Driving in 4wd

During the snow and ice my wife has been driving to work in the Jimny. The road has been a mixture of floods, snow, ice and gritted (clear) tarmac.

How important is it to disengage the 4wd on the bits of clear tarmac?

My friend bought a 2019 Jimny SZ4 in 2021 and after three months said to me she loved it but it's "rubbish" on corners and "when she turns in car park it squeals"

l checked and it was in 4wd. She'd driven it three months like that. l showed her how to select 2wd and it's been fine since then (four years ago, she's still got it)

l was led to believe the transmission would exit its casings if you drove it like that for even a short time.

Fundamentally the transmission is strong enough to resist the forces. If you were to hook a Jimny up to an immovable object on dry grippy tarmac if would be able to spin the tyres, overcoming the grip of the surface. But obviously doing that is putting a huge amount of strain on the drivetrain. When you drive in 4wd all the time it's the equivalent of doing this over a long period of time. You are requiring the tyres to continually slip against the road surface. Damp autumn and winter roads will be more forgiving on the transmission than hot grippy summer roads. But ultimately you are creating unnecessary stresses and this accelerating the rate of wear on transmission components massively. On a newer low mileage car you will get away with it for longer than on a higher mileage car.

It also depends on what you are doing while driving in 4x4 just meandering down a relatively straight road is not the same as manoeuvres in a tight space going from steering stop to steering stop on dry tarmac repeatedly. I'm not saying it's advisable nor that it won't do damage eventually but there are levels. It's always cheaper to be cautious.

I'd say don't drive at all on tarmac or any grippy surface in 4wd. Experiment a bit yourself ...the clue is in the disengagement ...... if when you stop, with your front whls straight ahead ( as they should always be for engagement in a Gen3 too ), and try selecting 2wd and it binds and doesn't disengage smoothly and / or there's a clunk as you move off again then you've already got some drive train wind up. The forces can be enormous and because there's no "play" to speak of in a healthy drive train then damage can be quickly achieved. I switch 4wd off for even 100yds of fairly straight tarmac.

PS OP, I'd say your friend has been extremely lucky after driving for 4 months in 4wd and I'd worry for the future of that Jimny !!! I'd not want to buy it !!

Good to know you can drive round in 4WD for an extended period without the transfer case or prop shaft exploding. I would imagine Lightning’s fuel consumption was off the scale.

However, I avoid using 4WD until I feel the rear wheels slipping as they did last week in 4” of snow. I only then engaged 4WD to get me up the hill and tight bend, then it was back in to 2WD on the flat where there was only a covering of snow.

I do use 4WD-L quite a bit but only off road and usually only in a trial where I am trying to control speed, but keep enough power to get through. I guess there is enough slip then as I have never felt any issues with transmission wind up.

Robin