Subaru X-MODE for DUMMIES.

I have a 2019 Forester (replaced my 2008 Santa Fe). Even though in the real tough stuff off-road the Subaru is the king in its class, for every day driving, I don't know what the hype is about. With ESC on the Santa Fe (same as VDC on the Subaru), the Hyundai was WAY better at keeping you on the road than the Subaru. If I am in a few inches of snow or in a turn where understeer was an immediate concern, the sante Fe would correct you immediately., In fact, it was virtually impossible to lose directional control in the Hyndai by steering too much or hammering on the pedal; it just wouldn't let you. First day in the Subaru, I was kicking the ass end out in mild slippery turns by just tapping the gas.

This is a good video but after having read all the comments, I think some confusion could be addressed by strategically choosing when to use the word 'spinning' (which is sometimes exactly is what is happening) versus saying when 'torque' is being forced to any wheel(s) with traction whether firmly planted taking the weight of the car through only 2 wheels.. diagonally of course, or even sending torque (mootly) to one(s) in the air. i.e. you tend to use the word spin or spinning to describe a turning wheel either by happenstance versus the affect that spinning wheel in the air has over others that may be in a position to offer traction, but it's not always going to happen depending on which of the many settings you're in.

There's a lot involved in trying to idiot proof all wheel drive systems because owners with the wrong systems and their limitations, will at times forget to disengage after being stuck or using it, then turn sharply into a tight parking spot at the mall on hot clean pavement and wind up the drivetrain to such an extent that it will fail... especially if you do it heavily laden. And if it doesn't fail the first time, it IS going to fail prematurely.

Lastly, regarding traction control. There's a big difference in how different brands handle TC, but enough are similar enough when it comes to reducing power and torque from the engine whether it's through advancing the timing or altering fuel injector operation etc, that there are some cases where the only way to get up a hill is with road speed and the ONLY way to reach 'enough' road speed is with TC OFF. An example of this scenario is on my own steep hill in the winter with a older CRV Real Time AWD. It has no switchable modes, just TC on or off. If after numerous snowblower clearings by a walk-behind, you eventually end up with a hard pack snow/ice base a few inches thick.. sometimes over 5" thick. The problem is when it's mostly snow pack and then have one or two significant mild Jan thaws with rain. You come home and all of a sudden the weight of the car finds 'bottom' on the road but not on gravel of course, and you end up with 4 huge wedges in front of every wheel. With TC ON, this scenario is impossible to deal with because the slip controls, especially the ones which lower engine power, literally has you power-out right when the hill steepens or you need extra road speed to do the last stretch which is around 12-13% and fairly long still. In that circumstance you need to start at the bottom and go full on Mario Andretti with it. And if you do it right you'll never have to walk. If you try it only with TC interference, you will never, not even once, make it up the hill in that condition I described above.

A Sube with its various modes and locking diffs etc etc (VDC) could very well react differently and probably does, than the old CRV. That said, the CRV handles the hill in extreme conditions better than a few other old school AWD, front wheel bias systems. In fact, it does better even than my XT6 did 3 decades ago, but the difference might have been tires, which is always a huge part of the puzzle too.

Draw a wheel at every end of an "X". That is what the 'X ' stands for. 😊 . Thanks for this video .

When I lived on Maui on a construction job I bought a beater Subaru Forester to get me around. I’d drive it to all these remote beaches and it would be me parked along side all these ridiculous trucks. People would look at me like I was crazy but I never even came close to situations like this.

So the X-mode seems to be meant for situations where a vehicle is stuck in place with tires slipping. But what about when a vehicle traveling on asphalt at 40mph hits a patch of black ice or even some slushy snow and starts skidding? Which AWD system is better suited to handle that relatively high speed situation? I am trying to decide on a family hauler between a Honda Pilot and a Subaru Ascent and wondering if Honda's iVTM4 or Subaru's fulltime AWD with X-mode is better suited for us.

My cousin Vinny! Love it😂

Brucy, on the dual Xmode, the deep snow and mud takes the traction control OFF and allows each wheel to spin freely.
The single Xmode will brake the wheel that is spinning and send the power / torque to the wheel with the traction.
I’ve watched some tests where 3 wheels were spinning, but One had traction. The 3 wheels that were spinning stopped and the wheel with traction was the only wheel that was moving, thus allowing the Outback to get out of the situation. It was the rear passenger wheel that had the grip.

