VDC Issue in SNOW

[VirginiaW23]

I am a new owner of a 2010 Murano. When I purchased the vehicle it was explained to me if I were to get stuck in the snow, I should turn off the VDC button to my left.

Yesterday, I got very stuck...I turned off the automatic traction trying to get my wheels to spin and rock out of being stuck. I had very little luck. My wheels did not spin and my car locked me to only 2rom when I exceled. I had never seen this happen before.

I finally gave up and called AAA. When the tow guy showed up he thought it was just how I was driving, so he jumped in my truck and tried. He thought I had broken my transmission because of the wheels being locked and the little RPM I could get, with the Traction TURNED OFF.

I am not sure what the issue is or if this is a current issue with Muranos, it was so frustrating to not even get a good tire spin. I can't afford to get stuck living in New England and that is the whole reason I bought the car.

If anyone has any suggestions, please, I am open and hopeful. I am due for maintenace for my 3,500 so I will ask. But seems like the tires shoudl UNLOCK when you turn off the control.

Please advise.

Thanks so much.

[red kiosk]

Are you sure he didn't tell you to TURN ON the AWD Lock feature? That is a definite must for getting out of a "stuck" situation. Then once you have gotten out, turn it off. I was under the impression that the VDC system was for when the car was moving on a slippery road to compensate for a wheel that was not getting traction. Hopefully others will chime in on this. Take care!

Jim

[Corin]

See this thread, when I had the same problem a couple years ago:
Strange CVT/AWD behavior in deep snow

Never really got a full explanation of why, but it seems to be by design. Very strange, but I don't think anything is wrong with your vehicle.

I've never had the problem again, but I've never gotten stuck in that kind of situation where it would happen since then either.

[VirginiaW23]

Jim-

Yes I am sure. The VDC just functions the automatic TRACTION control of the vehicle, so when it slips or the center of gravity goes off, then it kicks on and locks the tires. The dealer said that when I got stuck and wanted to take control of my car back, I would have to turn off that traction control. And get the rpms up and rock....spinning my tires, BUT no tire spinning happened for me. And we tried AWD locked in manually as well as having it catch automatically, neither worked.

I still didn't get control, as the other poster mentioned my wheels still locked after having spun VERY slow for a couple minutes. It may be by design, BUT where i live I amy in fact get caught in this kind of snow again, so I need to try and see if there is a way to get this not to happen.

I have also read some post about Limp Transmission and after some time or a lot of work, it tensd not to excel like it should....I am not sure if this is now part of the problem!?! I am not 100% sure.

Thanks for the responses, I think I still have a little figuring out to do...

[Shivi]

Turning off the VDC sounds like the correct thing to do when you are stuck. I live in Boston.My MO had no trouble plowing its way through a 2 feet snow barrier today with the AWD lock on.But, I dont have VDC. Not sure if VDC off = Not having VDC .

[Corin]

Originally Posted by VirginiaW23

I have also read some post about Limp Transmission and after some time or a lot of work, it tensd not to excel like it should....I am not sure if this is now part of the problem!?! I am not 100% sure.

Thanks for the responses, I think I still have a little figuring out to do...

The "limp" mode is different. I've had that happen, too (completely different time than the snow event). KIND of similar behavior, in that you can floor it and the RPMs just don't go anywhere. The car will SLOOOOOOWLY accelerate up to about 25 or maybe 30mph and pretty much top out. When it happened to me it was due to the AWD system having a hicup, can't remember specific details. Basically it just de-powers your car so it's unlikely to cause more damage when it detects certain problems, but I believe it needs to be reset at a dealer to make it better. This snow event thing seems to disappear as soon as you're out of the immediate situation and the car goes back to behaving like normal.

[Eric L.]

The only time I've seen AWD vehicle *slowly* spin the wheels when given a lot of gas is if the traction control is intervening to prevent wheel spin *and* the vehicle is high centered. In such situation, you are out of luck since no wheel can get traction.

Turning VDC off will turn off VDC but (at least on the 1st gen) the front "brake limited slip differential" (aka traction control) will continue to function. VDC involves both stability control and traction control, but apparently VDC off only disables the stability control. VDC doesn't "lock" the wheels - it modulates the throttle and ABS brakes to vector the car back into the line measured from the steering angle sensor.

I've never gotten stuck with AWD Lock and VDC off. Except when I was high centered.

Living in New England, you must know that you have to keep a shovel in the trunk.

[hokey777]

What Eric said is how I understand it too. VDC does not lock, it controls the engine speed.

[Corin]

However, my understanding for my 2005 MO is that if you don't have VDC, then you don't have traction control. And I do not have VDC, so that would not explain the behavior on MY mo, which is the same behavior that the OP had.

[truonyxrose]

i know when i got my 2011 sl awd a week ago, the dealer told me when i felt like i was slipping to turn the vdc off and if i was stuck on a pile of crap to turn my awd lock on... thank god with the nearly 10 inches of snow we got the last few days i haven't had an issue...
(keeping fingers crossed for the rest of winter)

[se2007]

It's a bit amazing to me the confusion that exists on the use or lack of use of the VDC and AWD buttons. It wouldn't hurt Nissan to clear that problem up, either by a MURANOT (notice to Murano owners-my term, not Nissans!) or attempting to make it more clear in the owners manual. All the input here certainly helps out. Lots of the white stuff here in Manitoba, it can stop anytime! Cheers.

[Yamiboy]

2009 Murano LE. Turn off your "overdrive" & if necessary lock in the AWD. Worst case scenario, try to rock the vehicle Drive/Reverse. BTW,the AWD is more effective if the overdrive is turned off at low RPM. I do a lot of mountain driving through some insane blizzards in the Tahoe area while dumping 5+ft of snow in a weekend. I've only got stuck once & it was actually more difficult finding & getting into the car when it was completely buried.