[CWarrior]

Had to drive my 335xi in one season of winter driving in Upper Michigan, had all season tires, and always had traction, had no problem giving it gas and going fast in the snow without fish tailing. The only time I fish tailed at all with it was with DTC off - and trying to. Absolutely a solid winter vehicle. Would do it again in a heartbeat. (It could just be me having grown up driving in winter, but even when we didn't plow the driveway we had absolutely no issues getting it in & out of the garage.)

[pizza_party]

Interesting information in this document. It's for the X3 but the xdrive system is the same.

http://share.qclt.com/bmw%E8%B5%84%E...3%20xDrive.pdf

Page 13:

Clutch fully open = 100% to the rear
Clutch fully closed = 50/50 split, but " Torque distribution is dependent on the torque that
can be supported on each axle"

But then goes onto say:

"An exception is made when the front axle is on a surface with a high
friction coefficient and the rear axle is on e.g. slick ice. In this case,
virtually 100% of the available driving torque is transmitted to the front
axle since virtually no torque can be supported on the rear axle."

[Nebraska330xi]

I can fish tail pretty good in mine too. I have Conti DSWs seeing first winter. Anyway I enjoy it. Don't really notice the front wheels doing shit. Hopefully they help when needed!

[ajsalida]

If you guys haven't yet, play with the DTC setting in snow. Much better than default DSC on. Does not cut back on power and allows a little oversteer but not too much. Still have traction control but not the super intrusive stability control of DSC. DTC on is "snow setting" as far as I'm concerned.

[SDemetris]

It sound like you've just never driven in snow before with this car.. everything seems normal to me

[Viber]

My 2008 Subaru Legacy GT had a 45/55 power split. Getting the tail out was easy. Terrifying the first time it happened, because prior to that I only had FWD cars and never had that experience before.


Never had the experience with my 328xi...been dry mostly though.

[e90Mark]

It snowed a lot the last few days and I had the ass of my car out swinging like crazy, intentionally, with DTC on only.

Turned DSC off in an empty parking lot and did a few donuts.

[SaviorXi]

Originally Posted by AWD Addict

It still does interfere a lot, if you haven't put DTC on, or turned all traction control off. It'l go so far as to cut throttle on you, despite mashing the pedal (which pisses me off.)

If it's snowing out, I hit the DTC button right away, no matter what. With that setting, this car behaves like a normal AWD vehicle, and if you want, will allow you to send the ass out much more "normally"

With it all off, the car is hilariously fun, but basically a sled.

As noted above, your summer tires were probably the largest player in that condition.

I drive the same way in the snow. I dislike the lack of control over the throttle in normal mode so switching to DTC gives me enough control of the car to have fun but still has some safety left to save me from myself. With everything off you can get into big trouble so I recommend large open parking lot practice sessions so you can get the feel for all 3 settings. This year in the northeast has been great for practice since we have gotten tons of snow. Last week I drove from Philadelphia to Montreal in a blizzard and my car was great. I do feel my Subaru Sti and Evo were better and more controlled in the snow but I am willing to bet it was because the both of them were stick shift and my BMW is an automatic. No matter how good a car is or how good the driver is if you push your car too hard in the snow especially when turning and braking you will end up in trouble. Be careful everyone.

[Dtme30m3]

We just had snow in washington and my 335i was awful in snow!I have 275 nitto motive tires out back with tsw wheels.I was sliding around very easily I ended up driving home 20 mph .my car is auto rwd 2008 jb+ ,afe dual cone ,muffler delete .made me think maybe should drive a subaru?

[E90X]

Originally Posted by Dtme30m3

We just had snow in washington and my 335i was awful in snow!I have 275 nitto motive tires out back with tsw wheels.I was sliding around very easily I ended up driving home 20 mph .my car is auto rwd 2008 jb+ ,afe dual cone ,muffler delete .made me think maybe should drive a subaru?

Wide tires plus snow on any car equals certain death. It's like putting snow shoes on to go ice skating. Narrower tire the better in winter.

