Re:S6 differential switch

["Matt Rooke" <mrooke@fcpa.fujitsu.com>]

>At 04:10 PM 6/10/98 -0700, Matt Rooke wrote:
>>Bingo.  Growning up in Michigan, the sage driver's ed advice on 4WD
>>(pickups, Bla(h)zers, etc- ie, pre-quattro) was:
>>Always drive in 2WD.  Get stuck?  Switch to 4WD and drive away.
>>But if you always drive in 4WD and you get stuck- too bad!
>>I've applied this principle with great success to the rear diff lock on my
>>'91CQ.  Very disappointed to hear this "help
>>button" is not present in newer q's.
>
>If by newer q's you mean cars like the A4, they don't need this button
>since they have Electronic Differential Lock.  This is a similar system to
>that used on the M-class Mercedes except only on two wheels.  The ABS
>system applies the brake to a spinning wheel thereby transferring thr
>torque to the other wheel.

That sounds like nice technology (gee, more things to break!), but it means the only option is to grab the shovel out of
the trunk after getting hung up on a snowplow berm or whatever.  I'd prefer not to get out of the car, and the rear diff
lock has done the trick for me 95% of the times that I've gotten into such a predicament.  I'm sure the EDL system would
reduce the frequency of such events though.

Matt Rooke
91CQ