4WD 4HI seems to semi-lock up after driving, then slowing in parking lot

My 4WD 4HI seems to semi-lock up after driving, then slowing in parking lot. It works fine on the road, but it gets bumpy, and almost feels like it is locking up when I go into someplace where I'm driving slowly, or after I've parked, then start out again. I just give it gas, then it rides a littly bumpy for a while, then seems to be ok again. Is this a transmission problem, or is this normal? I had an '02 Tundra access cab, and it didn't do this. That got wrecked, and I replaced it with this '02 access cab, and I have this problem. That's what makes me pretty sure that something is wrong. Anyone have an idea what is causing this? Any helpful advice would be great. Thank you.

 

On dry pavement, making tight turns (such as parking) you may get a little jerkyness in 4wd but that is it. Should only happen while making tight turns.

 

Should not be making tight turns in four-wheel-drive. Especially on dry pavement or even wet. It needs to be slippery and even then you should turn it off when turning if you can. Keep doing it and you may really mess something up. You may have already.

 

Never had a problem with my 93 toyota....almost never took it out of 4WD. Still worked just fine after I'd owned it for 15 years. If the torque of turning on dry pavement is all it would take to break a 4WD system then that would be a crap system. What would it do when trying to actually use the 4WD to climb something when it could experience much much more torque than that? If the tundra can't handle that then I need to sell the POS as soon as I can.

Luckily, I don't believe its a problem. I doubt toyota would make a 4WD that had to be babied.

 

It’s a known fact that how I explained it to be used, is proper practice. Read the manual. You got lucky. People break their CV joints all the time from having 4x4 engaged on high traction surfaces while having the wheel cranked. There is videos all over YouTube about it.

Seriously not trying to be rude. Please don’t take it as such

 

Must be POS jeeps or something. I wouldn't own a vehicle I couldn't leave in 4WD in all conditions. Manual says nothing about it breaking anything. Just that turning may be harder, which is true. Any drivetrain that isn't stronger than its engine is badly designed. I do not think toyota would do that. If they did I would rather find out sooner than later and dump the vehicle then have it break when I needed it. I have zero tolerance for bad vehicles.

 

You may have had an awd system or a transfer case with a viscus coupler. Any Heavy Duty system will eventually eat itself if you drive it on dry pavement all the time making tight turns.

Its not a crap system, its juat that your previous system wasnt the same as this one and probably not as robust.

 

Jengel451 and 15whtrd are right on this. I’d never be cranking pavement turns in 4wd on the 02’. Clack clack attack.

 

Nope. 93 toyotas didn't have a center diff, neither do first gen Tundras (I don't know about later ones) It skidded a wheel in 4WD on dry surfaces every time..but engineers are not idiots. Proper drivetrains are designed to be strong enough to handle that, (otherwise you would break drive shafts just accelerating too hard and breaking traction) and it was a manual. An automatic should be even more forgiving because of the torque converter.

A locked center diff is actually a good thing. It ensures that no matter what torque will be split 50/50 front and back, So you will always have at least one front wheel and one rear wheel turning. This is why 2WD vehicles are so totally useless. They are really just one wheel drive. A 4WD vehicle with open diffs is still only a true 2WD on slippery surfaces but its better than the alternative.

Something like say, a subaru with an viscous coupling can end up actually being a one wheel drive vehicle in some situations because of it has no locked cent diff.

Now, obviously its not as easy to park on dry pavement, because one front wheel and one rear wheel are locked together one of them is going to have to skid in 4WD, but thats not going to break your drive train, thats the kind of forces its supposed to deal with.

Obviously, its better to take it out of 2WD once you get off the highway or anyplace your making tight turns on dry, hard roads, but thats not the OP's problem.

I'm not actually sure he has one, it sounds like it could just be normal torque bind.

 

What are we arguing about here? The OP premise is vague at best, but 4wd is not designed for grip street driving (see OP ‘parking lot’). It does well in straight 4HI on pavement. 4Lo straight is ok at best straight, but really should only be driven in soft.

Read the manual if you are in doubt.

 

I'm not sure what we are arguing either.

I think what we arguing is that some people think turns on dry pavement in 4WD is a big deal that is going to break your truck, I'm saying its no big deal.

I have the manual in front of my right now. Should I post a picture of what it says or will you take my word for it?

"Toyota recommends not using four-wheel drive on dry hard surfaced roads, because four wheel driving will cause unnessary noise, wear and poor fuel economy"

Not in dispute. Says nothing about "your really gonna mess something up"

Seriously guys. This is dumb. I've put 100,000 miles on vehicles IN 4wd with the same kind of 4WD as a tundra. I have pretty good idea how 4wd works on trucks of this era. I'm new to tundras but I'm pretty sure they aren't a delicate little flower when it comes to the drive train. I expect they can wheel just as well as any other full sized truck.

So unless someone asks me to post a pic of the manual, lets get back to the OP, which as you say, is vague. It could be perfectly normal torque bind, or not, we need more info.

