General Electronic diff switches off

[jasonFazack]

As an off-road novice I've been trying to see how far you can actually go in my 4x4 TA, and I am quite impressed. However, I recently really struggled up a wet, rocky path and found I had little grip - beaten hands down by a Freelander. It was only when I returned to the bottom of the hill that I realised my mistake.

If you switch the engine off, the electronic diff disables. I had switched it on before the ascent, but stalled (I said I am a novice!) and it was only later on that I realised the restart had disabled the ELD.

My question is, is there a way of forcing it to stay on, even if you stall?

 

[gar074]

That's interesting. On the Cross, if you turn the knob to its off-road setting (which is effectively the same as you have on the 4x4) it stays in that setting until you cancel it manually. I know this because I keep forgetting to turn it off when I slither to the end of my farm track, and even if I restart the engine, it stays in the same setting as when I stopped.

 

[deeyup]

Should the 4x4 system not auto lock the eld anyhow?
I always thought pushing the eld button just manually engaged it before any front wheel slip automatically engaged it anyway?

Tyres may have been the reason the freelander passed where you failed?

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

To Deeyup:
The car will automatically engage 4 wheel drive if it detects the front wheels slipping.

But if a rear wheel loses traction (eg because it comes up off the road because a the front dropping into a dip) then the 'free' wheel will spin and the wheel on the ground will have no drive (the normal function of the differential).*

Pressing the ELD button on the (non Cross) 4x4 does two things: it forces 4x4 (by engaging the drive to the rear by engaging an electronic 'clutch' at the rear), and it turns on the ELD function that puts the brake on that spinning rear wheel so that drive goes to the other. (On the Cross, identical effect by turning the control to 'offroad')

So, 'forcing' 4x4 and locking the diff are two separate functions. (For good measure, it also turns off the ESP and alters the car's power delivery)

And yes, my 4x4 too reverts back to 'ELD off' if the key is turned off. But, I think, if the car stalls, dip the clutch and put in neutral and the Start/Stop system should restart the car but not turn off the ELD - I'll have to try it to be sure though...

*which is why they show off the car with a wheel up in the air in the adverts

 

[gar074]

Life was soooo much more straightforward with the original Panda 4x4, where you simply tugged at a T-shaped handle to engage the drive to the rear wheels (this was often accompanied by a clunk, or a grauch, or both) and then took care not to turn too sharply, as there was no rear differential!

That car would go through anything (and our frequently did, until it rusted to death and was PX'ed for a BX GTi 4x4, which also rusted to death...)

 

[deeyup]

To Deeyup:
The car will automatically engage 4 wheel drive if it detects the front wheels slipping.

But if a rear wheel loses traction (eg because it comes up off the road because a the front dropping into a dip) then the 'free' wheel will spin and the wheel on the ground will have no drive (the normal function of the differential).*

Pressing the ELD button on the (non Cross) 4x4 does two things: it forces 4x4 (by engaging the drive to the rear by engaging an electronic 'clutch' at the rear), and it turns on the ELD function that puts the brake on that spinning rear wheel so that drive goes to the other. (On the Cross, identical effect by turning the control to 'offroad')

So, 'forcing' 4x4 and locking the diff are two separate functions. (For good measure, it also turns off the ESP and alters the car's power delivery)

And yes, my 4x4 too reverts back to 'ELD off' if the key is turned off. But, I think, if the car stalls, dip the clutch and put in neutral and the Start/Stop system should restart the car but not turn off the ELD - I'll have to try it to be sure though...

*which is why they show off the car with a wheel up in the air in the adverts

That all makes sense, so if we find ourselves cross axled, the car will only brake the spinning wheels if we engage the ELD manually? I always thought that the car would do this automatically once it detected spinning wheels, unless of course when traveling faster than 30kmh?


here's an interesting video where it seems the eld is not working that well, the original Panda would have had no trouble

[ame]https://youtu.be/1zeiWEuKDuI[/ame]

 

[gar074]

Well, that's not very impressive. I sincerely hope mine copes better than that. Mind you, the driver was being a right muppet.

