ground clearance AUDI A3 2011 Owner´s Manual

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• If the power steering system is not funct ioning properly, contact
your au thori zed A ud i dea le r i mmediately. •
Applies to ve hicl es: wit h A ll Whe el D rive
Driving with your quattro®
With All Wheel Drive, all four wheels are driven.
General information
With All Wheel Drive, power is distributed to all fo ur whee ls. This
happens automatically depending on you r driving s tyle a nd the road
conditions at the time. See also =>
page 189, "Electronic differential
lo ck (E DL)".
W inter tires
W hen d riving in the winter, your vehicle with A ll Whee l Drive has an
advantage, even with reg ular t ires . In winter road cond it ions it may
be advisab le to mou nt w inte r ti res (or all-se aso n t ires) for imp roved
dr iveability and braking: these tires must be mounted on
all four
wheel s.
See also => page 261, "Win ter tires".
Snow chains
W he re snow c ha ins are mand atory on certain roads, this norm ally
also app lies to veh icles with all-wheel drive=>
page 262, "Snow
c hains".
Replacing wheels/tires
Veh icles with All Wheel Drive m ust always have t ires of the same s ize.
Also avoid tires with different tread depths. For details see page
=>
page 257, " N ew tires and replac ing ti res and wheels".
Off-Road driving?
Your Audi does not have enough ground clearance to be used as a n
off-road vehicle. It is therefore best to avoid rough tracks and uneven
te rrain as much as poss ib le. Also refe r to=>
page 199.
& WARNING
Always adjust your driving to road and traffic conditions . Do not
let the extra safety afforded by the all-wheel drive tempt you into
taking extra risk s.
• Although the quattro ®all -wheel drive is very effective, always
remember that braking capacity is limited by t ire traction. You
should therefore not drive at exce ssive speed s on icy or slippery
road surfaces .
• On wet road surfa ces, be careful not to drive too fast becau se
the front wheels could begin to slide on top of the water (hydro­
planing ). If this should occur, you will have no warning from a
sudden increase in engine speed as with a front -wheel drive
vehicle. Always dr ive at speed s which are adjusted to the road
conditions -risk of crash! •
Energy management
Starting ability is optimized
Energy managemen t controls the distribution of elec ­
trical energy and thus optimizes the availability of elec­
t r ical ene rgy for s tarting the en gin e.
If a vehicle w ith a convent ional energy sys tem is not d riven fo r a long
period of time, t he battery is discha rged by idling cur rent consumers
(e .g. immob ilizer). In ce rtain c ircumstances it can result i n there
being insufficient energy availab le to start the engine .
Inte lligent ene rgy m anageme nt in yo ur vehicle h andles the dis tribu­
tion of electrical energy. Starting ability is markedly improved and
t he life of the bat tery is ex tende d.
Bas ically, energy management consis ts of
battery d iagnosis, idling
current management
and dynamic energy management . ~