To All Wheel Drivers..

[insomnia816]

Do you folks drive down hills with VDS (Vehicle Dynamic System) switch on or off? I find it runs faster with OFF but louder engine sound. When run with it ON I find the speed is drastically slower and was wondering if the braking being put to work. I am doing the comparison because I don't want to wear out my brakes too soon that I have to replace new brakes so often. My preference when I drive down hill would be OFF. But when its raining and the road is wet, I would leave it ON for the safety purpose.

[Igg]

I drive with it on all the time. I believe the braking you're feeling is the engine braking, not the disc brakes on the wheels engaging.

[philipa_240sx]

The VDC OFF button should have no effect on downhill braking. Although I have not tried it myself...

Anyone else here want to experiment with this? Drive down a moderate incline with the VDC ON and then again with it OFF. And please be careful and pay attention to the traffic! Is there actually a difference?

[takeshi]

I'd test but the Gulf Plain is really flat.

[Nick 568]

I tested this yesterday. Made no difference whatsoever on mine.

[Leo2005]

VDC is nothing more than "Traction control"...(At least that's what german automakers call it). You can test it on a snow for example: make a donut without vdc and with vdc it will be really hard to do.

[Nick 568]

Yeah, to the OP, what Leo said. I don't see how it would make a difference anyway.

HOWEVER, I will admit, that when I have VDC turned off, the top speed limiter is higher I believe. It could just be my imagination, and since I've driven it that fast very few times, I don't have conclusive results, but I could swear that I've achieved a faster top speed w/ VDC off, lol.

But anyway, VDC should be left on when going downhill. If for instance, you have some strange total brake failure on one wheel, instead of that causing you to possibly throw you into a ditch, I would imagine the VDC should be able to correct for that difference.

I would imagine what you're feeling is the engine braking on the CVT. If you have a paddle-shifter/manual override shifter equipped model, you could always just shift it into 6th "gear" and then the engine breaking will be very minimal. Also, giving it a little bit of throttle will disengage the engine braking. Granted, you'll go faster, down a hill, but since you're complaining about the car slowing down for you, I imagine that going faster down the hill is what you want to do. :P

[philipa_240sx]

I tested this yesterday. Made no difference whatsoever on mine.

Thanks for testing this Nick 568!

So the OP is surely seeing the effects of engine braking in the Rogue. Yes, it's more pronounced than an conventional automatic transmission. Apparently Nissan had a few complaints about lack of engine braking in the 1st gen Murano with CVT. So they changed the programming to add some engine braking. It varies, slight hills may not show any visible braking effect, but on steeper or longer hills it becomes more pronounced.

Nissan has added low rolling resistance tires, some small aero deflectors in front of each tire, and an underbody cover to the 2011 models. This could make them even better at coasting downhill ... and possibly show engine braking even sooner.