Hi.. reading some posts some people says that mini AWD ALL4 works like audi or VW system.. FW when normal conditions and AWD when ice, wet.. etc..
Looking in Mini website i can't found a explanation.. only in one sellers website i found this:
"The MINI Cooper S Countryman can be ordered with MINI ALL4 permanent all-wheel drive. Here, an electromagnetic centre differential positioned directly on the final drive varies the distribution of power seamlessly between the front and rear axles.
In normal driving conditions up to 50 per cent of the drive is sent to the rear wheels, in extreme situations as much as 100 per cent. The result is a new, traction-led expression of the agile handling for which MINI is famed"
Looking with google some drive test says is not permantent AWD and other yes....
My feeling when driving is we have all times AWD... but is only a feeling..
Some one have more information about this?

 

I noticed the same thing. From review to review both configurations are mentioned. My MA said it is normally FW.

 

There is a thread on this a little down the list of this forum:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...gineering.html

Basically, there is some mis-info circulating on the All4 system. The linked thread helps to clarify.

From the first article linked in the thread:
"The system allows up to 50% of torque to go to the rear wheels when the system detects front wheel slip (any more wouldn’t make sense from a weight distribution prospective). However under cruising conditions (on a highway for instance) the ALL4 equipped Countryman is entirely front wheel drive."

 

If you are worried about it only being 4wd when "slipping", don't - it feels very sure footed on ice and snow and engages AWD before you can tell it needs to.

 

I'm pretty sure, after having read a ton of articles on it, that it's a fully FWD car until there's slip, and only then does the computer send up to 50% of the torque to the back. The articles that say that are the ones that actually quote BMW people. The articles that claim full-time AWD and 100% of torque to the back don't cite their sources for that info.

 

I found it in oficial website mini Canada.. is full AWD.. ;-) may be not too much explained around world because is better than other BMW solutions? ... http://www.mini.ca/en/mini_countryma...ive/index.html

 

Yes, that link is quite clear...and it's pretty difficult to square it with the other technical specs we've seen posted here for the system.

I guess someone needs to put an All4 on a 4 wheel dyno system and see if the rears are powered and by how much during various simulation modes.

 

great idea!.. some one have access? ... Yes i'm curious.. because in fast curves i feel something pushing also in the rear.. very good sensation. but i dont know if is only my imagination...

 

ALL4 dynos have already been done around here, and require a rolling road.

The rear wheels do spin on the dyno.

 

So I'm trying to understand...if the fronts are turning initially on the dyno, with the rears not, this should be interpreted by the system as front wheel slip, so power is sent to rears (in millisecs after slip detection). How does this answer whether or not the rears get power all the time and not just when fronts are slipping?

 

Sadly, it doesn't. Good call on the transfer of power, though. The car freaks out since it sees the fronts going without the rears.