VVT Jimny 4wd Light

Hey guys.

I open with; I have used the search function, I have seen the few dozen threads on this. All the older threads are full of photobucket dead images and all seem to offer advice for the older manual transfer Jimnys.

So got my VVT Jimny dug out of the snow today, it's been sat submerged up to just past the fog lights since Wednesday. Tried to use 4wd to get out of my parking space and it immediately wasn't working. Hubs where making a whiring noise, not like a gearbox crunching but more like a slipping belt sound. 4wd didn't engage and I had to let 2wd drag it out. Drove 10 miles to work with the 4wd light flashing (after pressing the 2wd button).

I tried some old Mitsubishi tricks of trying to reverse sharply to engage the hubs but to no avail, however when maneuvering I noticed at full lock well parking it felt like the hubs where 'trying' to engage, with a quiet clacking noise and feedback through the wheel.

Any ideas on where to start diagnosing the fault. I'm kind of worried that it hasn't gone down into 2wd properly as I need to do 400miles on it on Tuesday and don't want to knacker my transfer case. The system was working fine the last time I engage 4wd a couple of weeks ago.

I notice in my engine bay I appear to have a fairly large amount of vacuum piping on the right hand side behind the coolant expansion tank. This seems to differ with what a lot of guys say about the pre-vvt with the system being under the battery.

Any advice welcome
Thanks
Caelite

You can check if its back in 2wd by getting under and you should be able to turn the front prop easily. if it wont turn then the transfer box is still in 4x4 and/or the hubs are engaged.

The piping on my VVT for the hubs was under the battery, the pipes to the other side are all for ABS (this might be different if its a Spanish built one you have, usually soft tops)

Cant help much otherwise im afraid! I got sick of the amount of potential problems with it and went to manual hubs.

Aye that could be ABS controller I was looking at, I will admit I only took a passing glance under the bonnet after getting to work to see if anything was obviously loose. Out in the work van at the moment but will feel about the prop when I get back, thanks for the tip.

As said try turning the front prop shaft by hand. If it turns you are fully out of 4WD. If you can't turn it lift both front wheels and try again, if it turns (along with one or both front wheels) then the transfer box has disengaged but one or both front hubs are stuck. I believe you can drive like this so long as the transfer box is disengaged, its the same as having fixed hubs as some have modified.
You can also identify which hub is stuck at this point.
New to the Jimny, but this is my understanding of the system and just my humble opinion. Make sure you are happy to drive it, if not get it fixed asap...

So...

Got out of work with the intention of crawling under the bastard in the snowy carpark. I got in to start it to find the 4WD light solid green, implying my suspicion that it indeed hadn't disenguaged (or fully disenguaged). So, I then press the 2WD button, it flashes for a good 20 seconds or so... then the light turns off fully.

I've just drove all the way home with the 4WD light remaining off, I've stopped at the bottom of my street where I got my LWB sprinter stuck in the snow earlier (on a good set of uniroyal winter tyres I might add....), I decided I would risk the 4wd system again, it came on fully after ~10 seconds of flashing (this is normal for me). I then parked in my drive and disenguaged the system as normal.

So to summerise, the Jimny is now working completely fine. Going to have a poke about it tomorrow, excuse my ignorance of how the system works, but is it possible it takes a bit to rebuild 'vacuum' after sitting for a bit, I know the Jimny system contains a vacuum tank that some other systems don't. If this is the case it would explain my initial problem as I had tried to use the system immediately after the vehicle had sat for about 3 days.

EDIT: To add, Jimny performed fantastically in the snow, LWB 3.5ton sprinter was all over the place trying to get up my street earlier, popped the Jimny in 4wd, and the low tread (3-4mm) Dualer HTs just uneventfully drove up the hill with minimal slip.

Just a chance the vacuum system was blocked by ice or the hubs were stuck through lack of use.
If there was a vacuum problem it wouldn't go away as most problems are caused by leaks.
The Jimny has 2 systems if you like.It engages the transfer box using solenoids and the hubs are engaged by vacuum at the same time.
To get better mpg and save wear the front diff does not turn as the hubs freewheel. It's sort of opposite to a landrover where they fit freewheel hubs to stop the diff turning theJimny already freewheels and people fit manual hubs to enable locking the diff if the vacuum system has a problem.