My wife bought the Sport over the summer and after reading the manual I wasn't clear on on the drivetrain.

Can the Sport be driven around regularly in AWD?

When the weather here starts getting bad is she going to be able to engage AWD and do whatever she's got to do? I would never expect her to pay attention to the dash to tell her that the tranny is overheating

 

Anyone?

 

yes you can. my wife also has the outlander sport se. during winter last year in washington she was regularly driving on 4wd.

 

Thanks

 

Sorry if I had seen this sooner I would have responded sooner.

Yes, switching and driving to 4wd is fine for the car; it is built and able to do it, and we run it in 4wd especially when out and before the snow/rain hits.

 

The three modes are:

2WD (FWD): Gets maybe 1-2 better MPG but if you suddenly start encountering slippery conditions and spin your wheels, the car will be locked in 2wd mode. I only test this sometimes to see if better MPG can be had on dry highways dyring the summer. Overall it really makes a minimal difference, could slightly help acceleration.

4WD Auto (FWD -> 4WD as needed): Not 100% sure about any MPG benefit but the rear wheels only engage if ASC detects wheel spin. You can feel it kick in slightly after the tires start to spin but it's still great for those surprise slippery roads. I leave the car in this mode 70% of the time.

4WD Lock: This places the car into full time 4WD mode for a slight MPG hit over 2WD but if it's raining or snowing out it will give you the best traction overall since it won't wait for your front wheels to slip before engaging the rear wheels. You can feel the car drives like the wheels are a bit heavier and that there is more driveline losses in play which makes sense. Since where I live has plenty of bad weather I typically have it in this mode 20% of the time.

As far as I know you can run 4WD all the time but personally I think Auto is a good compromise. Make sure your tires are inflated to the 32-34 psi range or even 36 psi for extended highway use for best gas mileage and better sidewall response. I switched back to my stock tires for the winter they were at 26 psi in the twenty degree temps and the car was all sloshy with body roll. I brought tire pressures up to 34 psi in the cold and it was a night and day difference in response with better MPG readings on the dash too.

 

Auto=4WD?

 

Yes sir!

 

Indeed, I should have clarified that the dash reads slightly differently from the shifter on the center console where they abbreviated.