Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

This is a really basic 4wd question. I know the harm that can be done driving in 4wd on dry roads - well documented on other posts. My question is: what happens when you are driving in 2wd and the hubs are still locked?

This happens when driving on roads in the snow - when I get to the arteries and don't need the 4wd anymore I switch it back to 2wd when I stop. It's often not practical to back up a few feet to disengage the hubs while on public roads. Is there any harm in driving around a few kms with the hubs still engaged, or does this have to be done ASAP?

Thanks for the info

To render this info completely useless, I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure this is it... when you drop to 2wd it will disengage the t-case, but not the hubs unless you back up, so it shouldn't harm anything but your mileage with the extra rotating mass.

glenn wrote:Is there any harm in driving around a few kms with the hubs still engaged, or does this have to be done ASAP?

Thanks for the info

None at all.

In fact, some of the 2nd Generation Pajero/Delica's come with flanges which permanently lock the hub instead of the auto hubs on Gen I Delica's.

Leaving the hubs locked 'Wheel lock light' on just keeps the hub -> cv -> axle shaft rotating.

jfarsang wrote:In fact, some of the 2nd Generation Pajero/Delica's come with flanges which permanently lock the hub instead of the auto hubs on Gen I Delica's.

Our 1992 GLX delica came that way. They look different - check the picture. Didn't know they were called "flanges" I just called them perma-lockers. A little more wear on the bits and pieces down there, and no option to use the low range grears in 2wd, but hey, ya can't do that with the auto-lockers either - Made the switch to maunal hubs and was hoping for a fuel savings, but as ccautos Glen predicted, it made no measurable difference in fuel economy. Love my manual hubs all the same though.

That's what I was assuming, thanks for the replies. While driving around with the wheel lock light on, I kept visualizing those twisted, broken driveshaft images, and so it's nice to confirm that no harm will be done.