[michbmw]

I find that the if you aren't mashing the peddle at slow speeds it"ll fish tail pretty easy, the faster the speed and the more you mash the peddle the more the traction control kicks in

[gtaccord]

Get winter tires. it is my first year with an X drive and winter tires and I must say this combination is very impressive. I never even turn dsc off because the car never has a traction problem (unless I goose it). It feels like i am driving a giant snowmobile.

[psmitty95]

Originally Posted by mjleamy

Thanks for all of the great discussion. I am going to go with it is normal for a heavy foot, large steering input, and slow speed to result in an ass-end that fishtails on an xi. Yes, tires will play a role in how dramatic that fishtail is, but there is enough torque in these cars to make any tire compound/tread-pattern/etc. break loose. I guess one thing I failed to mention is that my 330xi has a manual transmission. That probably has little to do with what happened, but it does eliminate the possibility for any slip in a torque converter.

No offense to you but if your tires which you don't feel like checking are Hankook V12's or any other summer tire then you should not be driving. Not only are you posing a risk to yourself driving a car in snow on summer tires, but you are also endangering the lives of everybody else on the road. Even in an AWD car it is extremely dangerous to drive on summer tires in the snow.

[dsjr2006]

The BMW DSC and DTC both allow for a little more side slip than some other systems if you are on the throttle, I've noticed if you get it a little sideways while on the gas it allows for some sliding, but as soon as you let off the nannies kick in which I think makes perfect sense...if you are trying to do it the car should let you and only step in when things are getting towards the limit.

X-Drive equipped cars let the AWD system try to redirect power to the correct wheels before cutting throttle or full DSC intervention.

[dsjr2006]

Originally Posted by ajsalida

Missed this comment earlier. System cannot go 100% front, at most 50%. As noted earlier rear axle cannot be disengaged. I know what BMW marketing says they are being dishonest.

In the most technical sense this is true, but if the rear axle has no traction then 0% of that power is actually being transmitted to the road, so front axle then is actually providing 100% of the power.

My Grand Cherokee has 3 locking diffs and Jeep claims it can send 100% of the power to any wheel, which is technically true since I can continue moving as long as one wheel has enough traction to move the vehicle.

[ajsalida]

Well yes of course, the same reasoning implies a car with welded rear, center, and front diffs can send 100% of the power to each wheel based on road conditions! Why spend all that money on traction control systems?

[mjleamy]

Originally Posted by psmitty95

No offense to you but if your tires which you don't feel like checking are Hankook V12's or any other summer tire then you should not be driving. Not only are you posing a risk to yourself driving a car in snow on summer tires, but you are also endangering the lives of everybody else on the road. Even in an AWD car it is extremely dangerous to drive on summer tires in the snow.

Thanks for the lecture. Not sure if you read the post - I live in ATLANTA. Snow of any magnitude is a once in 10 year occasion. This isn't Connecticut.

[psmitty95]

Originally Posted by mjleamy

Thanks for the lecture. Not sure if you read the post - I live in ATLANTA. Snow of any magnitude is a once in 10 year occasion. This isn't Connecticut.

Nope i read it. Where you live doesn't change the fact that summer tires are awful in the snow. I understand you rarely get snow but when you do you should not be driving on summer tires and putting yourself and others at risk.

[ajsalida]

Originally Posted by psmitty95

Nope i read it. Where you live doesn't change the fact that summer tires are awful in the snow. I understand you rarely get snow but when you do you should not be driving on summer tires and putting yourself and others at risk.

+1.

"But I thought Xdrive repealed laws of physics" would look good on a tombstone.

[dsjr2006]

Originally Posted by ajsalida

+1.

"But I thought Xdrive repealed laws of physics" would look good on a tombstone.

+ 1

[mjleamy]

I am running Hankook all seasons. Can everyone chill now?

[mastarron]

Same thing happened to me today, when entering a parking lot, I accelerated a bit and I fish tailed.

I'm running ultra performance summer tires with M-sport package (thicker rears), so I'm not at all surprised this happened. I'm going to buy rim/snow tires next winter.

I haven't been driving the BMW this winter because of the tires, and since I have another vehicle with all season, I put this off until next winter.


EDIT: although the guys are right about the tires, you definitely do NOT need winter tires out in ATL , just avoid driving and/or drive VERY careful.