Consolidating? 340i AWD

[equ]

Originally Posted by AF

Equ, how do you secure the spare in the car, the way bmw did it on the 5er is to raise the entire trunk floor. I never use the trunk so it doesn’t bother me that there is less storage but I can see it might bother others.

I usually keep it on the trunk floor on a grippy old yoga mat or something. Never had a problem. Rare cases when we need ALL of the trunk (because big Ida's crate folds up that big) we put the spare on the rear footwell. Would be an issue with 4 or 5 occupants, but not 3. And that's not even touching the roof rack capacity...

[wdc330i]

Originally Posted by AF

Equ, how do you secure the spare in the car, the way bmw did it on the 5er is to raise the entire trunk floor. I never use the trunk so it doesn’t bother me that there is less storage but I can see it might bother others.

With my E46 M3, I used ratchet straps crisscrossed and connected to the trunk anchors.

[equ]

Originally Posted by wdc330i

With my E46 M3, I used ratchet straps crisscrossed and connected to the trunk anchors.

Another (and my preferred) e46 m3 solution was suggested by Nick. You remove the crap (some foam wedge and the inflation kit) under the rear trunk liner. The spare lodges there at an angle. The inner portion of the trunk liner still sits flat. The outer edge is up a couple of inches, no more than 3". You have pretty much 90% trunk remaining with a spare.

[Nick M3]

Originally Posted by equ

Another (and my preferred) e46 m3 solution was suggested by Nick. You remove the crap (some foam wedge and the inflation kit) under the rear trunk liner. The spare lodges there at an angle. The inner portion of the trunk liner still sits flat. The outer edge is up a couple of inches, no more than 3". You have pretty much 90% trunk remaining with a spare.

I dunno if that worked in the cabrio.

[lemming]

Snow test of the 340 xDrive this weekend?

[equ]

Originally Posted by lemming

Snow test of the 340 xDrive this weekend?

I hope so... Planning on Vermont for the later part of this week.

We woke up to about 5" yesterday. Drove the car on MPSS to the Tirerack warehouse. There was not much on the roads, but AWD meant I got out of my garage and made some turns and slushy hills barely feeling it. I'd like to see that in a RWD car with summers on. Really felt like an Audi.

[equ]

Technical Update (TU in bmw-speak )

I swapped on my winter wheels and tires. I noticed that the front wheels were able to rotate even when the car was in first gear. So when the car is parked, the awd is disengaged and the car is rwd-only, except it's not driving anywhere...

This does show that xdrive is a "softer" approach to AWD than geared or Torsen systems. I wonder if it can explain why I had trouble getting traction on difficult snow/ice in parking maneuvers back in 2014/2015, ended up selling the e90 335xi for the S4. Regardless, soft or not, I'm so used and so comfortable in bmw's that this car stays...

The spare is built as well, 145 did not look wide at all in person, tall if anything. Now bring on the snow!

[Nick M3]

Originally Posted by equ

Technical Update (TU in bmw-speak )

I swapped on my winter wheels and tires. I noticed that the front wheels were able to rotate even when the car was in first gear. So when the car is parked, the awd is disengaged and the car is rwd-only, except it's not driving anywhere...

This does show that xdrive is a "softer" approach to AWD than geared or Torsen systems. I wonder if it can explain why I had trouble getting traction on difficult snow/ice in parking maneuvers back in 2014/2015, ended up selling the e90 335xi for the S4. Regardless, soft or not, I'm so used and so comfortable in bmw's that this car stays...

The spare is built as well, 145 did not look wide at all in person, tall if anything. Now bring on the snow!

The wheels will rotate freely when they are connected to an open diff. I can’t speak to exactly how the transfer case is configured, but I can tell you that one front wheel would rotate freely, even if the transfer case was locked.

[equ]

That could be true. I wondered enough to unset the handbrake and try one of the rears, with one rear on the ground being held by compression. I know, dumb. It didn't seem to move, but I didn't push to rotate hard, I was already deep into stupid for trying such things out of sheer curiosity. Ran back to set the brake. At least I was it was on the kind of jack where it wouldn't have come off the jack but rolled with it... Not my best moment, I'll try one day when the car is on a proper 4-post list.

[rumatt]

Originally Posted by Nick M3

The wheels will rotate freely when they are connected to an open diff.

With only one wheel off the ground and the car in gear? It would only rotate freely in that situation if the front driveshaft is disconnected as well.

My xi wagon did the same thing. The front wheels spun freely when the car was stopped, but the rear did not. I assumed that the transfer case frees up the drive shaft to the front wheels when the vehicle is off.