Front end loosing traction on a 2007 Subaru outback in snowy conditions

Asked by Paulatthelake Dec 13, 2019 at 12:21 AM about the 2007 Subaru Outback

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

I have a 2007 Subaru outback roughly a
hundred thirty thousand miles. I just bought
brand-new blizzaks ws90's with less than
350 miles on them I noticed a week ago
when we got our first half inch of snow it
seemed like it wasn't tracking as well as it
should. Today we got an inch and a half of a
heavy wet snow which last year using old
snow tires had no issues with but today I
could barely make it up the hill to my home,
it did better and straight stretches but going
around curves I had to drastically slowed
down and I was going no more than 15
miles per hour even on the straightaways.
Any ideas would be helpful. Thanks

5 Answers

48,760

Hmmm...maybe one or two of them are mounted backwards? I'm not kidding! These are directional tread, so ensure they're all pointing forwards. If even one is aimed backwards...especially in the front, you'll have a REALLY squirrelly experience. The WS90 is a fine, but overpriced, winter tire. I prefer non-directional UHP tires so as to allow easy rotation options midlife.

1 people found this helpful.

I think Ernie may have hit on the problem. Look for the arrow on the sidewall!

Thank you for the answers so far but maybe I should clarify what is going on with the car. Reminder standing in the way of generation 3 all-wheel drive a setup is a 90-10 split under normal conditions then when tire start to slip it goes down to a 50-50 split or as needed between the rear and front wheels. It seems to me that my back and is pushing the front end as opposed to the front end pulling. I've ran blizzaks my entire adult life where I live we get anywhere from 100" to 125" of snow a year and either blizzak or Michelin x-ice are the snow tires to have. I did however check just to make sure they were installed the correct way and yes they are. I've talked to a reputable Subaru mechanical shop where I had my head gasket and timing belt replaced and they fill it could possibly be the torque converter. they said if the torque converter starts to go bad it'll put out metal shavings out the transmission and gum up the magnetic solenoids to control the traction to each wheel. I have two appointments this upcoming Tuesday to have two different shops to look at it one being the Subaru specialized mechanics then another at a very reputable transmission shop.

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