[drh1968]

My daughter has a 2004, 2.7L 4WD. Her and her boyfriend are driving back to university and ran in to snow in Michigan. They don't think the 4WD ever kicked in. Is there a way to check? The closest dealer is 4 hours away from them.

 

[tc542]

4WD testing

My daughter has a 2004, 2.7L 4WD. Her and her boyfriend are driving back to university and ran in to snow in Michigan. They don't think the 4WD ever kicked in. Is there a way to check? The closest dealer is 4 hours away from them.

I see there are no replies to this yet . . I also would be interested to find out how to check if the '4WD' is 'kicking-in' . . .i.e. working or not. I do not have a switch to manually force it into 4WD.
Is there another way to force it into 4WD? . . . Jumper wire, etc. . . ??!!
Regards, tc542

 

[drh1968]

From my understanding, the transfer from 2wd to 4wd is a hydro mechanical process. But, if you have the 3.5L engine, then it is an electric process. I talked to a buddy that had an 02 Santa Fe with the 2.7L and he said he had an issue with the hydraulic system. He didn't explain any more about his issue.

 

[tc542]

4WD . . check of operation

From my understanding, the transfer from 2wd to 4wd is a hydro mechanical process. But, if you have the 3.5L engine, then it is an electric process. I talked to a buddy that had an 02 Santa Fe with the 2.7L and he said he had an issue with the hydraulic system. He didn't explain any more about his issue.

Hi . . . Thanks for the info . . Much appreciated . . ;-)
I have a 2.0 diesel CRDi 2006 model.
The switch type actuation obviously is for the electrical type.
I assume that mine is the hydraulic type. . .Therefore, no way to override it. . . Force it to activate.
But how can I test if it kicks-in or not . . ??
Regards, tc542

 

[drh1968]

I am still trying to figure it out. My daughter goes to an engineering university, I was hoping some of the mechanical engineers could figure it out.

 

[tc542]

4wd

Hi . . . After looking at a couple of Australian/American videos . . Comparing 4WD V AWD . . . I have come to the conclusion that my car must be a permanent/locked 4WD system. . . Hence no facility to change from 2WD to 4WD.
AWD has a more complicated system with clutches, etc. and can compensate the power to different wheels.
Whereas, my system puts the same power to all wheels via the fixed tranmission system.

Hope this is right . . But please feel free to correct me. . . . ;-)
Regards, tc542

 

[Pickle]

I know this is a couple of months late...



If the Santa they have is 4wd, it's a fulltime 4wd system, which means nothing 'kicks in'. It's always on. It's computer controlled with 60% power going to the front axle and 40% to the rear. This isn't an AWD system that comes and goes as needed. If there was a problem with the 4WD system there's a light on the instrument cluster that will come on to show it's not working.


4WD isn't magic. It doesn't create traction. It helps keep a car moving forward on slippery surfaces, that's it. If it doesn't have adequate tires it's not going to work very well on any vehicle.

 

[drh1968]

Thanks for the input, Pickle.

 

[RustyMerlot]

Awesome thread. Thank you for the info!

 

[Pickle]

From my understanding, the transfer from 2wd to 4wd is a hydro mechanical process. But, if you have the 3.5L engine, then it is an electric process. I talked to a buddy that had an 02 Santa Fe with the 2.7L and he said he had an issue with the hydraulic system. He didn't explain any more about his issue.

I wanted to make a comment on this and forgot to before.


2003 is the first year Santa Fe's had the fulltime 4WD option. That is indeed an electrical system. As I put in my previous post, the fulltime 4WD is always on. It doesn't come and go. And the reason it's able to do that is that a computer will shift power around on it as needed.



That 2002 Santa Fe with a 2.7l is AWD and is hydraulic. It's a complete different system that comes and goes as needed. So any issue that was happening with this vehicle would have absolutely nothing to do with any problem a 2003+ fulltime 4WD might have.


Traditional 4WD has to be turned on because you generally don't want to drive on dry, non-slippery surfaces. It can cause stress on the parts which is why even in 4-high gear you can't go over a certain speed usually.



The Hyundai fulltime 4WD gets away with it always being on by having the computer adjust the slippage so it doesn't cause the stress that having a traditional 4WD on all the time would cause. The Mercede's M Class SUV's also had a similar fulltime 4WD system, but they had the additional option of a 4-low gear like traditional 4WDs have. I really wish the Santa Fe had a 4-low option.