Please explain the 4x4 to me on my 98 ltd 4runner
- Thread starter don_davi
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Thai
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See this thread:
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2118
I am out of town at the moment. When i have more time, i will give a more detailed explanation if you need.
Hope this helps.
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2118
I am out of town at the moment. When i have more time, i will give a more detailed explanation if you need.
Hope this helps.
Your '98 has no center differential, so the front and rear wheels are essentially locked together. When you go around a curve, the front and rear wheels must take separate paths and travel different distances from one another. This means that slippage has to occur between the tires and the road surface.
If you're on dirt or a slippery surface you're OK - the slippage can occur with little strain on the drive train. If, however, you're on dry pavement, you're forcing the slippage to occur when there's a great amount of adhesion between tire and road. This creates binding, and creates a huge amount of stress on the entire drive train as it forces the slippage to occur. If you persist in using 4WD on dry pavement, you will cause very rapid wear on the tires and drive train. Eventually something will probably break. If you're lucky, it'll only be a CV joint instead of something really expensive.
I owned a '98 LTD for 5 years. It was a reliable, robust vehicle and gave me 75K miles of trouble-free service in spite of towing a 4,000# trailer much of its life. When I bought it, I was ignorant of the limitations of its primitive 4WD system. I found out about it the first time I tried driving it around on dry pavement in 4WD. Frankly, I always considered it to be a PITA.
Regards.
If you're on dirt or a slippery surface you're OK - the slippage can occur with little strain on the drive train. If, however, you're on dry pavement, you're forcing the slippage to occur when there's a great amount of adhesion between tire and road. This creates binding, and creates a huge amount of stress on the entire drive train as it forces the slippage to occur. If you persist in using 4WD on dry pavement, you will cause very rapid wear on the tires and drive train. Eventually something will probably break. If you're lucky, it'll only be a CV joint instead of something really expensive.
I owned a '98 LTD for 5 years. It was a reliable, robust vehicle and gave me 75K miles of trouble-free service in spite of towing a 4,000# trailer much of its life. When I bought it, I was ignorant of the limitations of its primitive 4WD system. I found out about it the first time I tried driving it around on dry pavement in 4WD. Frankly, I always considered it to be a PITA.
Regards.
don_davi said:
4wd won't help you (much) in this situation. the only thing 4wd does is split up the torque, giving 50% to the front and 50% to the rear axel. this helps in low traction situations (snow, dirt, etc). but it's only good when you need to apply a lot of torque, like when accelerating or going up a snow hill or something. driving down the highway doesn't require much, and even in the rain you're not going to have traction issues. your main concern in the rain is hydroplaning. it doesn't matter if you have 4 or 2wd if your tires can't get rid of the water quick enough to get you down to the road. conversely, if you have good tires that can disperse the water, then 2wd will be sufficient. remember 4wd only helps in accelerating and getting power to the road, it does nothing to help you brake or turn (actually makes turning worse).
