AWD in Reverse?

Question

Question for the group.I have a 02 WRX.  I was visiting my friend's house in the country thisweekend and drove down their 300-foot paved driveway that's on a steephillside. It was raining and leaves covered most of the driveway. When I was trying to back up the driveway, I started to smell theobvious odor of burring rubber.  Now, this was a steep driveway andtraction conditions were not ideal (rain, leaves, steep slopingdriveway).My question is, does the AWD feature of the WRX work in reverse?  Iassume that the rubber smell was the tires however I'm not totallysure (hope it was not the clutch!).

Rob Munach · Accepted Answer

No reason it shouldn't as it only senses rotational speed difference not direction. It may have been your clutch. Were you slipping it excessivley to maintain a slow speed and control?

Rob Munach, PE Excel Engineering PO Box 1264 Carrboro, NC 27510

Danny Russell · Answer

On my 4EAT it's definitely functional in reverse.  I'd assume it's true for themanual as well.-Danny

Mark · Answer

Not really, I was going slow cause it was dark...  Would a slippingclutch smell like rubber burning?

David Betts · Answer

Much more likely to have been the clutch. Very easy to slip itexcessively in those circumstances. You need to keep your foot off itwhen reversing. It won't last long otherwise.David Betts

Mike · Answer

Why does Subaru insist on such a steep gear ratio for reverse any how? I really wish they would have taken the opposite approach and used a granny gear - I don't need go 30 mph in reverse. A granny first gear would also be nice to have in certain situations since they don't offer a low range (at least not in the US).

Yousuf Khan · Answer

Definitely. And it doesn't take a lot of slippage to get it to smell either. I get the same smells from time to time in my 2000 OBW.

The Subaru service department explained it to me as if you're going too slowly, you're not outrunning the smell, so you get to smell it. If you were going pretty fast, regular gearshifting would likely also cause the same smells but you are outrunning the smell before it gets to you.

Yousuf Khan

David Betts · Answer

Sorry, but they are talking nonsense. If you get the smell it is because of excessive clutch slip, which certainly shouldn't be occurring during routine gearchanging. In fact, the only time you should slip the clutch atall is when moving away in first or reverse.

Sufficient clutch slip to cause a smell may be deliberate in the case of a fast launch, or unintentional if it happens while manoevring. Either way, if you keep on doing it you will wear out your clutch prematurely.

David Betts snipped-for-privacy@motorsport.org.uk

Alan · Answer

So, you are basically exceeding the smell barrier? Is that referred to asstench 1?

AWD in Reverse?

Join the Discussion

Didn't find your answer?