2020 CX-5 Traction Question

[Pitter]

Not a problem but just curious. When I am climbing a steep dirt road (and the rear axel is presumably engaged for the steepness) and I encounter kind of a slick wet hole where the left rear tire begins to spin will one of the front wheels also produce drive or can a single rear wheel spin by it self?

 

[ruthrj]

Here is the best description I could find from an official source. The vehicle controls front and rear power delivery. It can’t send power directly to say the front left or rear right tire. The engine can only supply torque to the front and/or rear wheels. Mazda simulates specific power delivery by applying the brake to the wheel that shouldn’t get extra power, thus it indirectly applies it to the wheel on the opposite side that should.

With traction control on, the braking effect will be subtle. If you turn TCS off and go off-road, the vehicle is more willing to clamp the brake more quickly (say a wheel that’s in the air spinning) so it can deliver power to the wheel that has traction quicker.

What’s the Diff? Mazda CX-5 Unlocks ‘Secret’ Off-Road Mode | Inside Mazda

The net effect of the CX-5’s clever i-Activ AWD is that, like the rest of the vehicle, it helps the CX-5 punch far above its weight.

insidemazda.mazdausa.com

And for fun here is Mazdas brag sheet about it without providing any specifics lol, ice academy video at the end of the article.

A Closer Look At Drive System - Mazda i-ACTIV AWD - Inside Mazda

i-ACTIV AWD is able to predict upcoming conditions, allocating engine torque to the necessary wheel to maintain control, stability and forward momentum.

insidemazda.mazdausa.com

 

[skid00skid0]

The CX-5 (and other CUVs/SUVs) have open differentials. If both front wheels have some traction, both wheels will drive the car forward. The same holds true for the rear wheels.

If you hit a wet, polished ice patch with just one wheel, it will spin, and very little drive force will occur at the other side (L/R) of the car (the power goes into spinning the wheel on ice). When spin is detected, brakes are applied to that wheel, which forces more torque to the other side of the car, which should then drive the car forward.

In almost all driving conditions, you'll never encounter this large disparity in traction. If you do, you have far more concern with not crashing the car.

I drove on lake ice, wet, icy roads, and deep wet snow with Subarus, Audi, Mitsubishi, and Mazda (all AWD systems). The *tires* were the most important part of traction. Go here: https://www.youtube.com/@tyrereviews/videos for that info.

Please ignore the utube 'tests' on spinners.

 

[Kedis82ZE8]

I agree tires are the most important but some systems work better than others when they encounter slippery conditions on 3 wheels and some really bad when the single tire left with traction is in the rear on these clutch based systems of FWD biased AWD vehicles. Of course usually game over in deep wet snow once you lose ground clearance. Cascade concrete is the worst.

TFL has some fairly good tests on rollers.

The system in my Mazda is very competent but it still doesn’t have the capability of the torsen full time system in my GX. Toyota A-TRAC in their SUVs is also far more aggressive for brake based locking of tire without traction.. granted this is usually for off-road scenarios though.

 

[N7turbo]

It's likely that Mazda AWD capability has evolved over time. It seems each model year gets tweaks that they can't apply to previous model years. The way they describe the system for MY 22+ is different than previous years.