[Philip Fisher]

Before you start to think your 4x4 is bust consider the following. I thought mine wasnt working but then i spent some time understanding the system.

The car drives the front wheels through a diff. This diff allows the car to go round corners and therefore also allows the wheel with least resistance to get the power. This is the typical one wheel spinning of a front wheel drive car.

Now when the car detects spinning it engages the haldex clutch which allows the propshaft to now drive the back wheels. But there is obviously also a diff between the back wheels for the same reason as there is one between the front wheels.

So you might expect that you get one front wheel spinning and one back one spinning? Well no, because when you go round a corner the back wheels take a shorter route than the fronts. This means that there must also be a diff front to back. If the car didnt have this it would have such transmission wind up on the road as to be undrivable.

So with side to side diffs and a back to front diff the car will, when it has little grip spin the power away on one wheel only. Even with the haldex working properly.

The traction control will come on to brake (and therefore increase the resistance ) on the spinning wheel and this should allow the other wheels to move. If you defeat the traction control by using too much right foot then it will just spin.