[J.P.]

The title basically says it all. I have a lot of ice on my driveway, and this morning there was no place to back into to turn around. So I tried to drive up onto the snow/ice mix to do a k-turn. Going forward I had no problem at all, but as soon as I put the car in reverse I had to traction and the back tires just spun in place. But with some careful maneuvers of moving forward I eventually got out.

Anyone else experience this?

[scheherazade]

Funny, I had just the opposite experience.

I did some 'reverse snow-burnouts' just to watch some snow fly out from my front wheel wells.

-scheherazade

[HERR FSTIR]

Xdrive supposedly disengages in certain low speed situations in order to improve maneuverability. This is primarily to make maneuvering in parking lots easier. I wonder if your speed and turning angles (in combination with being in reverse) triggered the xdrive system to disengage.

[rcracer_tx]

Hmm...That seems like it could be dangerous if you were all the sudden switched to 2wd in the ice...I would contact the dealer about if I were you.

[mr p-j]

yes, i have notice this.
seems to be rwd when in reverse. stupid germans!

was driving forward in about 30-40 cm of snow and stopped. try to reverse but the car did not move. but could make it go forward again.

dsc dtc was off.

love the beemer in many ways but hate stupid stuff like this!

[howiedds]

I stated this about a year ago and people were arguing with me that its awd in reverse... but it does suck.

[BMWFanatic2008]

Good thing to know.

[chenx15]

i didn't experience this in my xdrive but i did experience it in the honda CRV awd. only the front tires were spinning and i was stuck on ice. i had to move forward and backwards to get out of the situation. it was pretty bad

[turbosc297]

Weird.
When backing out of my driveway last week after the plows had went by, i backed slowly into the 7" "barracade" you could say and immediately got hung up. I felt the rear wheels spinning. I gave it a little more gas, felt the center diff engage, and tore through that snow like nothing.
I would get yours looked at...

[mr p-j]

have done some more testing.
if i spin the wheels enough the front engage. but thats not an ideal way to get unstuck. did some reversing up a steep hill. works better on ice then in deep snow. the front do provide some torque. on ice it seams to do "okey" but in deep snow ware the wheels needs more torque it´s not enough.

this is a pic from when i notice that i did have better traction when going forward.
to stop in thees conditions and be able to continue forward but not be able to reverse in the tracks that are made clearly show that xdrive priors parking lot maneuverability to getting unstuck in snow.

[ajsalida]

I need to try this myself. What setting are you running with DTC or DSC?

edit: nevermind, I read the previous post. Did you try with DSC or DTC on?

[Cygnusx1]

Thats why I feel the Subie system is better overall. It works the same way ALL the time.

[henry418]

If this is true, that's pretty sad. But then again, it's true that you mostly need 4wd for going front not backwards.

[Professor///M]

I've never had any trouble in reverse, made it over 8-12" no problems.

In my wife's with only AS tires, I had a little bit more trouble, but had exactly what you said, a little bit more gas and the front clearly engaged.

This may be one of those instances to push the DTC button once to see if that improves the overall outcome.