locked.  That only aggrivated the problem.  So I
am
> >wondering if my problem is from a difference in the center diff.
> >
> >Can anybody shed light on the center diffs of my car's vintage.  For
example
> >is it open or limited slip?  Can I retrofit a locker easily to the
center
> >diff? Does it bias power to the front greatly?  Is it correct to
assume
that
> >this is even my problem??  Is it viscous or torsen?? etc...
> >
> >Thanks in advance,
> >
> >Dan Dwyer
> >'89 200TQ Avant
> >
> >_________________________________________________________________
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> >
> >
>