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

Hi everyone, i’m just learning about the mechanic things so I’m sorry if I border you by posting many threads for one topic.
I was engaging 4wd on dry pavement and do some sharp turns like u-turn for 4 times, turn left and right at the intersection. I think I’m not the only who accidentally torture our beloved 4runner 5th gen. For those who make those mistakes, what should I do after that? And did you notice any thing went wrong after? My truck is still good but i’m afraid I have bent any metal part or broke them.
I watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EHcrjIlkHk&t=237s and this guy recommend some step to follow. Do you recommend that? Thank everyone.

 

I think you're fine if you did it just few times. I wouldn't worry about it but make sure you don't engage 4Hi on dry pavement on a regular basis.

 

You must now treat your 4Runner to a therapeutic mud bath.

 

You have to turn around three times, spit over your shoulder, and recite a line from King Lear.

Way back in 1981, when I was an eager young lad studying Medieval English Literature at UCLA, the campus was visited by the Royal Shakespeare Company. After a wonderful performance there was a question and answer period. One of the questions brought up the topic of Macbeth, and at the mention of “the Scottish play” all the players turned around three times, spat over their shoulders, and quoted a line from King Lear. After the execution of this bizarre ritual it was explained to us, by none other than Patrick Stewart (yes, that Patrick Stewart) that the play of Macbeth was cursed, and mention of it or recitation of any of its lines outside the context of a performance would bring misfortune and tragedy to the utterer — unless the counter curse was performed. Perhaps a similar custom should be adopted for 4Runner owners who have engaged four wheel drive on pavement.

 

As long as you drive relatively straight on pavement you will be ok. I exercise my 4WD routinely on dry pavement once a month for about 20 miles in 4HI. It is about 10 miles. I engage at the start, disengage to turn around, re-engage to drive back then disengage. I exercise 4LO in my Apt parking lot where there is a straight stretch about half a block long by driving in 4LO in fwd and reverse several times. Been doing it for decades with my T4Rs and narry a problem. The key is no sharp turns.

 

I normally use 4wd on dry, straight roads to exercise the actuators.

 

I turn it back off again and go on with my life. More likely than not, unless you have some super sticky icky tires, you're slipping your tires a hair rather than actually injuring any internal parts.

 

your truck is not fragile, it's fine.

 

Yeah, i engage 4wd again today on muddy area to check if things are still good. I babysit my rig for too long.

 

It’s still on its stock tires. I didn’t mode any thing except put a riffle pelican case on the roof rack.

 

It will just loosen things up a bit, makes it shift into 4-wheel drive easier next time.

 

yeah I engage mine and drive short distances in a straight line. no issues

 

Pray

 

The largest reason to not run in 4wd on pavement is it will dramatically increase tire wear, decrease turning radius, and you will feel the drivetrain binding if you make sharp turns.

Long term it can also decrease the life span of some of your drive train components.

Did you hurt or break anything in a few short miles? Probably not. Though it depends on what you were doing. Normal driving you are probably fine. 5K neutral drop at the drag strip your transmission might leave the chat!

 

If you broke or damaged something from engaging 4WD on dry pavement, you would know it.

 

If you did what the OP did, and you feel binding in the driveline (because the tires can’t easily skid), is the binding happening in the transfer case or the differential? I’m thinking of the videos you see with a wheel off the ground freely spinning (in 4WD) and the wheel with good traction (on ground) is bucking trying to move. The explanation is that the same amount of torque is applied to both wheels on a given axle. And the torque applied to the wheel with good traction is insufficient to turn it. So the wheel with the least traction sets the upper limit on applied torque. For the bucking we see on the grounded tire , is the stress in the diff or transfer case?

 

Everywhere. The propshafts and axle shafts as well. Everything adds up to a little give before it wanting to spring back.

 

How does you're 4-wheel drive know the difference between dry and wet roads it nothing is slipping?

 

On a wet road, something will eventually slip when the forces build up enough. Same thing on a dry road, but the forces have to build up a lot more to overcome the tire grip, which it will eventually do with a screech and a hop, hopefully before breaking anything.

