Weird bazaar bogging in snow

[followingnfront]

So as some of you know, NYC was supposed to get the "storm of the century" in the form of a blizzard yesterday and today.... While that hasn't happened yet (and probably won't), there is a good amount of snow on some city streets.... On unplowed streets, there is about 4" and in some spots it looks like 7"+.... Absolutely no problem for the Rogue... It didn't even break a sweat! Great vehicle in the snow...

But, I drove to my Dad's house to see how his street was, and his street was plowed and therefore his driveway had a ton of snow in it.... I'd say because of the plow, my Dad's driveway had probably ~9" of snow. I decided to use the Rogue to "plow" it... I drove back and forth over the snow until it was pretty flat. Again, it was no sweat for the Rogue and I didn't even have to spin the tires....

Until.... I tried a spot that probably had about 10" or a bit more... My left 2 wheels were in that bit of snow, and the right two wheels were on the flat part... The Rogue's wheels dug down a bit too much and lost traction... So I hit the gas to get out and the Rogue just started bogging weirdly... It was rhythmic and unnerving.

The Rogue just kept bogging with the revs rising up to 3-4k RPMs and back down within about 2 seconds each time, continuously... And the Rogue just kept bobbing and rocking with the revs... I took the traction control off and locked the AWD and figured spinning out would help... But even with the traction control off, it kept bogging. The snow was NOT even that deep and the fact that 2 wheels were in essentially 1-2" of snow, I should have had much more traction than that... Something wasn't adding up...

It started to smell like burning rubber... Like I was spinning my tires... But my left 2 tires were not spinning... I was watching them... And I am assuming the right 2 wheels were not spinning either. You could feel the motor rocking back and forth almost violently and it felt like I was putting a strain on the drivetrain. I was baffled. Traction control was OFF! WTF!

So after about 2 minutes of trying to go back and forth with this bogging and the car literally not moving more than an inch in each direction each time because it would stop itself... I thought about it and thought to turn the car off in case it was something computer-wise... So I turned the car off and then back on... It worked... I BARELY touched the gas and it walked right out of the snow...

So WTF was that all about? And if I wasn't spinning my tires then I hope that burnt rubber smell wasn't me burning up the diff or transmission or something... The Rogue drove fine all the way home, but that was a very bazaar incident...

Anybody know what this could have been? And has anyone ever experienced anything like this before?

Thanks!

[ImStricken06]

i think you overheated the awd system. the murano was known for that. once that happens, you kinda go into "limp mode" until it cools down.

if i could only show you 2 tiny components that make up a typical awd: the rear differential & transfercase = you'd understand why they overheat so easily. (compared to real trucks & SUV's). we dont even have half a quart of fluid in the rear diff. a normal rear wheel drive differential will have multiple quarts. our transfercase is a 90degree angle versus a chain driven system.

take it easier on your rogue. while its a great car, that is capable of navigation through some really nasty situations = its not designed to stay in that scenario for very long. the longer you use it (back & forth, drifting, quick acceleration, spinning the rear wheels, etc) the hotter it all gets, and the quicker its going to go into limp mode or simply fail all together. remember when we are driving on the highway, we have cool wind cooling things down. going back & forth in the same spot offers ZERO cooling.

PS: i'd do a drain & refill on the rear diff & transfercase in the spring. you probably overheated the fluid)

[followingnfront]

i think you overheated the awd system. the murano was known for that. once that happens, you kinda go into "limp mode" until it cools down.

if i could only show you 2 tiny components that make up a typical awd: the rear differential & transfercase = you'd understand why they overheat so easily. (compared to real trucks & SUV's). we dont even have half a quart of fluid in the rear diff. a normal rear wheel drive differential will have multiple quarts. our transfercase is a 90degree angle versus a chain driven system.

take it easier on your rogue. while its a great car, that is capable of navigation through some really nasty situations = its not designed to stay in that scenario for very long. the longer you use it (back & forth, drifting, quick acceleration, spinning the rear wheels, etc) the hotter it all gets, and the quicker its going to go into limp mode or simply fail all together. remember when we are driving on the highway, we have cool wind cooling things down. going back & forth in the same spot offers ZERO cooling.

PS: i'd do a drain & refill on the rear diff & transfercase in the spring. you probably overheated the fluid)

The funny thing is, I didnt do any drifting or spinning of the wheels at all. The Rogue had more than enough traction driving around and in my dad's driveway I didnt have to spin the tires at all until it got stuck... Then the tires didnt even spin when I wanted them to.

The snow was soft, so even though it was deep, I just took it slow and the wheels never slipped.

I can understand if I was drifting or doing crazy things but it was just out of nowhere.

What you said makes sense though as far as the limp mode thing. Ill have to check on the fluid and such soon.

[ImStricken06]

hmm. then maybe the system was confused. even though you turned off some system, they are not fully turned off. they all need to work under certain perimeters. turning traction control off (which is what i do too) only allows your wheels to spin lose- but the system is still running to let the awd system know whats going on.