Subaru Outback AWD in deep snow

[mike_ski_1]

Greetings to all, and thanks for reading my question. I have a 2017 Subaru Outback Touring package.

Recently, I was in a deep snow situation (passenger side wheels dropped off a dirt road grade in snow to allow another vehicle to pass). The snow piled up, and the traction was loose, and I became stuck. What was interesting was that, after a short while of spinning wheels, the traction control light came on (sorry, I don't remember if flashing or fixed), and the system refused to turn the wheels. I could step on the accelerator and nothing would happen.

I got out, surveyed the situation, decided to dig out a clear path to the rear, and eventually backed out of the location off the road grade back onto the snow covered dirt road. What was also interesting was that I could not enable forward wheel drive until I was completely back onto the snow-packed road with all four wheels. Then I was able to proceed forward on the road with no problem.

My best guess is that there was enough snow built up in the front of the vehicle to trigger the close-proximity detectors, and prevent me from moving forward. I don't remember a red warning message on the dashboard.

My question - are there any known situations where the traction control detection or similar would prevent the AWD system from working, under proper operating conditions (nothing broken)?

Thank you for any insight.

Mike H.

 

[BoostedSubi]

I've seen it happen with my buddies outback on a moderately steep incline. He took it pretty slow and part of the way up the hill the car stopped putting power down. I think the car knew in his situation that he didn't have enough traction to make it all the way up at the speed he was going so it decided it was a lost cause.

One thing I've seen you can do (but don't necessarily recommend) is pull the stop light fuse on the interior fuse panel while the car is running and in drive. The car really doesn't like this, every warning light pops up on the dash but the car will move and traction control will be off. You might end up just spinning your wheels and your brake lights will be off but i guess it is an option.