We don’t drive our Subie’s for serious off roads. Logging roads can be challenging and that’s about as difficult of a road that we drive our Subaru’s on.
We live in north central WA state and get 5-7 feet of snow every winter. We’re 5 miles from a town on a private road that we have to plow and maintain ourselves.
The county road is plowed Monday through Friday as we are on a school bus route, but on the weekends our county road is the last, if ever to get plowed.
After turning off the county road and onto our private road, we have to put our Subie’s into Xmode.
Both of our Subaru’s are 2019 year models.
My wife’s Outback has only the single Xmode, whereas my Forester Touring has dual Xmode.
For more serious off roading I take our 11 Ford Ranger 4WD super cab to my favorite fishing spot. I’m sure my Forester would make it, but at the end of the day, I don’t want my Subie to smell like fish… that’s what the bed of the truck is for.
Brucy, I’m glad you have so much fun with your Subie. I’d love to take our Subie’s out like you do with yours, but we simply can’t afford to fix the things that break.

Very good explanation for non-technical viewer like me. Just bought a Subaru based on this video.

First time subaru owner, trying the brand out for commuting in a few inches of snow to and from work, would it be necessary to use x mode even if im going under 25mph through a couple inches of snow or the AWD is capable enough? If i dont off road would i have a need to ever use the feature?

Hey Great video. I was just wondering what tires I should get for a 2016 subaru outback 2.5i that's most street driven with a little offroad here and there.

So for beach sand driving, X-mode on, VDC ...??

Great video

...so I was drunk today and put my 18 outback into a ditch. I'm so impressed it crawled out.. I have AT tires on it, cooper discoveries. I didn't even need xmode, it pulled its ass out of that ditch. Guy I was with said he's had to pull lifed pick ups out of there.. my little subaru did it by herself.

We Love the dual Xmode on our Subie’s

The wife said she likes the BBC, I said but love we don’t have a Subaru

Thanks anyway but I’ll stick to American made! Go! Ram! Ford! Chevy!👍

Well documented.

Thank you Bruce. You helped me out very much here. I have had 4 x 4 Pick up trucks since I was 18 yrs old and I am know lookin at 60.Ford-Chevy-Dodge-CJ7 and a bunch of s-10's and Cherokee's from the wife. Any ways she went out and purchased a new 2017 Outback. Well unfortunately she passed away here back in May. I now have My Silverado and this Outback. I live in Western NY with plenty of Snow -Ice-Mud and blacktop. I know these are capable vehicles as I did a bunch of research before she bought it. I am old School with lockout hubs and transfer cases ETC. Still cant use to turning a knob for 4x4 but sure as hell beats getting out and locking the hubs in 2-3 feet of snow. :) :). You answered all My Questions regarding the All Wheel Drive/4x4 on This Outback and saved me bunch of time testing it out. Thank you Very Much.

Does x not stand for cross? Rally cross? Cross mode? I dunno. WRX, World Rally Cross?

Get to the point. Is the video about Subaru X-mode or not? Ffs.

You actually don't need to enable X-Mode to have the feature function, it is always on standby for all recent CVT AWD variants.

Never took my Forester out yet but what I got from this is to turn on X mode, turn off traction control and use manual 1st gear and go slow?

This is obviously late, but do you recommend switching to x mode every time you are in/snow snow, deep snow, dirt, and mud, or only when you experience difficulty driving in these conditions.
Also, when turning X mode, the traction control is turned off. If you are on a road covered in snow/ice, wouldn't that increase the likelihood you will lose control of the vehicle?

is a Subaru ascent capable for beach driving in sugar soft sand ? ain't doing any other off-road just beach sand. obviously I would have to deflate the tires

Nice job mate, thanks for the lesson

Using the Toyota FJ Cruiser was a bad example IMO. Toyota’s A-Trac System is better than X-Mode. I personally have an Eaton TruTrac in my 2000 GMC Yukon.

I think the X stands for the diagonal issue. Take a top view if the car and draw a line from front left tire to rear right tire and a second line from the front right tire to the rear left tire, what do you get?

How is the tuning of the single-wheel braking on pre-xmode subarus? Is it the same as modern non x-mode, or somewhere in between, as far as brake engagement aggressiveness to stop a spinning wheel?

