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Sport AWD VS Mud road!!!

5K views 9 replies 6 participants last post by  MMR 
#1 ·
So I live in Kansas and I recently was driving to drop my son off near Seneca, which is up near the border of Nebraska. I was traveling down Highway 99 when I discovered a bridge had washed out and the road was closed. So I did what any person would do I broke out the map and looked for an alternate route. I found one so I set out to bypass the down bridge I found a gravel road that according to the map would get me where I needed to go. it was a very narrow road and only had enough room for one car to travel down. After about 2-3 miles it went from gravel to mud (found out later that prior to recent heavy rain they had just put down several inches of fresh dirt) Things started to get a little slippery. I had two choices, trust the AWD system or proceed to drive backwards for 2-3 miles. I grew up on a county road with lots of dirt/mud roads and spent about 5 years living on the east coast to include upstate New York so driving in slippery situations is nothing new to me.





You can't tell from the picture but the mud was ankle deep in places. I did actually get stuck at one point because I was too low so I had to empty the four people out of my car and then at that point I could keep going. I learned several things.

1. The AWD system in the fusion is nothing short of amazing.
2. When the sensors on the system (abs/speed sensors) get dirty or blocked the car shuts off the AWD system (reason I eventually did get stuck)
3. Making your family walk well you drive is not a good idea. :chuckles:
4. Random strangers in Kansas are good people.
5. Cleaning mud off the underside of a fusion is a major pain in the a$$. :angry:


This was after I had cleaned out the wheel wells that night. I had to clean them out in order to drive it home as the suspension couldn't move because the wheel wells where completly full of mud.




How low it was sitting because of the weight of the mud there is usualy about an inch gap between the tire and the fender.



When I first got to the car wash that night the whole wheel was covered in mud and had an inch layer of mud coating the inside of the wheel.

All in all I am very impressed with the car. I thought for sure the car was not going to make it. Several times I thought for sure it was not going to keep going but it just kept going. I actually ended up in several places with mud up to the side skirts and it just kept going. I do think that if I hadn't been able to drop it into second and leave it there I doubt it would have done so well. I was able to keep the wheel speed nice and low with lots of tourqe to pull me along. Once the AWD system shut off it wouldn't move, lol. I found out that multiple people had gotten stuck on that very same road the day before but I had made it a good mile further then two 4WD suv's did. Took a very nice farmer and a very large tractor to get me and a guy in a blazer that tried to get to me to pull me out. In the end a couple hundred I paid the guy and about $60 in quarters and 3 hours at the car wash my car is fine with no damage.
 
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#3 ·
Yeah I'm pretty sure his Fusion is lowered which makes it even more impressive.

I couldnt agree more with you, we had some really bad snowfalls this last winter and although I have winter tires the AWD system was unbelievable. I gotta say I turned lots of heads pushing snow in the Fusion past stuck SUV's and 4x4 trucks.

The wife and I hit some really bad white out conditions due to blowing/drifting snow during our visit to Montana. I was pushing snow for over an hour and if it wasnt for the posts in the ground beside the highway I wouldn't know if I was on the road. I wish I took some pictures but had my hands full lol.

Glad to see it handles mud as well as the ice and snow!
 
#8 ·
Got the car back from the dealer. They said it had three codes in the computer, front and rear speed sensors and the steering angle sensor. They said that per Ford they were supposed to replace all three but they didn’t want to just blindly replace them without diagnosing them first. They cleared the codes and tested the speed sensors and they were reading and working perfectly. They were puzzled as to why they threw a code. The steering angle sensor was reading 13 degrees off. They reset it and re-calibrated it and it is now reading perfectly. They said that it’s possible it was replaced and unless it was replaced by a dealer it’s impossible to calibrate them correctly which they guessed is what happened. Either way $100 later its working perfectly and I left feeling very happy and impressed with their willingness to work so hard to save me money and try to fix it the correct way instead of just throwing parts at it.
 
#9 ·
Glad you got it fixed. I had a Jeep I tried doing donuts in the snow with that threw a bunch of codes. Once the car was parked overnight and I took it for a drive on dry pavement it self cleared. I also had a Camry which if it lost traction on a turn due to excessive speed it would trip the trac light.
 
#10 ·
I have not been in deep mud with my car, but I have taken it in dirt / mud roads and it performed beautifully too. I have found that if you turn the TCS off, the car actually drives better on loose surfaces, mainly because it will focus on engaging all four wheels rather than trying to apply brakes to the wheel (s) that are spinning.
 
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