Icy roads - spun out into ditch
 

Hi guys, so last night driving home on a two lane divided highway (ditch in middle) travelling around 90km/h in 6th gear, I encountered increasingly snowy and wintery conditions and before I could turn off the exit into the nearest town, the back end broke loose.

THE SPIN CYCLE:
First, I was turned about 30 degrees to the left. So with my foot off the gas after noticing the slide, I tried to counter steer to the right. This led to temporary correction but then led to a slide facing the opposite side. With another attempt to counter steer to the left, the car slowly spun to the left 180 degrees facing oncoming traffic while still travelling forward (my guess is at a speed around 70-80km/h). I was facing an oncoming car going the same rate of speed as I was while I was backward. Eventually the car slid sideways onto the left shoulder where I heard tire screech and the car eventually spun into the ditch (composed of grass, dirt and snow) at approximately 60 km/h (again, a guess).

THE AFTERMATH:
Car came to a halt in the ditch. Immediately smelled some sort of rubber smell. I assume this was the tires. But could it be something else? I didn't hear any collision or damage under the car but who knows?

Two dash indicator lights were on: cruise control light in orange (which I think indicates a malfunction), and check engine light, which is still on. To clarify - I was not in cruise control at the time of spin.

Car was able to start again, and I idled about 1.5 hrs to keep warm while waiting for a tow. Car able to move at slow speeds. Did not try at higher speeds. No physical damage to body as far as I could tell.

Questions:
- Does the check engine light automatically come on after a jolt?
- What things should I be aware of - I'm guessing I need an alignment check but what other things could have happened?
- One of my concerns is when I was travelling forward while facing backwards, would my car have stalled if I was in gear, or would my wheels still be spinning forward? Is there any damage that this could have done to my transmission?
- My biggest concerns are transmission and suspension and any high priced ticket items.
- The car is now in the lot of the nearest Subaru dealership to be checked out. Is there anything I should be aware of? Anyone know the procedure for inspecting cars in cases such as these? Thanks guys for your input.

TLDR: icy roads leads to fish tail, leads to spinning out into ditch, leads to rubbery smell and check engine light. Car at foreign dealership waiting for diagnosis. What to know, what to check for?

http://i.imgur.com/RBQISBW.jpg

Why was your traction off?
I've driven at higher speeds with about 8 inches of snow and traction would just prevent wheel spin or any angle.

what?? your traction works? Mine dosnt work for shit. I can put the car sideways with in on in the snow

Seeing his the car idled for 1.5 hrs I think all would be fine.
My concern with any car in a spin would be the motor cycling backwards. Any number of things could be damaged by this happening.

Unless you hit something our the car dropped off the road hard I would not think anything would be wrong.

If the dealer says something is wrong ask to see some sort of proof before authorizing any work.

Check your manual for the cause/reason for the idiot lights.

Next time you spin, both feet in. Once you reach opposite lock, clutch in lock up the brakes (you become predictable in the direction of travel) and wait till you come back around (if you don't hit something 1st) and try to recover it again. Brake bias and or ABS may help right you with this.

Also, use what ever drive aids that are available in those conditions.
Unless you want to try to achieve that epic drift again.

I was in a situation similar to this. The snow kept getting heavier and heavier while I was driving on the highway, and plows/salt trucks hadn't yet come out. Accidentally drove outside of the tire tracks from the car ahead of me, and that spun my car from the right lane all the way to the jersey barrier on the left side. Luckily I was able to drive it home with no damage. Luckily there was already a couple feet of snow against the barrier to soften the impact.

If the car was able to move on it's own, I'd imagine your transmission is fine. Your suspension is probably also fine, though an alignment wouldn't hurt. The dealership will probably just do a test drive and scan the OBDII port for error codes.

Are you sure you didn't just accidentally hit the cruise control stalk while spinning around?

. Especially with snow. Your car is probably fine, or else no one would ever track the car if a simple spin out caused problems.

Thanks for that. Yeah I'm most concerned about transmission or motor cycling backwards but from what I could remember, and/or my understanding of physics, I didn't get any traction while sliding backwards...so I'm assuming I was just sliding. Again, these are my worries. I'll figure out what codes the dealer pulls tomorrow when they are open hopefully.

Dont think I did. While I was waiting I tried to find the orange cruise control light explanation in the manual and I remember it saying something about 'malfunction'.

I hope so. I just don't remember if I disengaged the clutch in my spin. Last known gear I was in was 6th. So I'm wondering if being in gear while spinning out did any damage...

It's totaled....lol




























You'll be fine. The computer is just mad at you. Clear the codes and drive on.

Sounds terrifying! I'm glad you and your car is ok.
-May I ask what tires you had on? And did you clutch or brake at any point during this?

- stock tires (just recently took my winters off) but a freak snowstorm happened and the rest is history
- no brakes as I was trying to correct the fish tail. I guess I should have clutched in to disengage power at some point?

Thanks dude. hoping for the best.

You had your cruise control on when cruising 90kph? When the car sees you spin with the cruise control, it disables it thus turning orange. The check engine probably was caused by stalling the car when you spun out? Were you running a torque app? Usually when you start your car while the app is running OBD2, it can cause a check engine for communication issue.

even though you were traveling backwards, i doubt if the wheels were actually turning backwards. your tires had lost traction, so it was just spinning. so i would doubt there's any damage to the transmission or engine.

second, your BRZ is 2014, right? so it is under warranty even if there is any damage. your dealership actually has an incentive to find and repair anything, because subaru pays for it. i had some leather cracking on my steering wheel and my dealership was super happy to order a new one for me and replace it on subaru's tab.

Not all dealerships are that nice. Some might say 'You weren't driving for the conditions, we can't warranty it'. Crazy yes, but I know its happened to a few people. It took a buddy of mine 6 months to get his driver and passenger windows replaced after they started getting vertical scratches in them.