Hi, I am new to these forums, so apologies in advance for any newbie idiocies, such as not posting in the right area, but not sure which would be best.
I have a 2002 Outback H6 which has been running really well and was fine on the drive back from Italy to England before Christmas. In the recent heavy snow though I got stuck and couldn't get up an icy track (tyres are legal but near the limit, so not great with snow and ice). Tried using LOCK, but didn't think to try switching VDC off. Got serious wheel spin and not moving, so reversed back down to a safe parking place and went to bed and then got out with no problem the next morning by putting chains on front wheels.
Now there is a problem when doing tight turns on full lock - the car judders and doesn't want to move until you centre the steering wheel a little. This is the only symptom I'm sure of - it seems to drive ok in all other situations. There does seem to be a bit of a smell of hot oil at the rear of the car, but that might be my imagination. When I switch VDC off it also only stays off for a short while, but I don't know if that is normal behaviour as I've never played with it before.
From other threads in this forum it seems like this is most likely a problem with the diff or cv joints - would those seem likely given the above scenario ?
And lastly is it safe to drive back to Kent from Cornwall and then from UK back to Italy at the end of the week ?
TIA for any advice...
Thanks in advance for any advice...