Not if, But When Your 4x4 Breaks?

[TacoMalo]

Depending on how you use your 4x4 you can expect problems either early on or later due to normal wear. I have seen new axles snap because the guy was a leadfoot with 44's spinning in the air on a hop and when they came down all the momentum snapped that axle right at the splines. Also saw a guy snap his tranny in half he was stuck in a mud hole and started rocking the truck back and forth trying to get out he gunned it on the upslope and crunch then you see all the tranny fluid just oozing out of the bottom it was pretty gnarly. I blew out a transmission once and that was a 4K dollar mistake I never made again. I don't know what the circumstances were in play with your buddies transfer case to cause the failure but generally with 4x4's the stronger part you just installed makes the next one up the line weaker.

[Tripledigitride]

Everything will break, sooner or later. Personally, I have no need (like most people) for a 4 wheel driver truck, so I won't buy one. I've seen how much it costs to fix a transfer case. It's not cheap, that's for sure.

I've drivin' all over the country, in all climates, and I've never needed a vehicle equipped with 4 wheel drive. In most cases, it's simply another high dollar feature, that will likely cost you money more than once.

[Ishpeck]

Originally Posted by nikon777

"all 4x4 systems will break eventually". How true is this?

All machines with moving parts will break eventually. However true this is, that "eventually" may be inside your life time. It may not. There are too many variables to really say.

Obviously, he needed a Nissan Pathfinder. Mine only ever breaks when I drive it into trees. :P

[Brickboy240]

Plenty can go wrong with a 2wd, too.

How quickly your 4wd goes out will depend on many factors. First, now much you use it, second how well you maintain the truck and third, how it was designed. There is no majic number or mileage marker that signals when a 4wd tranfer case or the system will give way.

With the many 4wds I have owned, from a 1986 S-10 Blazer to two Silverados to the Tunrda I have...I have never had a catastrophic failure of a 4wd system. I have had the usual case leaks and a soleniod go out here and there but since I don't use mine all that much and change fluids when needed and use quality synthetic fluids, I don't plan on many failures.

4WD systems have gotten MUCH more reliable and trouble free than they used to be. Some are more complicated, but again...lifespan depends on useage and maintenance.

- Brickboy240

PS: We onwed a 95 Explorer 4WD and I would NOT use that as any sort of quality gauge on the 4wd industry. Typical Ford...it was a poorly constructed POS, if you ask me. We also got diddly squat for it when we sold it because of the Firestone tire/rollover fiasco that Ford and Firestone were embroiled in at the time.

[Gravel]

You almost made it through an entire post without your usual kick at Ford...

I agree on the quality of fluids and frequency of maintenance though, I use Redline or Motul in all my drive train.

[daveofspades]

My Isuzu Trooper's 4x made it through 300,000+ miles without breaking.

And then I played in the snow and something in the front end popped. I think I might have taken out a hub, but I have no idea. All I know is that four wheel drive no longer makes the front tires spin.

DD

[avenger]

I've only had two 4-wheel drive vehicles, a mid 80s Toyota and a 78 Datsun. The Toyota had no problems with the X-case or axles, but the trans was always a problem. The Datsun only ever had one problem in 4 years and 20k miles of off-road use, it SPRAYED the rear driveshaft on a muddy road. Broke it into 5 pieces! Oddly, the thing still moved with the fronts locked in, although it was NOT FUN to drive it like an FWD car on a muddy road.

[jeepinbanditrider]

Not oddly that's how they work. Unless you have something like the full time t-case in some of the Grand Cherokees or you have the NVG/NP242 T-case that's in a lot fo Cherokees, Liberties, and Grands in full time then you have a center differintal in the T-case and without both drive shafts in there it would just spin the rear flange that didn't have a shaft on it.

That popin the front end of that trooper could have been a hub stripping out or a CV shaft letting go but you would be able to tell if the CV shaft snapped because it would still be making a god awful racket. Either way it should be a relitivly easy fix.