Did you notice the squealing brakes when in reverse?

 

[deeyup]

Haha, yes. I did notice the brakes and gave a little chuckle.

 

[triumph7]

Life was soooo much more straightforward with the original Panda 4x4, where you simply tugged at a T-shaped handle to engage the drive to the rear wheels (this was often accompanied by a clunk, or a grauch, or both) and then took care not to turn too sharply, as there was no rear differential!

That car would go through anything (and our frequently did, until it rusted to death and was PX'ed for a BX GTi 4x4, which also rusted to death...)

BX 4x4, now that was a rare car.....my dad had a BX 16v which was quite rare.....

 

[gar074]

BX 4x4, now that was a rare car.....my dad had a BX 16v which was quite rare.....

Now, a BX GTi 4x4 with the 16v motor really would have been a winner!

We loved our BX GTi 4x4. A hugely under-rated car that was supremely capable in all conditions - and in the snow, if you pumped the suspension up to its highest setting, you could use the extra ground clearance and the 4x4 traction to tippy-toe through the deepest snowfalls. I never managed to get it stuck - and I really tried!

 

[babbo_umbro]

Life was soooo much more straightforward with the original Panda 4x4, where you simply tugged at a T-shaped handle to engage the drive to the rear wheels (this was often accompanied by a clunk, or a grauch, or both) and then took care not to turn too sharply, as there was no rear differential!

That car would go through anything (and our frequently did, until it rusted to death and was PX'ed for a BX GTi 4x4, which also rusted to death...)

There certainly was a rear differential on the first Panda 4x4 - there was just no differential between the front and rear axles - good news, you (effectively) had a locked central diff - bad news, if none of the wheels was slipping you got a lot of wind up of the prop shaft to the rear.

 

[gar074]

Right-oh - I vaguely remember that it was missing something! So why did it scrub/drag one of its rear wheels if you tried to turn too sharply?

 

[R1NGA]

Right-oh - I vaguely remember that it was missing something! So why did it scrub/drag one of its rear wheels if you tried to turn too sharply?

Because the wind-up had to release somehow and the front axle scribes a larger radius than the rears, so the scrub comes from the back. Easy to damage the centre diff and prop if trying this too much on a grippy surface!

 

[gar074]

Yep, that makes sense!

My late father-in-law used to moan that it messed up the gravel on his drive when we were manoeuvring.

I don't know why we were doing that in 4x4 mode ... probably because it messed up the gravel on his drive! :devil:

 

[Squadrone Rosso]

I remember having to do reverse donuts to get rid of the transmission wind up on our MK 1 4x4

On the Cross, if set to permanent off-road, it'll disengage the clutch at 50kph but the system light will stay on & will re-engage when you slow down.

Really hoping for lots of snow this year

 

[gar074]

It's a shame they don't have a warning light on the dash that tells you when the 4x4 engages and disengages, like they do with the ESP. I'm curious to know whether the types of conditions that I use mine in (a muddy, twisty farm track on which I regularly reinvent myself as Hannu Mikkola) actually ever causes the 4wd to engage.

 

[jasonFazack]

That all makes sense, so if we find ourselves cross axled, the car will only brake the spinning wheels if we engage the ELD manually? I always thought that the car would do this automatically once it detected spinning wheels, unless of course when traveling faster than 30kmh?


here's an interesting video where it seems the eld is not working that well, the original Panda would have had no trouble

https://youtu.be/1zeiWEuKDuI

The point to take from the video is that the driver has NOT engage edl, therefore the differential does not lock and power goes to the fastest moving wheel!

 

[deeyup]

The point to take from the video is that the driver has NOT engage edl, therefore the differential does not lock and power goes to the fastest moving wheel!

Are you watching on a mobile device and are not getting the captions?

 

[jasonFazack]

Apart from the first caption, all of them seem to be in Polish? The first says "offroad mode on" but it certainly doesn't look to be on. Mine would not spin like that.

 

[jasonFazack]

The video doesn't compare with this one