Snow Mode vs. AWD vs. AWD Lock

[MaeMae2001]

Please help me understand the differences here. I have read the manual and some threads here but could still use a little help in understanding. I bought the AWD on purpose because we live out in the country on a dirt road so it was a necessity out here, especially in conditions. The manual says that AWD Lock can only be used under 20/25mph. But don't I already have AWD? Why do I need to press a button to "lock it in" at low speeds? And the manual is VERY vague on snow mode - it's like that paragraph is written by a politician. If you can please explain it to me a little better, I would SO appreciate the education! Thank you!

 

[RobK]

From my understanding and research on here, You do have full time AWD. Snow mode puts it into a 80/20 front to rear percentage giving more traction up front but also adjusting as needed. The differential lock puts it in a 50/50 front/rear mode but that mode is for low speeds and will disengage over 20/25 mph.

 

[DarkMossJustin]

Please help me understand the differences here. I have read the manual and some threads here but could still use a little help in understanding. I bought the AWD on purpose because we live out in the country on a dirt road so it was a necessity out here, especially in conditions. The manual says that AWD Lock can only be used under 20/25mph. But don't I already have AWD? Why do I need to press a button to "lock it in" at low speeds? And the manual is VERY vague on snow mode - it's like that paragraph is written by a politician. If you can please explain it to me a little better, I would SO appreciate the education! Thank you!

Hi @MaeMae2001!

AWD Lock helps you get out of sticky situations. If you're in a low-traction situation like getting stuck in the dirt/sand/mud/snow and you want to lock-in a front/rear torque split of 50% to the front wheels, 50% to the rear wheels, and you ease the pedal and give your Telly a little gas, this mode can help you. Supposedly, it works for any drive mode including Snow Mode. If you're driving w/ Lock on, it should automatically disengage when you go over 25mph (according to the manual). If the button is still pressed-in and the indicator light is on, it theoretically should re-engage the front/rear 50/50 torque split lock once you drop your amazing Telly's speed back to 25mph and under? Can someone confirm this or clarify?

Snow Mode is a drive mode on the AWD Telly. It works great on snowy slippery roads. I wouldn't drive to fast with this but we went up into the 30-40mph range and it performed great. There's a screen between the gauge clusters and if you select "up" after looking at the wheel inflation, Telly shows (visually) the distribution of power to the wheels in real time!

Kia's AWD is pretty well-tuned. It's performed solidly through every condition, every AWD drive mode I've pushed the Telly into over our first 8888 miles together.

If you want to have some fun in an empty snow-covered parking lot, play around with the drive modes after you turn traction control "OFF".

Had some fun times in Sport Mode, Comfort Mode, Smart Mode, Snow Mode, and even Eco mode in various road conditions.

I'm going to drive more in Sport Mode. Such a great feel of stability and control when you're carving through canyons, mountain roads, coastal highways, commuter traffic, or any country road anywhere

 

[Tellmeride]

Snow Mode is a drive mode on the AWD Telly. It works great on snowy slippery roads. I wouldn't drive to fast with this but we went up into the 30-40mph range and it performed great. There's a screen between the gauge clusters and if you select "up" after looking at the wheel inflation, Telly shows (visually) the distribution of power to the wheels in real time!

I have to disagree. This past weekend I was going 30 on a bend on a two lane road covered with maybe 1-2 inches of the white stuff. Normally you can do this bend at 40. The OEM all season tires gave out in the middle and I was fish tailing like I was the Drift King. Luckily there's no other car around me. Going straight? Yes, it's fine. But going on a curve? Forget it.

It's all about the tires folks.

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[Nightsky93]

I have to disagree. This past weekend I was going 30 on a bend on a two lane road covered with maybe 1-2 inches of the white stuff. Normally you can do this bend at 40. The OEM all season tires gave out in the middle and I was fish tailing like I was the Drift King. Luckily there's no other car around me. Going straight? Yes, it's fine. But going on a curve? Forget it.

It's all about the tires folks.

I agree. Tires make the difference. I know our winters are way way way(up in )different than those of the sunny but after working at a tire shop for years and learning a lot about tires I always have a dedicated winter tire. Not an all season but a winter tire. Makes a world of difference for traction and makes you feel safer driving in road. I run nothing but studded tires but for you guys a studless winter would be night and day compared to the all season. And also to go down to a stock 18” would be better than a 20” bit some that have the higher models would need to buy extra rims.

 

[qwikhit]

I have to disagree. This past weekend I was going 30 on a bend on a two lane road covered with maybe 1-2 inches of the white stuff. Normally you can do this bend at 40. The OEM all season tires gave out in the middle and I was fish tailing like I was the Drift King. Luckily there's no other car around me. Going straight? Yes, it's fine. But going on a curve? Forget it.

