It helps but that does not mean you should drive recklessly also it doesn't prevent your car from hydroplaning. Also the quality of you tires is another factor.

 

YEs sir you are correct .. i ones cheap out replace the front tires only and left the used ones in rear .. yup hydroplane .. since then I've been replacing my tires on my sti all 4 at the same time like they tell you to .. 👍🏼

 

Tires help more. As does sensible driving.

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Tires help more. As does sensible driving.

^^this.

Of course AWD helps in inclement conditions.. but obviously it doesn't change the laws of physics. Tires are typically far more impactful as that is what actually contacts the driving surface. Additionally, not all AWD systems are created equal. Depending on what you are trying to achieve some systems will help a little more than others.

Gaining a firmer understanding of what is actually happening on the car and how it interacts with the driving surface in different conditions is probably the single best thing that helps people driving especially in conditions other than dry clean pavement. That all will bring you to better understand how big the role that different tires will play in the whole equation and how relatively minor the role AWD often plays.

One thing I believe really helps illustrate things is thinking about the fact that people used to get around pretty darn well in harsh cold winter areas for many many years with RWD cars.

 

It masks errors and lack of driver skill leading to more aggressive driving, than nullifies any safety improvement in my opinion.


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Having driven RWD, FWD, AWD and 4 x 4 vehicles . . . yes . . . AWD helps . . . just as it improves handling in snow . . .but as others have mentioned tires and the driver are even more of a factor in the car's handling in rain . . . snow . . . or any inclement weather . . . heck, any weather period.

 

All wheel drive puts power to 4 corners all the time, much like a 4wd truck or jeep. That helps you roll forward, however power at 4 corners has downsides. Much like a rwd car will loose the rear because the rear tires lose traction, and you totally lose steering on fwd cars because the front breaks traction, on 4wd/awd the cars tend to just slide sideways.

I see it every year, awd SUVs, cars, jeeps, etc sitting in a ditch where they just slid out.

The most important factors are your tires. No matter how many wheels you have driving or what they are it provides no benefit in braking and very little in cornering.

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OP, Look at it this way.

AWD/4WD vehicles have a traction advantage on wet/loose/frozen surfaces. That is 'traction' under power.

Any instance where you are not under power negates any advantage you may have had. Power-off traction is more a function of balance and tread. Take a completely identical WRX to yours and disconnect the rear wheels from the drive-train and your car will still behave identically rolling through a wet corner.

 

There are a lot of blind curves and steep hills where I live, and the traction under acceleration is always a concern for me. I'm so tired of trying to pull out into a gap in traffic just to spin the wheels in water or gravel run-off, setting off traction control which cuts power, causing me to nearly get hit. That's why I decided to give AWD a shot, but in all other aspects, such as lateral grip, handling, and cornering, AWD isn't better, it's just different.

 

Fuh shizzle....

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AWD is excellent at preventing the tail from stepping out under power. But this is not improving handling. It's really aiding acceleration.Once the tires' grip limit is reached, no more can be created.This applies to wet or snowy roads equally.

 

I have driven front wheel, rear wheel and all wheel drive in snowy weather at some point in my life. In my opinion, AWD is by far better than the other two as long as you have at least all season tires with good tread on them.

 

Better in what regard?

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Gripping the road

 

Your tires grip the road. 2, 4, or 100 wheels, you are limited by tires. Awd aids in moving forward only. Once you are rolling its benefits come to an end.

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I disagree. I think AWD also aids in turning traction, after moving forward begins.

 

How putting power to the tires responsible for turning limiting traction now in 2 directions helps is beyond my understanding.

A tire has only a certain about of friction it can provide, when the friction is used for braking, accelerating, turning etc then you have less grip for a subsequent direction. For example braking limits steering, acceleration kills your lateral grip.

Four tires free rolling through a corner is going to provide the maximum amount of traction to turn as possible. Any power put down will cut the lateral friction, more tires pushing forward, less friction to turn. It's exactly what causes awd and fwd cars to understeer so badly and why so many companies are pushing to yaw control on their awd systems to overcome that.

People view rwd as the worst because there is usually the least amount of weight over the rear, in cornering under power the back end comes out making it hard to recover from.

Front wheel drive has no steering, your front tires are sliding what desides what direction you go? You've lost all of your steering.

Awd pushes the car sideways, killing much if not all of your steering and the back end slides out. You see it every year in the winter. Awd vehicles allover the ditches because people have less fear because 4wd.

There is a diagram that floats around from time to time with an infographic that makes it simple to see and understand I will see if I can hunt it down.

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...
People view rwd as the worst because there is usually the least amount of weight over the rear, in cornering under power the back end comes out making it hard to recover from.

Front wheel drive has no steering, your front tires are sliding what desides what direction you go? You've lost all of your steering.

Awd pushes the car sideways, killing much if not all of your steering and the back end slides out. You see it every year in the winter. Awd vehicles allover the ditches because people have less fear because 4wd.

I agree with a lot of what you said, except for the RWD oversteer being hard to recover from. IMO, severe understeer is far more difficult to recover from because, as you said, you end up in the ditch. With RWD, it's pretty easy to get out of the power and snap the rear back into place...I pulled of a pretty spectacular save with my '03 S10 Xtreme which was lowered at the time. The road in question has a speed limit of 25mph, and it was raining. I had a Ford tailgating me and I was pushed to 45mph. Topped a hill, unloaded the rear end, just in time for an S-curve. As I turned right, the rear snapped around. I was going sideways toward a guardrail. I let off the throttle, quickly jerked the wheel to the left, and the rear end snapped around perfectly for the left hand turn.

