LOL "4 Wheel drive"

"Milky" (jordanmielke)
10/23/2014 at 15:52 • Filed to: CRV, 4WD, 4 Wheel Drive, SUV, SUV of the year

Its extra funny because the CRV just won "SUV" of the year too. Good job with that.

Glad to know my LSD equipped sports car will be just as effective in snow as the 2015 CRV.

DISCUSSION (12)

MIATAAAA > Milky
10/23/2014 at 16:05

Are they testing the 2WD version, or the AWD version? Honda's AWD might not be that good, but I don't think they just blatantly lie about it.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Milky
10/23/2014 at 16:08

I fully expect my Ranchero to be capable offroad-ish purely on the strength of LSD, moderate ground clearance and weighing about as much as two old Vietnamese men and their bicycle rickshaws. Those two latter points are not the CR-V's strong suit.

Tareim - V8 powered > MIATAAAA
10/23/2014 at 16:11

Teknikens Värld is well known for the moose tests, amongst other things and well respected for their opinions, I can't imagine they'd ruin that rep by faking a test especially 2 times

Milky > MIATAAAA
10/23/2014 at 16:11

Apparently it was reprogramed for the new model. I'm guessing here, but somehow it might get better mileage but when one wheel spins all the available power goes there. Which is normal for open diffs but usually its one wheel per axle. The CRV seems to be very FWD biased.

Boxer_4 > Milky
10/23/2014 at 16:11

I'm trying to reason as to why the CRV's AWD system is behaving like it is.

Modern CRVs (I believe) have a reactive AWD system, where the car is front wheel drive until it detects the wheels slipping. Most systems will look at the difference in rotational speed between the wheels to determine if the car is slipping, and therefore, whether power needs to be sent rearward. There is a certain threshold in speed difference that must be met before it starts shifting power.

I'm thinking that the CRV's AWD system primarily looks at the difference in speed at the front wheels to determine whether the car is slipping. In this case, both front wheels are on rollers, so it is believable that they are rotating at close to the same speed, or at least below the threshold needed to send power rearward.

Most reactive AWD systems seem to behave this way, from what I've seen. I would think that the AWD system would look at the difference in speed between all four wheels, but maybe that's not the case. It would be interesting to see how the system performed with one wheel on rollers, and three wheels on rollers.

Hopefully, someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

MIATAAAA > Milky
10/23/2014 at 16:17

So when do the CRV's rear wheels get power?

Milky > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
10/23/2014 at 16:19

Ha, there isn't a lot of weight over the driven wheels though right?

#Drriiiffftttoooooo time?

Milky > Boxer_4
10/23/2014 at 16:21

I could tell you, but I think its super weird it did this in 2012, then they fixed it, and now it does it again. Honda certainly made a decision somewhere for it to be like this.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Milky
10/23/2014 at 16:21

Well, there's more than there's supposed to be (engine moved back, heavier axle), but yes - there will be DORIFTOOOOOO

Better than the nose bogging down.

Milky > MIATAAAA
10/23/2014 at 16:22

I'd wager not on ice or rollers, aka full slippage. But I could not tell you why.

Boxer_4 > Milky
10/23/2014 at 16:47

My guess is that fuel economy targets are more important to Honda than a completely unstoppable AWD system. With the AWD system behaving as it is, there are fewer situations in which it would actually be activated. It seems like Honda has it set up to ignore wheel speed differences between the front and rear wheels, instead requiring a wheel speed difference between the front wheels to activate the system.

It would be interesting to find out if Teknikens Värld received a fixed model from Honda, or if Teknikens Värld got a new model independently.

It would be conceivable that Honda changed the AWD programming, but then reverted it with the redesign. I'm not sure for overseas markets, but I know that the EPA has the manufacturers test fuel economy on their own. I would assume yearly, but I'm not sure. The EPA verifies 10-15% of the vehicles on the market, but not all of them. I'm not sure what the EPA's criteria for choosing which cars it verifies are, but it wouldn't surprise me if they look at cars that have had major changes (i.e. engine changes, redesigns, etc.). Perhaps a change to the AWD programming does not constitute a major change, however, a redesign does. I'm sure Honda would not want the new CRV to have a lower EPA fuel economy rating than the previous CRV, even at the expense of top AWD system performance.

It seems unlikely, but it could be possible that Honda just changed the programming on the CRV for Teknikens Värld to test. That seems like it would be dishonest, however, it's still possible that it could happen.

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > Milky
10/23/2014 at 17:11

And this, boys and girls, is why you have either a transfer case or a center differential for your 4WD/AWD.