When we got ton of snow in Northwest I got to test drive snow capabilities of my 07 Outlander and noticed some kind of design flaw. What happened is there were couple of times when I had to drive around during snow storm and got stuck in a foot of snow, but that wasn't an issue as I was able to get out, the problem came minutes later when I was driving on the freeway and feeling rough vibration past 45 mph. First time I thought something wrong with my wheels, but after inspection that wasn't an issue. Second time, I got stuck in the snow and got out same thing happened... My conclusion came that, wet snow got stuck somewhere in unprotected area underneath the car causing it to vibrate during high speeds. Once the snow meleted, the problem went away.

 

Hey klas,

Not sure if I'd call this a design flaw because lots of cars will do that -my 02 WRX for example. Snow gets wedged into the wheels and throws off the balance big-time, which you don't notice until you get going fast enough. Same thing can happen with mud. The snow or mud then usually gets flung out at high speed, but sometimes you have to get in there and clean it by hand.

 

Ok, that's good to know. I just never experienced that before, while this is not first time driving in the snow, it was first time driving in deep snow in Outlander.

 

Yup, snow in the wheels.

Just wait until you get a rock in the rotors. [:'(]

 

You could spray WD-40 into the wheel wells before going off road in the mud. Thats what stock car and sprint car teams that race on dirt tracks do to keep mud off their cars.

 

you're saying its a design flaw that you got snow jammed into your wheels?


You're right..... Mitsu's engineers should definitely be able to alter the laws of physics, shouldnt they?

 

bwahahaahaha pwnd.

 

it happens to just about anyone. i plowed through a pretty big snowdrift that that road crews conveniently slammed into my driveway one storm. got through it okay but after i parked the vehicle and went to use it again, my braked were frozen solid and i had to put it into 4wd lock and give her a lil gas to get them to break free. its just a part of living in a snowy area. snow in the tires and on the brake systems to funky things to them. no big deal

 

this is my first SUV and 4wd car, I've owned 12 others ones prior to Outlander and while not every one of them saw snow/mud I never experienced that before. Sorry if I offended anyone with my statement.

 

I think it was the accusing it of being a design flaw instead of asking first if any knew what the problem could be.

Theyre like our children. No one likes to hear anything bad said about their children.