It's all about the tires folks.

Tires play a part and the amount of remaining tread is a contributing factor but downplaying the benefits of AWD or Snow Mode is weak. It certainly has its benefits over FWD in the same situations.

 

[DarkMossJustin]

I have to disagree. This past weekend I was going 30 on a bend on a two lane road covered with maybe 1-2 inches of the white stuff. Normally you can do this bend at 40. The OEM all season tires gave out in the middle and I was fish tailing like I was the Drift King. Luckily there's no other car around me. Going straight? Yes, it's fine. But going on a curve? Forget it.

It's all about the tires folks.

Slipped at 30? Was the snow fresh or just sitting on a layer of ice/black ice? I can slip at any speed if the friction is reduced enough, but I drove around bends, uphill, downhill on some fresh stuff during a heavy snowstorm and the OEM Primacy Tours performed admirably. My only issue was braking/stopping. I gave myself 6-8x the normal distance and started gently braking half a block away. Blizzaks would have been great on OEM 18" rims but I'm still trying to acquire a second set of wheels to put them on.

Anyway, the wheels that came on my Telly got me up, around and down the mountains alive during a pretty heavy snow storm + wind.

When I move out of state and get my second set of tires, I'll have A/T tires AND Blizzaks for the snow/ice/whatever.

 

[Tellmeride]

Tires play a part and the amount of remaining tread is a contributing factor but downplaying the benefits of AWD or Snow Mode is weak. It certainly has its benefits over FWD in the same situations.

I am not downplaying anything. I was just reporting what ACTUALLY HAPPENED. FACTS.

Beside being a drift king for a few seconds, I was also stuck in mud 2 summers ago. Tried all the different modes and the diff lock, all I saw were 4 spinning mud pies throwing mud everywhere. This ain't no Land Rover or Subaru or Jeep. Well, if you have the right tires, maybe you will come close.

I had a dedicated winter set for my last SUV, the confidence level is night and day.

To DMJ, the snow was a few days old, not frozen solid, a bit harder than mush, it was white still.

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[DarkMossJustin]

I have to disagree. This past weekend I was going 30 on a bend on a two lane road covered with maybe 1-2 inches of the white stuff. Normally you can do this bend at 40. The OEM all season tires gave out in the middle and I was fish tailing like I was the Drift King. Luckily there's no other car around me. Going straight? Yes, it's fine. But going on a curve? Forget it.

It's all about the tires folks.

That being said, my trip wasn't a commute or anything work/family-related and I had zero passengers and no one around for miles, no sheer cliffs on either side or anything.

I wanted to intentionally low-speed drift, kick out the rear and and give my Telly some fish-tailing/crab-walk/diagonal/horizontal movement for fun so when I found a flat, wide-open empty parking lot with previously plowed snowbanks on every side and about 5-6 powdery inches of the fresh stuff, I had to see what life was like with Traction Control OFF and the AWD in Sport Mode with the OEM tires. Life was good and slippery as intended.

 

[DarkMossJustin]

I am not downplaying anything. I was just reporting what ACTUALLY HAPPENED. FACTS.

Beside being a drift king for a few seconds, I was also stuck in mud 2 summers ago. Tried all the different modes and the diff lock, all I saw were 4 spinning mud pies throwing mud everywhere. This ain't no Land Rover or Subaru or Jeep. Well, if you have the right tires, maybe you will come close.

I had a dedicated winter set for my last SUV, the confidence level is night and day.

To DMJ, the snow was a few days old, not frozen solid, a bit harder than mush, it was white still.

@Tellmeride:

Ah, thanks for the details on the snow conditions.

I got stuck once on the whole trip but Telly got me out.

Harvey's Hotel/Casino Parking Lot, upper levels. I could have just parked in the perfectly dry zero snow covered areas, but I had to know if my Telly wanted to be a Bobcat.

There was a 10+" field of a few days old snow mixed with a top layer of some fresh stuff on the outer exposed area where no one was parking. It was pristine, untouched for days and I thought that Kelly the Telly could push through without any plow bolted or welded to the frame. I was wrong. I basically launched into this wall of snow and couldn't get out. I couldn't open the doors, snow on left/right/front, maybe climb up through the sunroof or crawl out of the liftgate?

Luckily I didn't panic and tried to use Snow Mode + Lock and crawl my way out in reverse. It didn't work well. I tried to slowly rock back and forth. Nothing. So I ended up just flooring the pedal in "R" and the OEM Michelin Primacy Tour "all-weather" tires, after about 30 seconds of spinning and spitting snow into the dry parking area behind me eventually removed or melted enough of the bottom layer of the frozen stuff to make contact with the garage surface and pull me out without slamming into any posts or walls.

