Possible 4WD fault?

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Baingyl

Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2016
Messages
23
Hi

Yesterday i was about to tow my boat and trailer out of the water which i have done several times before without any problems.

But this time my PHEV almost did not manage to pull it out!?! Battery charge at 50% ICE started and car in Normal driving mode with 4WD lock activated.

But nothing happened! at full throttle my phev felt very weak and just made electric humming sound but there was no driving motion forward. I had to reverse back down in the lake several times and finally after full throttle and one meter pull suddenly the right front wheel started spinning like crazy and then the car did not move, just one wheel spinning and burning rubber. Weird since it was in 4WD lock position! :(

No visible errors or warnings.

This repeated itself several times until my 71year old dad assisted by giving the car a push. Eventually we got up on flat surface and where able to drive home.

Dont know if it is related or not, but a couple of weeks ago while reversing the trailer into the garage i heard banging noise from somewhere under the car, at the time i thought that the sound came from the trailer coupling grinding on the car hook, but perhaps the bonking sound came from one or two of the engines? I did not notice any burnt smell and did not think anyting else of it at the time.

The boat and trailer together weighs around 1200KG which in total is well below 1500 KG maximum trailer weight!

There are no warnings or visible errors when driving and the car seems fine. I have spoken to the Mitsubishi reseller and they did not know what the problem might be. According to them this is unheard of, but to be sure i have booked a service visit september 6th just in case...!

Has anyone experienced anything similar?

https://youtu.be/H_imGaSZ1B8
 
Solution: press the stability control button to "off" It is in the manual...
When the tyres have low grip it will start one of its wheels spinning, the stability control will brake it, the next wheel starts spinning, etc. until you are pulling against three locked wheels and the system gives up...
 
Ahaaa thank you. I will sure try that next time. I dont recall that i have activated that, but perhaps it is activated as default. Weird that the mitsubishi technician failed to mention it when i spoke with them over the phone.
 
You would think that using the 4WD lock would automatically deactivate the stability control.
Obviously not!
 
Well, if you don't use 4WD lock for heavy pulling or in deep snow or mud, but to keep traction on the wheels in rough terrain, it can help to combat cross-axling. The car has no diff locks like a normal 4WD.
 
Went fishing today... Disabled the stability control, battery at 95% 4WD lock active and charge mode active.

But the PHEV could Not pull up the boat trailer! Same shit again... Humming sound and the right front wheel starts spinning! :-( Had to call my a friend who has a Subaru 4wd to get the trailer out of the water. There is something seriously wrong with the car when towing. Going to the workshop for checkup september 6th. NOT happy with my PHEV atm.
 
Just to be clear, as has been said before, the PHEV does not have a locking diff.

4WD lock is intended for driving on slippery roads, mud, snow etc.

It FORCES the car to split power evenly between front and back, and could easily, in this case, be stopping you from applying power to the wheels that have grip.

I'd be very interested to know what happens if you don't engage 4WD lock before trying to pull out the boat and trailer.

By the way, how heavy is the boat and trailer combination?

Andy
 
I tried with and without 4WD lock and i tried with and without traction control. Also with and without charge mode. Weight of boat and trailer around 1000-1200kg Either something is broken or this car real life trailer pulling capabilities suck.
 
The only effect I ever *noticed* from selecting 4WD, is that it forces the rear motor to provide half the driving power in parallel mode.

If 4WD would equally distribute power over front and rear wheels in serial mode, then how would the car behave without 4WD? I can imagine that 4WD would sync up rpm between front and rear motor (taking into account differences in reductions of course).
 
AFAIK 4WD lock does function in serial mode. It certainly helped on deep snow mountain roads and I was not doing more than 20 kph.
 
I have been in contact with the car dealer who in turn contacted mitsubishi head engineer in Sweden.

Apparently there has been several similar incidents with trailers and caravans where the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV have been unable to pull the load. They (Mitsubishi Sweden) now say that maximum pulling weight is only 1000kg!?!?! WTF!

Mitsubishi Towing Guidelines: http://www.mitsubishi-cars.co.uk/towing/towing-with-mitsubishi
o70i3b.jpg


I can accept that the official pure EV range figures are just wishful thinking and that reality is something totally different... In my case my 100% pure EV record is only 40KM when softdriving in 70km/h and using regenerative braking when needed.

BUT i will NOT accept 500KG less pulling weight. I bought this car (in Sweden aggresivly marketed as being an Off Road adventure car) SPECIFICALLY to be able to pull my boat trailer! :evil: Is it really legal to do like this? Can you write one thing and then in reality it turns out to be something totally different? This to me is bullshit false marketing!

I am very disappointed and i cant really recommend any other "off road" sport fishermen or caravan owners to buy this car as it is right now.

UNLESS there is a tuning box or new firmware that increase torque so that the PHEV delivers as per stated specs?...
 
What is the incline of the boat ramp? To me it seems you do not have a torque issue but a traction issue... I have been able to do several hill starts at a 17% incline in a short period of time towing a 1500 kg caravan and with 4 adults in the car.

And no, I don't think they can change that 'just like that'. But who am I?
 
It could even be a problem with unsuitable tyres.. (no, I am not a Toyo fan...) I agree with Anko, the problem is not the torque but the traction.
 
Perhaps, but then i think that all four wheels would have spun when i disabled the traction control, which they did not (only right front spun a little). As it was now there was just a humming electrical sound and an occasional BONK from somewhere under the car. :roll:

Next time i´m going fishing i will bring my old snow anti spin plates especially designed for low friction situations. Guess i will have to buy additional skid plates since i should have one for each wheel and i only have two which i used for my previous car. It could be worth a shot. However i am not going fishing for atleast three weeks. So this will be a cliff hanger^^ :)

2000019018
 
jaapv said:
AFAIK 4WD lock does function in serial mode. It certainly helped on deep snow mountain roads and I was not doing more than 20 kph.

You never tried to push 4WD switch when driving in parallel mode at 120 kph or so, with the "power diagram" displayed by the MMCS' screen ?
Just to see the difference on the screen, of course ... (no need for 4WD when I tried it :mrgreen: ).

The diagram shows two things :

- the engine is still orange (parallel mode)
- a new arrow appears, showing the power from the battery to the rear wheels
 
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