4WD does not turn off...

99 Rodeo - When I turn off 4WD, 4WD does not disengage immediately. In most cases, 4WD will not turn off until many miles/minutes after turning it off via the 4WD button. I have even had instances (albeit somewhat rare) where I have turned off the car and restarted, and 4WD was still on. I have read some of the other 4WD threads on the site and now know that I should have been running 4WD once/month to keep it lubricated, but that's water under the bridge now. Any help is appreciated.

Noticed this same issue on an '04 Rodeo that I test drove today; which had 3 tires that differed from the 4th.

I DO know that the 98+Rodeo's are sensitive to all 4 tires being identicle in size/diameter/tread-depth, etc. If they're off the least little bit, your 4x4 will have issues.

Are ALL of your tires identical, and nearly identical in remaining tread depth?

Hmmmmm that's interesting... No. The front two are the same and the back two are the same, but the front does not match the back. Someone hit me in the rear-right a couple years ago, so I had to replace the rear-right tire and replaced the rear left tire at the same time (even though the insurance company did not cover it >:-( ).

If there is any load or bind on the system it will not switch out of 4x4. I've finally gotten used to having to find a flat or slightly down hill section after turning off the switch so I can unload the system before it will release.