My baby basically left a perfect Telly-sized "parking space" in the snow wall. For the next two hours, a bunch of frozen ice around the front collision sensor kept me entertained with beeping noises while I was trying to enjoy the sound of the crunching snow underfoot paired with something bumping out of the excellent 10-speaker Harman/Kardon sound system

 

[qwikhit]

@Tellmeride your post indicates everything is in the tires and has little to do with any sort of traction enhancements (AWD, snow mode). Same tires on a FWD and AWD same situation same time; the AWD has the advantage every time.

 

[DarkMossJustin]

Tires play a part and the amount of remaining tread is a contributing factor but downplaying the benefits of AWD or Snow Mode is weak. It certainly has its benefits over FWD in the same situations.

@qwikhit:

With the storm approaching, I didn't expect the chain control guys to let me through, but they looked at my Telly and tires and all they asked was if I had AWD or 4WD. I said "AWD", asked if I was good to go and he said "Yes" as he smiled and waved me through.

CalTrans does a decent job (mostly) plowing the summit passes and tricky areas around bends/inclines/declines and areas around sheer cliffs, so I felt pretty good going up to the snowy/icy mountains as long as the summit passes stayed open or at least if I could get over the summit before things got crazy blizzardy, which they did, but by that time I was lake level in a warm cabin and introducing some friends to the wonderful world of home-made elk jerky and Jack Daniel's Old No. 7

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[DarkMossJustin]

@Tellmeride your post indicates everything is in the tires and has little to do with any sort of traction enhancements (AWD, snow mode). Same tires on a FWD and AWD same situation same time; the AWD has the advantage every time.

AWD definitely helped me. Y'all know that my Telly is stock SX-P/T except for the CNC-machined 6061 T6 Billet Aluminum Flag Trailer Hitch Cover that I stuck into the hitch receiver.

I would have been turned away by the chain control guys if I only had FWD without chains.

I experimented with a bunch of Drive Modes. Smart Mode kicked me into Eco mode on top of Echo Summit on my way to South Lake Tahoe high up on the 50. I guess Telly feels comfortable enough descending the mostly-plowed slushy summit in 90% FWD?

 

[BD Beee]

By design, open differentials send power to the wheel with the least resistance, which means when one wheel loses traction, the vehicle goes nowhere because all power goes to that wheel. 4WD/AWD systems seek to overcome this challenge with electronic systems like traction control, viscous drives, and other mechanical systems like center locking differentials.

I agree the owners manual is lacking in its description of how these various modes function in practice for our vehicles. My hunch is snow mode adjusts the electronic traction control systems to allow for optimal driving in snow (perhaps by modulating wheel slip parameters before engagement or biasing torque in a different manner versus normal driving modes, etc.). It may also change transmission shift points to upshift faster or start in second (as examples).

The electronic locking center differential; however, [should] locks the front and rear axles together, thereby forcing them to turn at the same rate. Even if a wheel on one axle loses traction, half the power is being diverted by the locked center differential to the other axle. This equal distribution of power can help regain traction in certain situations. Because locking the center differential forces the front and rear axles to turn at the same rate, it can subject the drivetrain to added stress/torque when turning and/or on surfaces where traction is not an issue. As such, the electronic engagement of the system unlocks automatically at 25mph as a safeguard (i.e., how often do you drive faster than 25mph in low traction situations?). In many 4x4 vehicles with a mechanical locking mechanism, there is no such safeguard. I would recommend only locking the center diff on uneven terrain, gravel/sand/mud/snow, in a case where you’re stuck, etc. (not on dry pavement).

Someone with a better working knowledge of 4WD systems may be able to elaborate further or clarify anything I oversimplified, but those are the basics.

 

[qwikhit]

Sounds good to me; I think the manual doesn’t get too specific on purpose

 

[DarkMossJustin]

By design, open differentials send power to the wheel with the least resistance, which means when one wheel loses traction, the vehicle goes nowhere because all power goes to that wheel. 4WD/AWD systems seek to overcome this challenge with electronic systems like traction control, viscous drives, and other mechanical systems like center locking differentials.

I agree the owners manual is lacking in its description of how these various modes function in practice for our vehicles. My hunch is snow mode adjusts the electronic traction control systems to allow for optimal driving in snow (perhaps by modulating wheel slip parameters before engagement or biasing torque in a different manner versus normal driving modes, etc.). It may also change transmission shift points to upshift faster or start in second (as examples).

The electronic locking center differential; however, [should] locks the front and rear axles together, thereby forcing them to turn at the same rate. Even if a wheel on one axle loses traction, half the power is being diverted by the locked center differential to the other axle. This equal distribution of power can help regain traction in certain situations. Because locking the center differential forces the front and rear axles to turn at the same rate, it can subject the drivetrain to added stress/torque when turning and/or on surfaces where traction is not an issue. As such, the electronic engagement of the system unlocks automatically at 25mph as a safeguard (i.e., how often do you drive faster than 25mph in low traction situations?). In many 4x4 vehicles with a mechanical locking mechanism, there is no such safeguard. I would recommend only locking the center diff on uneven terrain, gravel/sand/mud/snow, in a case where you’re stuck, etc. (not on dry pavement).

