Is My Rav4 Four Wheel Drive Or Not ?

[Lil Willie John]

Hi all

Newbie with a question. I've been reading old forums on the RAV4 and am getting slightly worried. I want to know if my RAV4 is four wheel drive or not?. When I was deciding to buy the car I was under the impression they were all 4wd except for the 1.8 ltr petrol variant. I have a 2011 model year 2.2ltr D-CAT SR. I also have a round button to the right of centre on my dash which looks like the layout of the cars four wheels with a split shaft in between. What is this for? I assumed this was for the four wheel drive system.

If anyone can help me it would be much appreciated, and sorry in advance if this is a silly question.

Regards

Willie

[FROSTYBALLS]

Topic moved from 'Hobby Discussions' to the Rav4 club in order to generate some response.

[Lil Willie John]

Thanks

[philip42h]

Yes it is four wheel drive ... when it needs to be ... and the driver doesn't need to worry about a thing!

Your RAV has an intelligent, electronically controlled, four wheel drive system such that it always starts off in four wheel drive mode and progressively transfers drive to the front so that it is effectively two wheel drive above about 20 mph - this improves fuel economy. Unless, of course, it detects that one or more wheels are slipping and then four wheel drive magic happens so that power is effectively directed to the wheels with traction.

The button on the dash that looks like a diff lock switches the system away from an intelligent distribution of power between front and back to a 50:50 split. I've never yet managed to find a situation where I'd need to use it - the intelligent four wheel drive system does a good enough job on its own.

[gjnorthall]

Toyota in common with many manufacturers offer a 2 and 4WD option - it can confuse purchasers since many adverts don't make it clear that a particular RAV is 2WD. If there's uncertainty - a quick look under the car will reveal the absence of a prop shaft, rear drive shafts and diff unit on 2WD versions.

[Mike169]

Your car always pulls away in 4wd and at approx 24mph it becomes 2wd pulling on the front wheels only. It has a magic gismo on the rear axle that knows when a wheel has lost traction and it electronically sorts itself out. Forget the button on the dash, you'll never need it. I believe i am right in saying it is only a couple of models of very early Rav's that were 2wd only.

Enjoy your car! Mike.

[FROSTYBALLS]

The current Rav 4 2.0 D4D (manual) is two wheel drive only in Active trim and either two or four wheel drive in Icon and Invincible trim.

[Lil Willie John]

Phew! Thanks guys.

[Denisenp]

Is my Rav 4 Platinum a four wheel drive or all wheel drive?

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

You need to be aware that we are a UK based club, and don't have Platinum as a trim level for the Rav4. Presumably you're in the US - all the Rav4 Platinums I've seen advertised on the internet this evening have been AWD.

 

[Heidfirst]

1 hour ago, Denisenp said:

Is my Rav 4 Platinum a four wheel drive or all wheel drive?

 

Unless it has more than 4 wheels then 4WD & AWD will be the same thing ... 😛 

p.s. welcome to TOC 🙂 

[philip42h]

8 hours ago, Denisenp said:

Is my Rav 4 Platinum a four wheel drive or all wheel drive?

 

A Google search suggests that the 2017 Platinum level trim was available as either front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive so it isn't possible to tell which Denise has from the information that she has given so far.

The presence of the 'diff lock' button would be a good indicator that it is an AWD, but, as gjnorthall said earlier in this thread (July 2014) "a quick look under the car will reveal the absence of a prop shaft, rear drive shafts and diff unit on FWD versions" while the presence of these components will indicate an AWD vehicle.