I got my car stuck last night, in a shallow ditch filled with ice/snow from the recent winter storm. Living in N.Carolina, I'm not the most experienced winter driver, but we've had more than our share recently, so I'm not a total novice either. Anyhow, it simply did not seem to me like my car should have been stuck (I should have just been able to drive out of the ditch). A former Subaru owner who was present had the same feeling.
I'm wondering if maybe my AWD system is malfunctioning - like maybe the thing is simply behaving as a FWD car. We noticed that the front wheels were spinning but at least one of the rear wheels seemed to be doing nothing.
So, two questions:
(1) is there a simple way to verify that the AWD system is functioning properly ?
(2) is there a simple fault that can cause it to malfunction ?
Thanks, John