Someone with a better working knowledge of 4WD systems may be able to elaborate further or clarify anything I oversimplified, but those are the basics.

Good discussion of the details. Kia didn't put this in the manual, but I had a similar sense of how the electronic system worked.

The last actual SUV I owned was a 1990 Toyota 4Runner with 4WD and I had to pull a shifter to switch between 2WD and 4WD and there was even a 4WD-L if i'm not mistaken (it's been 18+ years or so and my memory is far from a perfect recording) for getting up those steep hills or for when I really got stuck in the mud/sand/snow/whatever.

The way the Telly AWD system works in theory and in practice tends to be good enough for me. I only got myself stuck by driving into a deep field of deep snow of varying mixed layers of freeze during a blizzard (I wouldn't have been able to open my 4 doors and would have had to crawl out the sun-roof or rear liftgate if I wasn't able to throw and melt enough snow/ice gunning it in Reverse for half a minute until wheels touched something resembling medium-traction garage surface.

Kia did a good job tuning this thing. I wish I could manually adjust Smart Mode to more easily kick me into Sport Mode and Eco Mode depending on the pedal/throttle response, but it's not bad at its job at all and I'm satisfied 95% of the time with the distribution of power/torque to the wheels, front/back ratios, etc.

The LOCK function is interesting. I've been told that when I sped up to 30 mph, that the Lock disengaged automatically above 25 and re-engages when I drop back under 25? I'm not sure if I'm getting that wrong or not, but anyway, I did a lot of driving under 25 mph and it worked fine. The Tellly seemed to sit a little higher and have a better more balanced push/pull stance even though I know it's all in my head, or not.

Snow Mode was fine. I got enough to my rear wheels and the sensors worked as they should. Braking was interesting. Of course tires matter, but if I gently tapped the brakes way early on, I could roll to a stop when I needed to. It was just feeling out the road, the conditions of the individual flats, curves, slight uphill/downhill grades.

The craziest thing is that Eco Mode will send power to the Rear Wheels, either that or Smart symbol stays blue when sending some power to the rear and there's a delay between when the Blue Smart indicator light turns white to indicate "Comfort", which is a great 85% or the time all-purpose drive mode anyway.

If gas prices go down, i'll stay in Sport Mode forever because it's so much fun to drive

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[bruesjoh04]

The LOCK function is interesting. I've been told that when I sped up to 30 mph, that the Lock disengaged automatically above 25 and re-engages when I drop back under 25? I'm not sure if I'm getting that wrong or not, but anyway, I did a lot of driving under 25 mph and it worked fine. The Tellly seemed to sit a little higher and have a better more balanced push/pull stance even though I know it's all in my head, or not.

 

[2020Telly]

@Tellmeride your post indicates everything is in the tires and has little to do with any sort of traction enhancements (AWD, snow mode). Same tires on a FWD and AWD same situation same time; the AWD has the advantage every time.

You forgot same driver. Some people get over confident in their AWD and push the limits of safe driving. Some FWD drivers are more aware of their surroundings and cautious. Assuming that AWD is a safety feature is a common flaw. It helps give you traction for acceleration at lower speeds and the braking and other aspects of driving you could argue there are very little to no actual benefit. I see it all the time either at the beach in sand, standing water on an island road, or ice and snow in winter, the AWD drivers are the ones often stuck in a ditch.

I put my money on the tires combined with common sense decision making being the best investment every time.

 

[DarkMossJustin]

View attachment 15951

@bruesjoh04 so this happened automatically, right?

I didn’t need to push Lock again and the indicator light correctly stayed on the entire time from <25 to over 25 and back to under 25?

Sorry if it sounds like a dumb question. Sometimes i try to RTFM but also need a human being to confirm my limited understanding.

 

[bruesjoh04]

@bruesjoh04 so this happened automatically, right?

I didn’t need to push Lock again and the indicator light correctly stayed on the entire time from <25 to over 25 and back to under 25?

Sorry if it sounds like a dumb question. Sometimes i try to RTFM but also need a human being to confirm my limited understanding.

If you push the AWD lock button, it will lock the power distribution 50/50 F/R. It will stay this way up until 25 mph, at which point it will go back to its normal behavior (AWD auto). As long as you don’t push the lock button again, the light should remain lit (despite the fact you are now traveling over 25 mph and it isn’t really a 50/50 split anymore). Once you drop back below 20 mph, it will re-engage the 50/50 split automatically.