have been noticing alot of threads lately on 4wd problems. perhaps if we all remeber to ride 10 miles a month in 4wd, this could keep all the actuator contacts clean/moving, gears lubed, and just maybe will help eliminate these problems for some.

i always drive in 4wd when i go to pick up dinner and stuff so it has become a habbit for me.

hope this helps someone

 

Yep. Too often you hear: "How could my 4WD not work? I've never even used it?"

Same as the parking brake and the under-vehicle spare tire carrier... either exercise them regularly, or don't ever expect them to work when you really need them.

 

x3 on this...

My boss drives a 2003 4runner and when she needed 4x4 this winter, it wouldn't engage. Sure enough, actuator had locked up on her since she hadn't used it since the previous winter and that was only once. Needless to say, I have exercised my 4wd regularly since then.

If nothing else, its a great excuse to go wheeling...you know...gotta keep up on maintenance...!

 

If you have a rear (and/or front) e-locker it's also very important to engage it a couple of times per month. You wouldn't believe how many e-lockers didn't engage when I was lookin' to buy my runner. The ones that never engaged were the ones where the owner didn't even know what the diff lock button was for. Go figure.

Cheers

 

also don't forget that it's not recommended to drive in 4wd on bare roads

 

This thread is sad. People that need to be reminded to put their truck in 4wd should be driving 2wd vehicles.

 

Even sadder is they are driving 2wd vehicles!!

Was one of the things I learned back in the 70's driving my 70 Bronco with manual hubs. Was routine to lock in the hubs once a month and just drive it for 5-10 miles in 2WD just to keep them lubed. Some things never change.

 

True the 4WD for maintenance purposes, haha. I use that excuse every time a family member asks me what the heck I am doing. "Just doing some recommended maintenance..."

 

I dont see a problem if you're driving straight, just to engage and disengage 4wd.

 

how often do you drive 10 miles in a straight line?

 

Yeah that's what I do, as long as you're going straight you should be ok, one exception would be if your tires don't match (ie..not the same size). I even run with both diffs locked that way sometimes to keep the locker seals lubed up.

 

True, but you can usually go a mile or so then go back to 2wd for the turn then go back to 4wd.

 

ehh, true enough.. it'd probably be just as easy to find a dirt road. I live in a city, and there aren't many dirt roads around.. I think the closest one I know is actually about 20kms away and it's only about 3kms long.

 

Of course wet pavement is better than dry, so you could do it on a rainy
day too.

 

its 10 miles a month, who says it has to be all at once? just do a half mile once every other day or so, and that will cut it. or, just make an effort to drive 2 miles one day, 5 another, etc etc. it needn't be all at once.

 

There are months where 4wd owners might never use 4wd so it's good to do every month since even me who does off road might have to take a month or two off and it's still good thing to do. I also use my diff lock once a month too.

 

IMHO it is not an issue of driving 10 miles. It is more an issue of engaging 4WD (or whatever mode your particular system uses to engage the actuators) several times. Engaging, driving 10 miles, then disengaging only exercises the actuators once. I prefer to pop in in and out of 4WD a half-dozen times as I'm approaching a stoplight (wheels are straight).

 

Yep, 4WD and lockers are like muscles: if you don't use them, they atrophy.

 

they get smaller? they weren't even in the pool.

 

Yea...or when you go to buy a truck and they say "I've only had it in 4wd twice since I'e owned it"