E70 fish tailed in the rain?
 

It's never happened to me so it bothered me a little today. I live in San Francisco and it somewhat rained today, first time in ages. It was morr like light rain but the floors were wet. I was going about 45mph on a free way on ramp that curves and the rear fish tailed out of no where and I eventually corrected it. I have my stock run flats with about 75% thread on it and this is the first that this happened. My fronts do have more thread than my rears...

It's just odd to feel the car fish tail like that ??

Not sure how often it rains in your area.

So anytime you have not had rain for more than a week and you get a light rain, not enough to really wash down the road you end up with very slippery road surfaces. Sometimes almost like ice conditions.

Also you never know if there was anything spilled on the roadway where you were driving.

One early Saturday this Summer I was driving about 90 minutes to an event. We had had a dry week and it had rained lightly about an hour earlier but it was too early and cloudy for the sun to dry off the roadways. I think in the 90 minutes I saw 8 or more accidents due to the slippery road conditions.

I am guessing that the curving freeway on ramp has a speed limit more in the 30 MPH range. You probably need to adjust your speed and driving habits to the conditions.

Well, you'll see that his location is San Francisco, in the middle of a major drought. A lightly oiled roadway with a light rain is damn slippery, but a good learning experience in handling his vehicle in less than optimal conditions.

He didn't say where in the City he was or what highway he was entering, but recently built on-ramps are long and straight to allow synchronizing with the 85 mph traffic.

I always used and use an empty parking lot to find the limits of adhesion. As soon as we get a light snow this year then I'll be out learning xDrive and a vehicle half again as heavy as my VW.

I was in the same area, it is was about as lethal as it gets for slippery roads.

Very hot summer, plenty of oil and rubber laid down in the roads. And probably 4-5 months since the last drenching rain.

You'll find the X5 is completely different the the Touareg (if that's what you drove prior) It does well in the snow, but doesnt have that bite that the Egg has. I cant describe it. I felt comfortable in my Egg in the icey conditions when I lived in Seattle, with the X5 it feels sure footed but it wants to plow forward rather then pull through in snowy conditions.

Probably due to the way the transfer case works along with the traction control??

I know nothing about the Touareg, however, did some parking lot play time in the snow when I first got the X5, it was way different then my GMC Yukon. Then I found out I really needed to turn off the Traction Control to have fun, but I did feel the "plow forward" a bit more than the "pull through". The "pull through" is usually when there is more power fed to the front wheels and the back is sloppy. This is kind of how the old school 4 wheel drive vehicles felt without much weight in the rear, they felt more like front wheel drive in the snow and you could "pull" your way with the throttle.

This is what I have noticed with every X-drive BMW that I've owned the rear wheels are what primarily drive the car not the front whereas with the VW/Audi groups with Quattro and 4XMotion/4Motion are more front drive oriented

LOL VW Jetta TDI on Nokian Hakkapeliittas.

Well then...I feel silly. I must have misunderstood when you said a vehicle that was half as heavy I assumed it was a Touareg. (Tank Like Status) LOL

The X-drive sends power mostly to the rear wheels at normal conditions, but when the traction is low it may send up to 80 or 90% to the front wheels. As a matter of fact if your car is stopped uphill and there is ice under the rear wheels and good surface under the front, the rears will hardly spin when you you take off. Good or bad, it is intelligent system varying the torque split all the time.