I confused ! what's the difference between all wheel drive, 4 wheel drive high and 4 wheel drive low on my 2000 Expo

 

Awd is where you leave it most of the time. The fronts will only engage if the rears spin and you can drive at any speed.

4 wheel high locks the front wheels to be turning all the time and is for really bad road conditions or off roading only at reduced speeds. This will not work well on dry clean roads.

4wheel low is for low end torque like pulling someone out of a ditch or really deep snow or mud at extremely reduced speeds..

 

Technically it work just great on dry clean roads, until you end up turning your driveline into a pretzel or snapping a u-joint that is. lol

like Freeman said, the A4wd setting is automatic-four-wheel-drive. When the computer senses your rear wheels slipping it will automatically engage the front axle for more traction. This is a position you can drive in all the time.

4-hi physically locks the front and rear axle together and is for low traction conditions. You might be able to get away with using it on wet roads, but for the most part you'd only use it in things like snow/ice or mud. The reason is, is because the front and rear axles are locked together, they have to turn at the same speed. When you go around a corner the front and rear ends track a different circle and actually travel different lengths. Because of this you start building up a bind in the two drivelines as they try to turn at different rates. So if you have too much traction this bind keeps building up until one of three things happens, you either build up enough bind to overcome the traction of the tire and one tire slips a little bit to relieve it, or you break a u-joint in a driveline, or you twist a driveline into a pretzel. So, unless you're only using it for short distances, leave the 4-hi to mud and snow and other low traction conditions.

4-lo is similar to 4-hi except there is a reduction gear in the transfer case that gets engaged. This allows you to go slower over obstacles, and also multiplies your torque to the wheels, allowing for more power in getting through/over obstacles. Again, like 4-hi, this should only be used in very low traction conditions because of the same reasons, only it'll happen faster due to the torque multiplication.

 

Thanks so much! I was never clear on the differences, one more question. When pulling my boat up a boat ramp that is slippery, which will be the best to use 4 H or 4 L and this is on concrete grade and pulling 6000 lbs. Her are my 2 babes,


2000 5.4 4x4 E.B.


2004 2302 WA Trophy Pro

 

Some of the confusion might be in your terminology also. You don't have AWD on your selector, you have A4WD. The difference being that all wheel drive (AWD) is literally 4wd all the time. A4WD is what you have - automatic 4 wheel drive, which works as described above. Best car I've ever had in the snow was my Explorer with AWD, it was like a cat. Couldn't be shaken. No fun though because you couldn't break it free and slide around. Same problem to a degree with my '99 Expy because the only choice for driving was A4WD. The '03 is nice because I can turn it off and use only 2WD for slipping and sliding.

 

4 low would work best for bringing the boat out just go slow and happy boating!

 

I've never needed 4L even on the worst mossy moldy potholed ramps, but I've never tried to pull a 6k boat. I'd try high since it is just a flip of the wrist, and if it didn't work go Lo.

 

once I'm in 4WH I thought To switch you needed to move the vehicle for it to move into another mode, standing still and changing to 4WL won't change it, is this wrong info

 

It should go right in, to go into 4L you need to go into N and make the shift. It will engage and should pick up right away. To get out of 4L you need to stop and go back through N. This should all be seamless and doesn't require any specific movement of the vehicle.

 

To clarify a little more - you cannot go into or out of 4L while moving. You can go from A4WD to 4H anytime up to whatever the manual says - it is something like 50mph, but I'd suggest it is pretty foolish to try at that speed and you'd have to wonder what would require a shift like that going that fast. You can also go from 4H back to A4WD anytime.

 

Thanks, I am most thankful for the answers...I get now!

 

I think technically to get in or out of 4low, the computer requires three things... 0 mph, gear selector in N, and brakes applied, before it will even attempt to shift the transfer case. I know that has been my experience anyway.