Hey guys, so I got a 2021 mazda3 AWD with the 2.5T, and I was on the beach the other day In some really soft sand, turned off TC, put it in sport mode, and put it in M so it would hold my gears and got on it pretty good to get out. When I got up to the road it said "excessive AWD system load, please drive slow, vehicle in FWD mode until warning disappears." Has anyone else seen this message before, and does anyone know if there's a way to override it to keep the AWD working? Thankfully I managed to get out before it kicked me out of AWD otherwise I'd have to get a tow. Also, I completely forgot to get a picture of the warning message otherwise I'd post that too.

 

I would say you over-heated the rear diff or electric clutch pack.

 

Hmm, well it seemed to overheat pretty easily, do you know if there's any coolers on the rear diff or clutch packs? Is there no transfer case on this car? I can't find anything about how exactly the AWD works on these cars and if anything can be overridden.

 

They have a transfercase, attached to the transmission. Drive is sent towards the rear diff at the same time as the front diff. On the front of the rear diff is a electric clutch coupling, the AWD module modulates the current to the clutch to adjust the percentage of lock up, modulated frequency i believe.

There is no manual lock up option. I investigated adding my own "lock" switch when I ran into( factory workshop manual) the description of the frequency modulation to adjust the level of lock-up. I've put this idea on the back burner.

I was concerned about prompting limp-mode or spiking / burning out modules.

 

Interesting. It seems that these cars are very similar to the jeep SRT8s that I've been dealing with when it comes to how the AWD operates(got a 800hp srt8 that will achieve full lockup with a simple switch, and no codes).

So im curious now, did you happen to see if there is any sort of feedback back to the AWD module? If there isn't and it solely dictates how much it locks up the rear clutch pack based off of wheel spin(like how the SRT8s operate) then I don't think it should be too hard to tap into the wiring to achieve full lockup(gotta be used carefully so you don't fry the clutch packs lol). Once I get some time I wanna get under this car and take a look at the wiring harness and see if I can make something work. Also, is the factory workshop manual a dealer only kind of thing because of how new the car is? I can only find a 2014 onward manual online and would like to read about how everything operates in these cars.
(this is a brand new platform for me, I've been on jeeps my whole life)

 

I have access to the workshop manual at work. & I must add, we don't have the AWD Mazda 3 in our market, so all my knowledge is based on the AWD in the CX3, CX5, CX7, CX8,CX9