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What damage have I done?

P

Paul Shuler

Member
I have a 2008 duramx. On Monday it was very cold and windy and I had my 5 year old granddaughter with me. I pulled into the garage and shut it off and told her to just sit in the truck while I walked down to the road and brought the empty trash can back up to the house. When I got back I saw her sitting behind the wheel messing with the AC knobs and such. I told her hey don’t mess with the buttons and knobs. LOL. Well when I turned on the truck Tuesday the radio came on blaring and the stations all jacked up and the fan running on high. What I didn’t notice till this morning she had also turned the knob down by my right knee and had put the truck in 4 hi. This dang truck has no light or any indicator to tell you when it is in 4 wheel drive. I drove the truck to work and back yesterday and half way to work today before I dropped my glasses and bent down to where I could see the knob and saw it was in 4WD. Drove maybe 60 miles that way on dry pavement. Uuugh. You would have thought that i would have been able to feel it but I didn’t. Didn’t have any tight turns or I might have noticed it then. I am sick about it. Have I done a lot of damage to my truck? Most trucks I have been in before have a light on the dash for 4WD. I miss the old lever in the floor days.
 
Don't see how you could have hurt it?!?

These newer ones have "Limited Slip 4 Wheel Assist"

Which is supposed to in theory remove that jumping/skipping feeling when turning in 4wd. It should also prevent any harm to the truck. However it may have taken a little life off of your tires!! :)

Should be just fine, Bryce
 
Did not hurt a thing. In fact may have been good for it to get everything lubed up and working a little if it had not been used in a while. Don't fret everything is fine.
 
I would say you didnt hurt a thing.If you didnt feel any vibrations at hiway speeds or any wheel hop on corners,you are fine.The newer vehicles are better able to tolerate 4wd than the older ones.IMHO. BTW,I drove mine(92 F150) to town this winter with 4wd engaged. Didnt realize till I turned tight in a parking lot when I felt the front wheels hop.
 
I think it may be ok too ?

I also would think it should have an indicator light. Maybe a bulb is burnt out ?
I'd check the owners manual and or also go to a dealer and look at some other trucks of the same year and see if they have lights.
 
I can't imagin your having a 4wd truck and never using the 4wd to comute to work. You must live in florida, HeHe Around here that is why people have 4 or all wheel drives, and run them all winter in high 4. You have done no damage, stop worrying, and give the 4yr old a hug.
Loren, the Acg.
 
You 4x4 light must be out, even my 89, 99 and 2000 trucks have a light on the dash. Check your owners manual.
 
Like others have said I doubt anything was damaged in that short time. We need to watch those kids. I had a 80 F350 with dual tanks. I never used the rear tank, it was empty. The grand daughter sitting in the cab alone, switched to the rear tank. A few miles down the road the truck stopped. Took a while to figure that out. Stan
 
Hey Jay,
My father in law has an O3 and it has a light. Don’t know about the newer ones but my O8 does not. I have looked through the book front to back and there is not light on the dash. It has a tiny light on the knob that indicates which selection you have turned it too. The dang knob it hidden behind my big right knee and the steering wheel. A very poor set up in my opinion. It has lights for everything else you can imagine {oil change, low tire ect.} I sure thank you all for your replies.
 
My wife kept complaining that her Trailblazer was stalling when she made sharp turns. I said "yea, sure" and promptly forgot about it. Then she loaned it to our daughter-in-law. When DIL returned it, she said "it stalled when I made a sharp turn." I slammed the palm of my head against my forehead and went "DOH!". Then I went out to the car and switched it out of 4WD.

I suppose it went 3 or 4 thousand miles in 4WD. AFAIK, there was no damage other than a little tire wear.
 
4 wheel drive is for using. The roads stink so bad around here mine stays in 4wd most of the winter. If I'm going on a trip and the pavement looks OK then I take it out, but around here the town streets and back roads are always covered in ice. You wear the tires a wee bit on dry pavement, but that's cheaper than smashing into stuff. My truck is a 2002 Ford F150 with a manual shift into 4wd. My wife's 2000 Ranger had the front hubs go a few years ago. I installed manual hubs instead of auto hubs ($400 instead of $1000) and leave them engaged November to May. Last year I forgot to disengage them. We don't notice enough difference in gas mileage to worry about.
 
