Getting the Power to the Rear

[leftoverture]

My chief complaint about the AWD system in the MKZ, as I have stated elsewhere,  is that it doesn't route power to the rear wheels fast enough,  leaving the car to behave too much like the front driver it is based on.   

 

We had some light snow tonight, and with the new Hankooks, I felt obliged to try and have a little fun.  Most of the time,  when I try to have fun,  the front wheel drive bias quickly spoils it.  But tonight I actually got it to kick the tail out in a rear drive power slide. 

 

That was unexpected and quite fun.  I held it as long as I had room to. Not quite sure what I did to get the system to send so much power to the rear like that,  but I hope with practice I can get it to do it again and again.  Rear wheel power slides are what make winter diving fun,  after all!

[02LincLS]

I know you don't have your car anymore, but long-pressing the traction control button will greatly reduce Advance-trac's stability intervening (different from just disabling traction control). Most people cannot handle glorious oversteer so here we are.

 

For those with the driver package and it's torque vectoring rear diff (RDU), it's programming can be modified to increase rear torque. There is a FocusRS forum thread called Cracking the Code that goes into how to do it. Their diff is physically the same as our driver pkg diff, but obviously the factory tuning is a bit different given the weight differences of the car, and intended driving feel. They have a lot more options to to load, mostly geared towards autocross and drifting. However, the genius that reverse engineered the code made a mild option for us that I feel makes a significant difference in reducing the rear delay you speak of.

 

I used Forscan to load the calibration file instead of the virtual machine they mention. It was so easy I was actually worried I was doing something wrong, but still understand you could brick the module and lose AWD if you're not careful or use the wrong cable, etc. The MKZ version basically calls for a 13% increase in torque over what it would stock, in all instances. The RS has a lot more options such as locking left and right axles together, raising individual axle torque limits, and not only a 13% increase option, but a 25% option as well. I'm sure he could compile a 25% version for our MKZ's if there was enough interest, but honestly the 13% works well for me in most cases. I'm tuned and while they're okay, the General GMax AS05's that came on the car are not as good as say the Michelin A/S's, but front slip is still very minor with traction control off. Its also nice from a reliability standpoint to move some of that additional 100 ft-lbs of torque off the front wheels.

 

One other thing to consider is that once over 40 mph, the RDU is pretty quiet. Check out your Intelligent AWD gauge when you step on it. Also watch how it puts more torque to the outside wheel in a turn to prevent spin on the inside, and eliminate the oversteer you wanted.