It's safe to say that if you're S-AWC display isn't doing anything, you're not pushing the car enough. It takes a good turn to get it to do anything - if I swerve a little at ~40mph I might get a bar or two on either side, but you really need to go to a parking lot or an on ramp and accelerate hard on a turn, which will get it working.

As for the middle bar, mine moves when quickly accelerating or heavily braking, which should be the only time it will move.