 

To the OP, can it be that your tires are different from the ones on your old truck? Different tires, especially new tires, feel a lot different.

In any case, I would not drive on dry pavement in 4WD. There is no reason to do that and it does wear on the drive train.

 

Ask my busted front CV joint if you should turn on dry pavement in 4wd. It's not a skid steer.

 

Back to the OP. If its chattering/bucking at low speed going straight, that is NOT normal. Check tire size, pressures etc.

 

Why would anyone be in 4 hi on dry pavement? Gas mileage already sucks.

 

Because conditions change constantly. 2wd never seems worth it to me. Sure one minute it’s fine but the next your losing control because the dry road you where on turned to ice when you went around the corner, or up the hill, or parked in gravel, etc. You have to spend so much time switching that you may as well just stay in. If the tundra is really as weak as some of you seem to think it is then it would be the crappiest truck ever made. But I don’t think that is true. And like I said, if it does turn out to be true I want to find out so I can sell it and get something with a proper drive train. I’ll go buy another older Toyota since I know for a fact you can stick those in 4wd and leave them there for a decade without breaking anything.

Maybe in Cali, Texas or NY you can have a truck with weak 4wd drivelines but a bombproof powertrain is a requirement up here.

 

You should sell your current rig then. You'll be much happier.

Being a native montana boy myself, I find your logic flawed on a few levels but you know whats best for you.

 

Maybe I will just trust the owners manual, and a lifetime of experience with 4wd,until proven otherwise.

 

Leave it on and see what happens and let us know. I'm interested to see what happens. But I did snap a CV joint on pavement in 4hi. Was it on it's way out? Who knows.

 

https://youtu.be/4-Wy5ENm_lM
https://youtu.be/4q7GUN2CXlU

 

Sounds good man. My manual says “use this for driving only on tracks that permit the tires slide, like off-road, icy or snow covered roads. “ And my screen name isn’t gladecreekcali or gladecreekNY it’s gladecreekWyoming.

 

El Khunter indeed!

 

Try a sharp turn.

 

"Leave it on and see what happens and let us know. I'm interested to see what happens. But I did snap a CV joint on pavement in 4hi. Was it on it's way out? Who knows."

Indeed. It will be interesting to find out. I've replaced plenty of worn out CVs over the years on various vehicles.

Only had one that actually snapped, oddly enough it was on a subaru and they DO have center diffs and run in 4WD all the time.

It happens. Parts break. But I'm not going to baby any vehicle. These things are meant to smash, tear and claw their way through the world. I didn't buy a 4x4 V8 just to be a mall crawler

"My manual says “use this for driving only on tracks that permit the tires slide, like off-road, icy or snow covered roads. "

Yeah, I believe it. Luckily mine doesn't say that....although as I'm sure we both know...manuals say a lot of stuff thats not true, both good and bad.

 

So you're gonna leave it in 4H 100% of the time from today on right?

 

My truck is 2WD, I've never once lost control of it. I'll drive it through storms on the freeway, I'll drive it through mud, sand, ice, up the mountain to go snowboarding without chains, you name it. I'll drift my truck for fun, never lost it. Finesse is my friend.

Toyota trucks from the 90s were light weight and built outrageously strong, they're indestructible, they will survive anything. If they weighed as much as a Tundra and had the 315ftlbs of torque the drivetrain wouldn't be happy

You totally lost me here. Are you suggesting that Toyota sends us faulty trucks but your state gets stronger trucks?

 

Enough said. That's not a bombproof powertrain.

 

Nope. That would be stupid. I'm just saying I'm not going to worry about it breaking if I am in 4WD on pavement.

Nope. I'm suggesting that some people don't really understand how important 4WD if you live in snow and mountains. You couldn't get ten feet up my driveway in 2WD this time of year. I got my tundra stuck, in chains just yesterday, (broke both chains) just trying to go check the mail. Now, I don't know you, but I know a lot of people in from certain kinds of places can't imagine what a 'bad' road really is and treat 4WD like some kind of exotic luxury feature and don't even really understand how it works. I've heard old wives tales about how you don't need 4WD all my life and they are just that, old wives tales from people who don't have 4WD and don't understand it. I rescue people from their bad driving for a living and 4WD is the difference between being a victim and being the other side of 911 a lot of the time. Its the most important feature of a vehicle IMO and any vehicle that can't deal with it, pavement or not, is a POS....which I do not believe the tundra to be. Really, I've never heard of any vehicle that is supposed to suffer serious damage from 4WD.

First sensible argument I've seen. You may be right. I hope your wrong. My 94 Chevy weighs even more than the Tundra and it hasn't broken anything in 4WD in all that time in the same driving conditions, I expect the Tundra to be every bit as good.

I never expected to have to defend 4WD on a truck forum. What the heck do you guys use them for? Why do you think they made them with so much ground clearance and CV's an inch thick? Just to look pretty?

Are tundras really that weak compared to other trucks? They sure don't have that reputation in other places.