Unlocking Hubs

Hi, great information on this site. A stupid question, but I'm new to this Xterra world. About to pick up a 2000 Xterra, and when I was out test driving it, I had put it into 4wd lo to ensure it worked, then put it into 2wd again. From reading I've realized that I was suppossed to back up 3 ft to unlock the hubs, which I didn't do, and drove the 1/2 km back to the dealership. Are the hubs still locked, and therefore do I have to unlock them, or do they reset themselves somehow? How do I know when they are unlocked?

Thank you for putting up the stupid questions.

Yeah, you need to back up a bit to unlock the hubs. So unless someone at the dealership backed it into a parking space or something, the hubs are still locked.

You have to remember if the hubs are locked or not. You'll know that they ARE NOT locked when you try to put it in 4WD when moving and the shifter grinds. :D

Thank you for the help, so if anyone has backed it up in the last bit the hubs will be unlocked, great.

By the way, don't worry about it. Even if the hubs never unlocked again, it wouldn't do any harm. The late-model Pathfinders have the same front diff and transfer case (in the SE trim) but have drive flanges instead of locking hubs (bascially hubs that are always locked) and therefore the front diff and driveshaft are always spinning for the life of the vehicle. The X could tolerate the same with little more than a small mileage penalty. If the rear diff can spend 100% of it's life in motion, so can the front.

Brent

Originally posted by OffroadX
By the way, don't worry about it. Even if the hubs never unlocked again, it wouldn't do any harm.


I wouldn't go that far.

Well I'll be picking it up tonight, so I'll be able to unlock them then, in the event that it wasn't already done. Thank you for all the help and input.

Cheers,:flash: