Took my Scout off road yesterday into a woodland site and I'm not sure the 4wd system is working properly on my car (2016 MY), either that or it's just rubbish!!

 

I was attempting to climb a mild incline that was a little loose underfoot, made it a car length up and then as the weight transferred to the back and the nose was rising the front wheels started scrabbling for grip, this is where I would expect the Haldex system to sense the different wheel rotational speeds front to back and engage the 4x4 system to send some power to the rear wheels and asist the climb but no, the front wheels just spun frantically no matter what I did with the throttle, I tried holding it steady, backing off a little and accelerating a little but I got no obvious signs of any drive at the rear (a colleague was observing from outside the car and saw no rear wheel movement at all). I tried all modes including 'Off Road' but to no avail. On a positive note the hill descent system works well in reverse when using the 'failed hill climb technique!

 

Now I'm a qualified 4x4 instructor so understand how to drive off-road and have driven this route numerous times in many vehicles and the Scout is the only one that has failed to make this hill.

 

Any thoughts? Anyone else had a similar experience? I will get it checked at the dealers but am expecting them to say it's fine and that "It's not a SUV sir" but this fills me with no confidence if we are to get a bad winter and a snowfall

 

 

I havent been much offroad with my 4x4, but I have had it through a winter north of the arctic circle. And the rear wheels was always helping when needed.

Stopping and starting in icecovered inclines was no problem at all.

I cant remember any situations where the fronts where spinning without getting help from the rearwheels.

Thanks, think I need to book it in to be looked at

Doesn't sound right to me, use mine regularly off road in woodland sites.  Always been impressed with ability on all surfaces, ice, snow & inclines, so long as I avoid areas that require high ground clearance lack of traction has never been a problem.  Don't have off road mode so just have to remember to turn off TCS when it gets really slippy.

Something isn't right.

 

I haven't had the chance to test our Scout yet but on my previous MkII Scout with Haldex Gen2 the rears would always kick in as soon as the fronts lost traction.

 

I appreciate the Haldex in the MkIII is more advanced but I'd still expect power to be transferred to the rears pretty instantaneous.

So for an update, car went in to DMK today for this issue to be looked at. Started to wonder if I was maybe imagining things and expecting too much from the Octavia's 4x4 setup.

 

However, got a call early afternoon from the service team to tell me that there is indeed a major fault with the Haldex, the clutch pump has failed so needs replacing as it is not engaging the rear drive. All under warranty thankfully but I am so glad I discovered this before the winter weather arrives as I bought the Scout to replace a Land Rover and need the all-weather capability due to my work with the ambulance service!

I had the same thing on my '12 plate Yeti earlier in the year. Haldex oil was replaced at the annual service last summer, but it failed anyway. No need to go off road to discover the issue - I had wheelspin leaving junctions and at roundabouts, as well as tyre scrabbling on quick overtakes. Also fixed under warranty - glad I went for the years 4+5 extension!

 

This did show up on VCDS as a fault, but I thought it would trigger a light on the dash - but nothing. Even activating the off road mode didn't cause any extra lights to show (other than the off road mode active one).

Edited 22 September, 20169 yr by dbg400

Good to hear you're getting it sorted before the winter.  I'm sure you'll be more impressed when it's working as it should.

So for an update, car went in to DMK today for this issue to be looked at. Started to wonder if I was maybe imagining things and expecting too much from the Octavia's 4x4 setup.

 

However, got a call early afternoon from the service team to tell me that there is indeed a major fault with the Haldex, the clutch pump has failed so needs replacing as it is not engaging the rear drive. All under warranty thankfully but I am so glad I discovered this before the winter weather arrives as I bought the Scout to replace a Land Rover and need the all-weather capability due to my work with the ambulance service!

 

Glad it is getting fixed   , didn't sound like it was working as it should from what you described. 

 

In reality Haldex problems are not that common (you always hear of the issues, not the ones that just work) Not unheard of for pumps to go however, but that was generally older Haldex 3 units and mostly on makes that did not service the oil. Haldex 5 is relatively new and a different design so I am surprised but I guess there will always be some failure rate on any system. At least it was caught under warranty.

 

If you need it's capabilities in the winter it will need the right rubber to get it to perform at all (not saying that it's something you don't already know !) but it is amazing how many "Haldex problems" out there are down to tyres.

Got my car back Friday and certainly feels very different, the car generally feels 'heavier to drive' as if the 4x4 is now more active than ever and also getting a droning noise from the rear diff at motorway speeds.

 

Now wondering if it's in 4WD all the time? Slow speed manoeuvres on full lock now feel as though there is some resistance, same feeling as if I had a centre diff-lock engaged on my land rover. Think it needs to go back in as if it's engaged all the time it will fail again due to stress on the components, wonder if that's why it packed up last time?

I would say there is still something wrong as I can't say I get that feeling on mine. That said I have driven Haldex for so long I may just not notice!

 

The Haldex 5 does engage automatically in some circumstances (like from standstill etc) as it does not rely on wheelspin to activate it like Haldex 3 and before.

 

But you still 'effectively' have three open diffs and it only brakes a wheel when it senses slip. It is possible that in a hard turn at more than a crawl it may sense too much differential speed but it should have a steering angle input that sees that.

 

You used to get that feeling with old plate-type LSDs before VCs were introduced but haven't felt it in anything recent.

 

For your own piece of mind I would take it back in, as I said before there are a lot of things that can affect these systems, if it does not feel right it probably isn't 

No droning on mine at motorway speeds!

 

Take it back.

Noticed a couple weeks ago that 4x4 wasn't working on mine. Obdeleven scan showed haldex pump fault, took it to the dealer today to investigate. They've just phoned to confirm a new haldex pump is being fitted under warranty. Glad it happened now & not in a few months time after warranty has expired.

Noticed that my 2016 Octavia Scout was making a deep rumble noise while turning (70-90 degrees) and accelerating and after a while I could feel some weird chopping when the car went through gear changes accelerating in a straight line.

 

The car has only 9500km / 5900Mi on the clock. No error codes found with VCDS.

 

Took it to the dealer and they confirmed that there was indeed an issue. Today they changed the haldex pump, oil and filter and a gave the system a firmware update, now the car seems fine again. The dealer told me that the oil had seen better days, it was black and not in very good condition.