My Grand Vitara

Charlie Mc C

New Member
My Grand Vitara is locking up when in 4x4 high if I try to turn the steering wheel and is won't come out of 4x4 unless I reverse it. It also feels like it is jumping a gear wheel, can anyone help with advice on this
 
Welcome to the forum!
Use of 4WD on tarmac is not recommended - unless you have ice or snow which would allow for some slipping of the tyres to prevent what is known as drivetrain "wind up".

When a four wheeled vehicle negotiates a turn, each of the four wheels travels a different distance - there are front & rear differentials to cope with the different distances that the left & right wheels travel, but, on these vehicles there is no center diff to allow for the difference between the front & rear wheels and this causes tremendous stress on the drivetrain - typically there will be a banging noise from the front differential as the free wheel clutch assembly "skips a tooth".

In some cases, when the drivetrain winds up - it is not the free wheel clutch that slips, but the selector hubs that drive the front wheels in the transfer case, and this will usually result in the transfer case jumping from 4HI back to 2HI
Reversing will 'unwind' it.
MS
 
Driving over a hump backed bridge fast enough to get all four wheels off the ground will also unwind the transmission but that may be a bit drastic. :D :stir:

Actually most 4WD makers say you should go in and out of four wheel drive with the wheels in the straight ahead position and this is for that very reason to take the stresses off the diffs and automatic freewheels.

David
 
If the problem isn't transmission wind up as described above. It could be that the 4WD hasn't been used often enough & has got sticky - solution may be to engage & disengage it a few times to free it up.

Ian
 
Not sure if it is transmission wind up or OP wind up, either way it has no place on this site.

John
 
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