I know this has been talked about quite a bit on here. supposedly our 4th gens are fulltime 4WD and not AWD. however, after what I just witnessed, im not so sure.

ive got my rig in the shop to check the brakes and rotate the tires. so all 4 are up on stands.
ive also been having a very minor squeak when rolling along slowly, so I wanted to check that.

put it in gear and let it run. at first, all 4 tires spun, but they were going much to fast, the squeak only happened below 5mph. so I figured 4low would work better.
I put it in neutral and shifted it to LOW. now, ONLY the rear tires spun. WTF?!
activating the diff lock gets the front to spin.
ok i thought, for some reason low range reverts it to AWD status, and requires the diff lock to be ACTUAL 4WD. I can live with, and manage that.
so I took it out of low, and again, ONLY the rear tires are spinning.

for the record, I don't believe I have any type of actual problem. I feel the vehicle is working exactly as designed, and functioning properly.


ive just always read that our rigs are full time 4wd, as opposed to AWD, now im confused...


also, NOW my dash it lit up like a Christmas tree. im guessing because the rears are spinning while the front are stopped. but, if this was truly a full time system, that wouldn't be able to happen.

@BlackWorksInc any ideas?

Keep in mind that what makes our 4Runner special in Part-Time/Full-Time 4WD is the Torsen T3 center differential.

On the rack, the power is going to be transmitted to the wheel/axle with least resistance, the Torsen T3 while a torque-sensing differential, is going to take some physical work on the drivetrain to manage that torque. I've seen this happen a few times on my 4th gen when it's on the rack, if you hold one or more tires you'll see the others start rolling and so on.

The lights are mainly going to be ABS DTCs set from it being on the rack thinking it is not working right, the should reset once you drive.

This reminds me of a video I saw of a kid with his newly turbocharged miata on 4 jack stands revving away and asking why he wasn't building any boost pressure.

Funny I did this just this last week, during the ATF change process. It was strage to see all four turning at different speeds...at first I thought it was the 60/40 torque split then I walked to the other side and it was just about opposite

Wish I would have tried 4LO too...

yes, im aware of the T3. I just didn't expect it would allow for a complete 100% transfer to the rear. this makes our rigs AWD until the center diff is locked.

theoretically, you could have 2 rear tires on sheet ice, and the 2 front tires on pavement, and still not move. that's terrible.


yeh, I wasn't too worried about the lights, I expected them to shut off once driven. and they did, as soon as I hit 24mph.

it just turns the tires at a much lower speed.

I never did find my squeak though. I think I need to take it for a bit of a drive first, get everything warmed up, then try again. thinking its a seal somewhere, just have to find it...

Theoretically, but the ice will still have some traction. It's weird, because of the way the T3 "locks" to distribute power. Like I said, next time you have it on the rack; play with holding one or more tires and see what happens.

Also keep in mind that on the V8's if an axle breaks the vehicle basically loses power (because it's transferred to the broken axle.)