Very little, compared to the time my sister rented a Uhaul trailer, after loading it on the hill pulled it 50 miles before she figured out the smell was the parking brakes on her Plymouth Duster she forgot to release.......

Paul
 
Didn"t hurt a thing....have had several 4WD for about 25 years and during winter it"s in 4 more than 2. Now, my uncle really hurt my cousin"s truck when he drove it about 80 miles in LOW 4WD, at highway speeds. Wondered why it ran so hot. That truck was never the same.
 
Join the crowd. I just did the same thing the other day. I've driven in snowstorms 300 miles in 4 wheel. I have never had any problems in the 5 trucks with 4 wheel I have owned.
 
I have an 07. I have no light other than a little dot that lights up on the knob of the 4 wheel switch. If it has one its never worked. I brought the truck new, a 2500 Chev HD.
 
Just think there are a lot of 4X4 that are all wheel drive all the time and they do not get hurt so you did little or nothing to it other then maybe will have to replace a u-joint sooner then you would have and that is likely to be years away
 
They must have cheapened the trucks . My 97 GMC has lever on hump and lights showing if its in high 4 wheel drive or low 4 wheel. I can tell from whine of gears if I'am in 2 wheel or 4 wheel drive.
 
No, Bill is frugal. Just because he squeezes a penny and expects to turn it in to a nickle doesn't make him cheap. A penny pincher perhaps, not cheap.
 
Unless definite 4wd roads I leave my gmc truck in auto setting. If 4wd needed it kicks it in if not it stays in 2 wd. One less thing for me to try to remember
 
Oh my guys have screwed that up many times, only blew one transfer case in 20 trucks over 30 years. You're fine.
 
I'm thinking that at best, you may start to experience some jerking left and right until the steering unit gets worked out, or unbound. If that happens, it will work its way out. With power steering you'll be fine. I went through that last year with the barn Jeep. Big snows, loaned it to my sister for a week, she drove it back and forth about 15 miles each way in 4H, and eventually it developed that problem, but worked its way out. I sped it up by driving it off road, turning left and right so that the tires slipped. Same thing happened to me with a 5 ton in the military, and big difference there, especially without power steering. It almost ripped my arms out of shoulder sockets until it came unbound.

Push button 4WD? I haven't seen that one yet. Read about it here last night in a Ford Ranger. Now a full sized GM. I guess I'm not doing my part to keep the economy going. No cash for clunkers out of me.

Mark
 

Kind of akin to leaving the power divider in on a semi? I drove a loaded semi from here at home to somewhere around West point Nebraska, maybe 140 miles with the power divider locked in. I finally figured out why the truck was hard to shift and flipped the lever to off. Put many thousands more miles on it without any signs of extra wear.

Maybe twenty years ago a young lady who was living with us for awhile drove my 79 Dodge pickup to town and back with the transfer case in low range. That thing has 4:10 finals and 35 MPH is screaming in low range. She got home and told me something was wrong with the engine because she couldn't get it above 50! And the engine smells like oil. I lifted the hood and oil was running out from under the front of the intake manifold. I don't know how many RPM's it had been revving but the oil was probably from the valley under the intake manifold being full of oil that wasn't able to drain back down fast enough. Dodge 360's must be tough or I was lucky.
 
We shoved 10 very pregnant cows in the trailer and off I went down the highway in 4wd. Three years ago it's still working.
They should have that light in the dash with the pushbutton or knob seeing as you can't see the indicator in the button on a sunny day.
 
it'll be fine

long drive to the factory, harsh winters, lotta years,
sometimes with short wheelbase swap ends easy demons.
pull the lever in Nov, push it in Apr LOL
only kidding, but harsh weather, bad roads, where pushing it out of 4-wheel on every bare patch is ill-advised.....
I would just get out of the bare tracks, and/or drive along the slippery shoulder for a bit to 'unwind' the drivetrain. no issues
 
Yes that 4 wheel shift knob was in a stupid place. Had 3 pickups with that thing "hid down under the steering wheel. The 2015 2500 has it up where you can see it and if you forget to shift back to 2 wheel that little 4 wheel light just keeps shining
 
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