What do you do after accidentally engaging 4wd on dry pavement?

I guess this should be a reminder to new and perspective 4WD owners; Ask your seller (or salesperson) to debrief you on the operation of the system. Along with some of the do’s and don’ts.

Be a smart, inquisitive buyer.

 

Mine leaves the pavement periodically, but not every month. I do exercise my part time 4WD on straight roads or the freeway sometimes to keep the actuator free, and to circulate the oil in the diff.
Here in the land of fruits and nuts dirt roads can be sparse.

 

CA has actual ORV parks! Count your blessings.

 

Correct. In Northern California, Hollister Hills is the one to visit. I have plenty of dirt on my truck from Hollister Hills. It has everything from mall crawler easy to expert level trails. Worth visiting often.

Carnegie has a disappointing 4WD area as 99% of the park is oriented to bikes and side by sides.

 

I live in flat country. Very few 4 wheel drive trails around here. Other than snow I also need to excercise my 4wd every month as per the owners manual. I do the same as mentioned in above posts. Find a nice straight road engage 4wd hi at speeds below 50 mph and drive for at least 6 miles. Do not make turns in 4wd on dry pavement. I repeatedly engage and disengage while driving below 50 mph in a straight line in 4 hi on dry pavement. Not only does it exercise the 4wd components but repeat cycling will relieve any driveline stress that may have built up. Afterwards I also have a good parking lot nearby to repeatedly engage 4wd lo and my rear locker since they are all low speed functions and it's all good for me. But I have noticed that my '22 4Runner ORP part time transfer case from new likes to grind a little bit if I try to engage 4wd lo when it's cold. It disappears when warm even though it still has the OEM 75w straight weight oil in it. Maybe it's a cold country thing but because of that when I do change out my transfer case oil I've decided not to go to 75w90 but instead using Redine MT-LV which is a direct Toyota LF 75w replacement at 1/3 the cost. We just changed out the transfer case on my son's 2020 tundra with the Redline MT-LV. The difference in viscosity between the Redline MT-LV and 75w90 that we put in the diffs was very noticeable and my son's tundra transfer case continues to shift like new even in the cold weather. Even though w stands for winter and a 75w 90 should be the same as a 75w in colder temps I'm not believing that.

 

Like @Redwood said, I also engage / disengage the locker several times while in 4 Lo while on pavement with wheels straight. If I happen to be on dirt, I also exercise Crawl Control. I usually exercise A-TRAC in 4HI but only on dirt.

 

I've only been to Carnegie.

Basically consisted of a few minutes being in the mud in a friend's jeep before he broke a body mount. A few minutes earlier, one of his friends managed to crash into a fence post (don't ask me how) and lost half the bumper cover off his 4Runner.

I think your assessment is spot on.

SoCal looks to have more interesting stuff to be sure. Meanwhile, to your east, I always thought that one could do the Rubicon in a stock Wrangler, but having watched the episode where the 4wd 24-7 guys tackle the Rubicon, I can't imagine one making it in one piece.

 

Crawl Control and A-TRAC are just using your ABS system. You don't need to use them at all.

Heck, A-TRAC doesn't even work unless you're going really slow (I think it's around 5mph).

 

True. But it is nice to know that they function.

 

I've always exercised my 4wd actuators on pavement, as long as you drive in a straight line there will be no binding. I got to use 4wd for real yesterday, everything worked perfectly.

As long as you test that it can shift into 4wd, that's all you need. You don't need to drive X miles or turn lock to lock, just turn it on then off once the light comes on. It's that simple.

 

I’m in the Midwest as well, but I do have to drive a bit to find a gravel road.

There are some gravel bits that seem tempting near me, but they aren’t legal so I have to stay clear.

 

Ah, the good old days! I lived in Iowa City for a long time, and a bunch of my friends my now-wife's mom lived in Burlington. I used to go down there every couple weeks, taking a different route every time, so about 400 miles/month on gravel roads. It was hard on my air filters.

 

It would be pretty rare to find a car dealership salesperson who knows ANYTHING about how 4wd systems work.

 

If I leave my driveway and head south it is 133 miles before I reach the first pavement......I get to exercise my transfer case pretty regularly.

This is what my "highways" look like:


And the secondary roads:

 

Yamahamer - looks like coyote hunting paradise.

 

Yeah true. My sadistic side enjoys toying with salespeople who should know better.

The point is, buyers need to ask questions and take the business to those who can represent what they’re selling.

Cheers
Mike

 

Even if you take out the fruits and nuts, you’ve still got the flakes left.

 

I'd be surprised if your salesman actually knows anything about how 4wd works. Most don't know anything about cars and hop from dealer to dealer selling loans

 

I finally got my 5th gen pinstriped this weekend.

 

I'm very lucky in that although there's plenty of dirt areas all around Albuquerque, there's a area that I'd say is about 7 - 8 acres of offroad heaven right in the middle of town on undeveloped land about 5 minutes from where I live. It has multiple hills, areas to climb, with packed dirt and pretty loose dirt also. Every time I want to engage 4wd hi or lo, locker, crawl control, multi terrain, I head over there. I'm always the only one there. I used it for Jeep testing for years, and now for the 4R.

 

Won't hurt it

 

Re: ask your salesman: odds are anyone willing to find and sign up for an enthusiast forums knows way more about the car than any salesperson.

You know they'll tell you the car doesn't smell and the previous owner didn't have dogs, even if there's still fur on the seats. (Literally happened while I was 4R shopping).

Read the manual and maintenance manuals online if you have real questions before buying a car.