The kind of unrecoverable oversteer you speak of would be more in line with rear or mid-engine cars like the 911 or MR2. But there are other cars that are poorly balanced, or that are too stiff in the rear, or too soft in the front, and will oversteer badly regardless of drivetrain layout. I learned a hard lesson on FWD oversteer...entered a corner too hot, and let off the throttle halfway through (I may have even tapped the brakes, but I really don't remember exactly). Big mistake. It was my wife's '03 Civic, and I was used to my S10, and my previous Firebirds, so my RWD instincts kicked in and I ended up fishtailing a few times before doing a 180, ending up in the oncoming lane (it was dry, btw). The only way to recover from that was to push through, but I had been conditioned to lift the throttle in that situation. That experience haunted me for years.

Not arguing with 7 paragraphs. ^
But, Jaguar dude, you're saying that AWD provides no benefits in the rain?
All I can do is relay my experience. There is an uphill switchback, near my home. It rains, here, all the time. Even on wet asphalt, I can bust up that hill, in my Legacy. Something I cannot do in my RWD Chevy pickup or my previous FWD Carolla.

You can't really compare a Legacy to a Corolla or Chevy pickup and make generalizations about AWD, RWD, and FWD. Those vehicles couldn't be more varied. Tire size and tread type, suspension type. There's not really a perfect comparison, since there are no FWD or RWD Legacies, but you could at least compare cars in the same midsize segment. Accord, Acura TL, Maxima, BMW 3-series, Infinity G35/37, Lexus IS, etc.

 

Not arguing with 7 paragraphs. ^
But, Jaguar dude, you're saying that AWD provides no benefits in the rain?
All I can do is relay my experience. There is an uphill switchback, near my home. It rains, here, all the time. Even on wet asphalt, I can bust up that hill, in my Legacy. Something I cannot do in my RWD Chevy pickup or my previous FWD Carolla.

 

Not a jaguar cheif. And yes I'm saying it flat out clear as crystal. No, it is not better in the rain.

Your tires are the thing at hand. More wheels pushing less tires have full grip for lateral traction. It's a very simple concept and people get it wrong every day. I've made a lot of money pulling "my awd is superior" people out of a snow bank or drainage ditch in a jeep, in 2wd because I understand how the traction limits of my tires works.

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All things being equal, I'll take AWD. If you drive recklessly, AWD will not overcome the laws of physics.

 

AWD is pretty solid in the rain, ice, mud, etc...

But RWD is far more fun!

 

Actually AWD may be better in the rain -- but not for the reasons we'd typically think of. In an AWD car going the same speed as a RWD or FWD, the torque is split between 4 tires instead of 2. So at the limits of breaking loose because because of low traction and acceleration in a 2WD, the AWD is roughly only halfway there so would not be as close to breaking loose. This is all assuming the limits are reached because of low traction (wet road) and accelerating through turns. BUUUT, if the adhesion limits are reached simply be the combination of low traction conditions and speed through the turn, then there is no difference in AWD vs 2WD. So there it is again -- "it depends."

In simpler words: If you are on-the-gas through turns in the rain the AWD is likely better if not going too fast. If going so fast that you are near sliding without even being on-the-gas, then all drive types will be equally as near sliding.

 

If you are on the gas through the corner awd gives you the illusion its more stable because the front or rear doesn't kick out the entire car slides off the side of the road. It helps on acceleration from a stop.

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My car does not slide off of the road, in my scenario listed above.

 

Take your car to the limit of traction. The car slides directly off the side of the road like someone pushed the car sideways.

It doesn't matter how many wheels have power, you can't increase the grip of your tires, period. Any argument you make against that is wrong.

The awd 50% power to all wheels making tires less likely to reach their grip limit is not exactly how that works. You now limit traction on all tires instead of just two. Thus the sideways slide.

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This comment has nothing to do with the OP's question. I believe the key word is "help".
No where did the OP ask about invincibility.

So I gotta ask you guys here, does AWD actually help in the rain? Or any inclement weather for that matter, since some of you guys live up north where there's snow.

 

No, it doesn't help. Helping would be getting as much traction as possible. Tires help, awd gives you false security because it doesn't do anything.

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You just contradicted yourself.

 

Awd doesn't add traction. What is so hard to understand about that? Awd has no effect your traction on braking and turning, the two critical factors. Absolutely zero. Acceleration from a dead stop may see an advantage, that is the only situation it may help. However not much life or death situations come from rolling out from a stop.

Tires affect traction. Awd does absolutely nothing to help you besides make you think you have increased traction because you have no idea what it really does. There is no contradiction there is you trying to prove something that is false.

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Nope. I said that you contradicted yourself, because you stated that helping is the same as completing the task, entirely and as successfully as possible.
I contend that "help" is assisting, aiding or making easier.

If AWD does not aid traction, what are the advantages, if any, of AWD?

 

It masks driving errors, allows traction control systems to better drive the car for you, and helps when starting from a stop.

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Okie doke. Thanks.

 

The correct vehicle layout is mid-engined with all wheels driven constantly. The rest is a compromise of some sort or other.

Number and location of driven wheels affect behaviour beyond the limit of adhesion, and attitude of the vehicle as that grip limit is approached and exceeded.

 

There is nothing besides your tires holding you to the road, period. You can try to dance around this fact any way you want.

Explain what mechanism in awd prevents hydroplaning or physically increases the friction available to the ground

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So much drama and information at once!

This makes learning definitely more fun!