Driving on wet days on 4H

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preston1908

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Hi,

is it ok to drive the Navara on 4H on wets roads? Does it damage anything?
I used to have a Pajero NL and I used to drive it only on 4H and I never had any problems, and I covered over 150000km.
 
Personally I wouldn't do it. The tyres still grip the road well. 4WD is only required if there's an issue with getting the vehicle moving. With prudent application of power, 2WD is enough on wet roads.

The problem with 4WD mode is that because there is grip, the wheel describing the large arc in a turn binds with the wheel on the shortest arc. This binding causes the chain in the transfer case to stretch. It can also cause wear in the front diff, which in the D40 isn't anywhere near as robust as the rear.

It would be less of an issue if the front diff was LSD, and would not be an issue if the transfer case had a slip function (like all AWD vehicles today).

The problem with AWD vehicles is that, without installing lockers, they're not quite as effective off-road as our Navaras (and our Navaras could be improved with lockers in the rear).
 
+1

even on wet roads you still get grip so you can easily end up with large amounts of transmission wind up until something gives.
 
Yep I wouldn't do it either.I have had the driveline wind up on grass so it would have to on wet roads aswell.
 
It would have been OK in the Pajero as it had a transfer diferential allowing the prop and tail shafts to spin at different speeds. Navara's don't have a transfer diferential and will bind up the transfer case if driven in 4H on a surface with no wheel slip.
 
There seems to be some large glaring ambiguity in the manual. While it states not to drive the vehicle in 4H or 4L on hard surfaces, the statement is qualified with the explanation that it may cause extra noise, increased tyre wear and adversely effect fuel consumption. It does not say anywhere that you will be risking seriously mech. damage at your expense. And then it goes on to explain that 4H may be selected at up to 100KPH, which is simply explaining the capability of the system and not explaining that it would be inadvisable to do this on a hard surfaced road. Where else could you realistically perform this action? I think Nissans lack of clear instructions on this issue for this type of drivetrain would leave them liable for accidental damage caused by uninformed owners.
 
There seems to be some large glaring ambiguity in the manual. While it states not to drive the vehicle in 4H or 4L on hard surfaces, the statement is qualified with the explanation that it may cause extra noise, increased tyre wear and adversely effect fuel consumption. It does not say anywhere that you will be risking seriously mech. damage at your expense. And then it goes on to explain that 4H may be selected at up to 100KPH, which is simply explaining the capability of the system and not explaining that it would be inadvisable to do this on a hard surfaced road. Where else could you realistically perform this action? I think Nissans lack of clear instructions on this issue for this type of drivetrain would leave them liable for accidental damage caused by uninformed owners.



+1

:cheers!:


.
 
There seems to be some large glaring ambiguity in the manual. While it states not to drive the vehicle in 4H or 4L on hard surfaces, the statement is qualified with the explanation that it may cause extra noise, increased tyre wear and adversely effect fuel consumption. It does not say anywhere that you will be risking seriously mech. damage at your expense. And then it goes on to explain that 4H may be selected at up to 100KPH, which is simply explaining the capability of the system and not explaining that it would be inadvisable to do this on a hard surfaced road. Where else could you realistically perform this action? I think Nissans lack of clear instructions on this issue for this type of drivetrain would leave them liable for accidental damage caused by uninformed owners.

While you may have a point about their potential liability, their lawyers are bigger than your lawyers and there ends that story.

It is actually quite possible to enter 4H on a solid surface, like they say. What they don't say is that they are gonna extract the contents of your bank account through your left nostril once you bring the car in to fix that, because "everyone knows you only use 4WD on surfaces where you don't have enough grip in 2WD mode" and they'll bleat that until your lawyers run out of funds.

While that argument washes just fine 99% of the time, ask the guys in the Snowy Mountains in winter when there's black ice patches around. I wonder how they cope?

I agree that the manual needs to be clearer on the issue, but then Nissan would miss out on a seriously large revenue stream too. The dealers would make the usual fee per hour for fixing it - I don't think they'd go out of their way to charge like wounded bulls on this - it'd be Nissan, making you pay dearly for something that shouldn't have been done to the vehicle in spite of there being no warning against it. I suppose they can't think of everything though - maybe we could suggest this to them?

My dealer was brilliant and explained this to me before we got in the car, even noting that it wasn't in the manual. If I could get HIM to sell you guys your cars I would, but ya'll would have to travel to Newcastle.
 
You pajero had a centre diff so you could driv eon road and not get wind up. the D40 is a part time 4wd with no centre diff, only a transfer case that gives 50/50 power and in high grip situations will get wind up tension.
 

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