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Questions regarding normal 4wd operation


Guest thebard17
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Guest thebard17

I finally got a chance to play with that push-button 4wd that's in my '92 Loyale. I've been avoiding using the 4wd on the dry pavement... so the first time it was raining hard, I grabbed my chance :P

 

A couple things I noticed...

1. At rest, it goes into and comes out of 4wd easy.

 

2. At slow speeds (below 15-30 mph), it does the same, except that it takes a bit longer to come out of 4wd.

 

3. When engaged, I get this grinding sound from the right front that sounds just like when my CV joint acts up.

 

4. At higher speeds (30-50 mph), it'll go into 4wd fairly easily... but it takes as much as a minute to disengage from 4wd, and it does so with a huge "clunk" that shakes the front end of the car. I only did this twice, and decided I'd better not do it again... after that, I did all my testing below 30 mph.

 

 

Is this normal? I've heard varying reports on what speeds I can engage/disengage 4wd. Most say "any time", some say "below 55 mph." My 4wd has no hi/lo selector, so I've been keeping it below 55 mph just to make sure.

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Guest calebz

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>but it takes as much as a minute to disengage from 4wd, and it does so with a huge "clunk" that shakes the front end of the car.

 

Mine does that too, occasionally.. would be interested to know why.. not too awfully worried about it, but I am curious.

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Guest SubieSTORMTROOPER

when disengaging, put it in reverse, and back up a about 10 feet, It'll disengage much smoother, mine the same way...my old wagon, which was a manual 4wd lever, I had to reverse also, to be able to disengage it...dunno why

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Guest thebard17

The girl I bought it off of recommended SubieSTORMTROOPER's procedure... "It comes out of 4WD kinda hard... if it sticks, just put it in reverse and back up a little bit..."

 

I've never dealt with anything that's 4WD before... all the tractors I've worked on are strictly 2wd (we've even aligned the steering on 'em using a tape measure, if that gives you a clue on how "hacked" we did some things...)

 

Sounds like I'll be doing the "disengage in reverse" trick...

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Guest offroadsubaruguy

the reason it takes so long to disengage the 4 wheel drive is because your center diff is binding, and when it un binds, thats the clunk you get.........not the best thing for it, but i wouldnt worry too much about it, so long as you dont do it all the time, you should be ok....... i've never heard of someone breaking the center diff.....

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Guest thebard17

That makes sense... I'm not too worried about the center differential (never heard of it either, not that I have that much experience), but I'm not liking how it shakes the car up :eek: .

 

The center diff binds up when one of the rear wheels turns faster than the other... like a turn on dry pavement. But if one wheel slips in such a way that both rear wheels are turning at the same speed, the diff doesn't bind. I can do this by ensuring that I only use 4wd in a turn in situations where one wheel is going to slip (loose traction) enough to spin just as fast as the other wheel, right?

 

Judging from my recent experience, really wet roads ain't gonna cut it... I'd need loose gravel, dirt, or snow to do this, right?

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Guest oobnuker

I've got a '90 Loyale Wagon with push-button 4WD and I have no problem going into or out of 4WD at any time, at any speed. I have gone as fast as 80 mph in 4WD on super rain drenched highways during major downpours. I pop it into 4WD to beat out nimrods at stoplights in the rain, etc. I use it all the time in just about any amount of rain, if I am doing any kind of "spirited" driving, it makes it a lot more fun to slide sideways around a curve if I know that I am going to stick - or at least slide in a controlled fashion...;)

 

All 4 of my tires are the same brand and same size - same age and mileage too.

 

So I am going to say that something might be wrong - unless there's something "wrong" with mine that makes it work better?? <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/ohwell.gif ALT=":\">

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