 

I think the differential can handle the 2 wheels on a given axle not spinning at the same speed, even IF one of those speeds is 0 rpm. But the transfer case ties the 2 driveshafts together. So in order to not have this “wind-up” (bucking driveline stress) you would need one wheel on each axle turning the same speed. That is highly unlikely if anything other than straight line driving is happening. And the wind-up stress can be easily eliminated by one of the wheels skidding. This skidding is easy on gravel or dirt or easier than pavement when on wet roads. When people turn sharp in 4WD on dry pavement I’m guessing the transfer case is the thing that demands wheelspin compatibility. I’m not sure but that’s my guess. These 4WD systems, differentials, ADDs, and transfer cases are amazing IMO. Been around a long time but accomplish some pretty cool stuff.

 

@Captain Spalding - When asked about 4wd, Patrick Stewart is best know as saying…


Sorry, I crack myself up

 

I don't understand why some people exercise their 4 wheel drive on dry roads. Don't they ever leave the pavement to use it on dirt?

 

A lot of places are pretty far from dirt or gravel that isn't a private road.

 

Some people don’t know any better, like me. I just used my 4WD this weekend to exercise the 10-miles per month rule, and my Toyota Book didn’t state anything about not using it on dry roads. This is the first time I’ve ever owned a 4WD. Oops, guess I ruined it.

 

As others have said, you’re fine. Tires will take the brunt of the abuse for that short of a term.

 

Have you ever tried to open a jar or bottle that is so tight that you end up hurting your hand?

If you stopped before you got the jar open, your pain threshold is the point of failure. If the bottle or jar opens, the tightness of the lid is the point of failure. If it comes out of your hands and falls to the ground, then your grip on it is the point of failure.

All that is at issue here is point of failure.

Will the tires slip? Will a joint break? Will a gear break?

On a slippery surface, the built up tension will release itself through tires slipping. On a surface with traction, the tires will drag themselves. Keep going and eventually something will break.

The 4WD system in the non-limited models makes the front and rear axles spin at the same speeds, but with open diffs, what that means is that the tire in the front with the least amount of traction will spin at the same speed as the tire with the least amount of traction in the rear. If you’re having trouble imagining this, just picture the front left and the rear right being on a sheet of ice. They can both spin all day and you’ll go nowhere until some software kicks in.

If you had the rear locker engaged, then the tire with the least amount of traction in the front would now spin at exactly the same speed as the tires in the rear. Picture all the tires except the front left on ice. The car is going nowhere.

Now in all these situations, picture the tires all having great traction.

Something has to give.

If you’re lucky, the tires will just skid. If you’re unlucky, you’ll start getting wear and tear.

If you are REALLY unlucky, you’ll have a situation similar to what once happened with me.

My clutch pedal failed on an old Jeep, which meant that I basically dropped the clutch right as I was accelerating away from a stop. With a 304 cubic inch V-8. Normally, this would just mean you light up a tire, because in an open differential, power goes to the tire with the least amount of traction. In my case, it had a limited slip, which meant that not all the power went to the tire with the least amount of traction. The result was that both tires were getting power. If my tires weren’t nice and sticky, I would have done a two wheel burnout, but I didn’t. Instead, there was enough power to snap the spring perches and pretzel my driveshaft.

The word “catastrophic” was used to describe what happened.

 

“We don’t need roads where we’re going.”

 

Unfortunately, that's frowned upon in the suburban Midatlantic. On the other hand, somebody illegally driving an ATV on the neighborhood streets ran head-on into a tree in my yard, about two feet uphill from road-level. I was out of town at the time, but he left a bunch of broken parts at the scene and a big scar on the tree.

Edit: This is where people ride ATVs and dirt bikes around here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lackawanna_Cut-Off. The parts near me won't be available much longer. We'll have train service to NYC in a couple years. They're just starting work on the station about a mile from my house.

 

I was just quoting Back to the Future!

Seriously though, even if you have to drive a couple of hours to somewhere, make the trip - it's worth it...although I'd love to not have to travel that far.

There was only one place in NJ where I went wheeling, and while I believe it was legal to do so, I cannot be absolutely certain that it was. It was somewhere in the Mahwah/Ringwood area. Had a big old stonking hill to climb up. Good stuff.

Edit: tell a lie! I also went in the Pine Barrens once.

 

There's plenty of sugar sand down there to get stuck in, or as the locals say, get "set" in.