Hello from Brooke County, great video!

X = The four tires on the ground! Nothing new here with an old Subaru X-MODE system

What kind of outback is that wondering if my 05 forester has it or not

Perfect, i live near the rainforest in washington, just picked up a 2017 3.6, knew I needed xmode and semi what it was for but not entirely. Perfect video I was looking for thanks bro really got some plans for the ride 👍

So if you get a manual transmisión crosstrek you dont get xmode ?

i think the X is for XTREEEEEEEEM TEAM OFFROAD SUBARU.

oh. I think my car is too old for this feature. Mine is a 2010 Outback. The Subaru Uberoo. maybe i should start ubering again. but my car actually not very comfortable to sit in and ride in and i think a Forester would be better. Do you know any Subaru Forester and Uber jokes? Do you know if any other cars would be better for ubering?

The suburban has an Eaton locker .

I can’t believe people are trying to take these things on trails. They barely have AWD. I had one for about a year and every time I was in a low traction situation, the car would CUT POWER TO ALL WHEELS to protect the CVT.

Thanks sir! You should be a guest on the Subie and you podcast! Go check it out Subie and You Podcast!!

Best explanation I've seen so far! Awesome vid, thank you!

What is your tire size on the Methods?

I think that the thing that you’re turning off is actually traction control, not VDC. I think that Vehicle Dynamics Control (VDC) is always on unless you do some extra funky fuse pulling trick while the car is already in drive. I turn off traction control when drifting in snowy parking lots, and as soon as I get off the accelerator pedal, I feel the car’s VDC system wrangle the car back under control.

Can you fully turn off traction in this year outback?

Sorry but despite other accolades below, your explanation is almost incoherant. You say you are going to explain VDC, show us some wheels spinning, which was a great test for open differentials but has NOTHING to do with VDC. Then you jump straight to Xmode and say, VDC of = wheel spin, Xmode on = All wheels spin. I know how all this stuff works, and I THINK I know what you are trying to say there BASED on MY knowledge. But if you are expecting to teach noobs, that is a very confusing set of statements., and I couldn't possibly have come up with a more confusing or partially incorrect way to explain this. It's almost like you don't know what you are talking about, and are trying to explain what you know in ways that won't really commit you to any facts, and I know that is not the case.. No hate here. I am enjoying the channel. But if you are trying to clarify what VDC is, and how it works, please try again. You are conflating VDC with Open differentials in your explanation and it is confusing. You can do better. In fact you can use the same Video and dub a better explanation over it. And THEN explain Xmode. I wouldn't say "all wheels spinning" I would say NO wheels spinning, or LIMITED spinning with XMode2. THEN you can explain how to use the two tech's in conjunction with each other. It seems like your take is to NOT use VDC offroad, so SAY THAT. As I said, I already know how this stuff works and found this a bit confusing. Your explanation of differentials was spot on tho.. Even the first part of VDC with the sled was pretty good and you should have STOPPED right there, but then you said "here is the problem" and showed something that had NOTHING TO DO WITH VDC. Yes, open diffs are a problem. But make it clear you are done talking about VDC because people still pondering that are trying to figure out how your ramp test explaines VDC. Databyter

Good video .. i have a 2021Crosstrek Sport that I modified same way .. Toyo All Terrains III's .. 225/65 17" .. skid plate and lifted 2" .. It's 14" shorter then the Outback and about 500 lbs lighter. Makes a difference. 🤠

Is it better to turn off the traction control in snow up a steep hill, or only put the car in X-Mode. Please someone answer its bugging me for four years

Local man finds any excuse to brag about 15 year old Suburban.

Sweet video!!!!

Off-topic question: what is the size of the BF-Goodrich tires you were using back then and how do they compare to the Falken Wildpeak? Currently run my Crosstrek/XV on Falkens and am considering switching to KO2s. I use it as a daily - I do the school run during the week and do off-roading during the weekends... (if memory serves you made a video a while back on the topic, but I'd rather bother you in the comments... )

Good informative video Bruce Bruce! I felt that xmode didn’t make much of a difference with the 2015 Forester XT. I found manual 1st gear ratio and traction control off to work the best, but you know my story, the SJ FXTs liked to stall really easy, and that probably had alot to do with my experience.