Hi to all here.......
As subject says totally new to 4x4 and have a problem with my GV1600 sport 3dr 03 plate.
Drives fine in 2h.  Drives fine in 4h and 4l until i try and turn either a tight corner or try to reverse into my drive-almost using full lock and then the car comes to a halt and if I give it more gas to move I get a burning smell and the car really struggles to move until I straighten the wheels out.I know you are not supposed to use 4x4 on dry tarmac but have tried in the snow over the last couple of weeks and it still does it when locking right over.
 I have tried to read up abit on this site and others but can't seem to find anyone else with this problem but i did find on here someone saying they got a clunking noise on full lock in 4 wheel and someone pointed out that something had got to give on the dry surface but it was ok on snow.

Don't really know where to start and bothered that I have brought a lemon......... :'(

Any ideas please or tips to try..
Cheers
Cyborg67

How much snow are we talking about here?

If you're driving on a genuinely slick surface where your tires are less in contact with the pavement than the ice/snow/slush/general crap of winter then it's perfectly okay to use 4x4 on it.  I do regularily in the winter months here in Michigan.

However if it's just a dusting of snow and the tires leave prints of wet but bare pavement then you don't need 4x4 for this.  It's all about traction.

Are the tires touching the ground or the snow?

Any chance you could find a patch of sand, 6" deep snow, or somewhere soft but safe to try and duplicate this stuff?

You know that in 4LO you're only suppodsed to go straight forward or backward without turning the wheels too much. You'll break something especially at full lock. Check the users manual, I think it's all in there.

Thanx for the reply's........Not much snow just a covering really.Have just had an email sent to me saying that it is "transmission windup" as none of the wheels are actually slipping and the burn smell is the clutch....
Not to be used as a 4x4 unless driving conditions have an element of slip in them.Which is exactly as AJMBLAZER was saying.

My missunderstanding as I thought it could be driven around as a 4 wheel drive vehicle or 2 wheel whatever the conditions but now realise that the 4 wheel is ONLY for when the conditons cause loss of traction.

I think that is right.........??

Thanks again.

Bingo, you got it.  You can drive around in 4x4 if you're going straight.  As soon as you try to turn drivetrain windup starts to occur.  Which is what you were experiencing.

You get better gas mileage in 2wd anyways, so don't worry about it.

Welcome to the wonderful world of 4x4's.  Where are you anyways?

Like I said totally new to 4x4 's and you have probably guessed from the UK.
The confussion came about because about 8 years ago I owned a Vauxhall (Opel/GM) Cavalier 4x4 2.0L which just had an electronic switch to go from 2 wheel drive to 4  wheel drive.Could be driven in either but when in 4x4 it gave far superior grip for throwing it around abit........
Also couldn't find any decent forums over here and was pointed in your direction from a forum over here saying that you guys would have the knowledge and were most helpfull........

How true they were.........

Trouble in Uk is when you get a newbie with a stupid question you get half the forum ripping them to bits because they don't already know the answer so then they dont bother again if you know what I mean........
Cheers

Eh, depending on the forum some of them are like that.  You should see Pirates of the Rubicon's forums.  If you asked a question like that the next thing you know you'd be banned by the moderators for your own good.

I have a feeling your Cavalier wasn't 4x4, it was AWD.  A car right?  Not a truck/SUV/ute?  That's made for road use, like a Subaru or Mitsubishi Evo.  They can be used offroad but their main advantage is on wet and slick roads.  What you have with your Suzuki is much different.  You can't use it on road like they can but offroad you'd be able to do stuff that would leave them with  mangled sheetmetal.

In 4 low your only supposed to go straight ? since when?

There should be no issue with turning in 4 low or 4 hi. I would have to imagine that the Suzuki engineers would at least design a car that would allow you to turn full lock in 4WD, (low or high) all the other manufacturers have. If your front end is still open differential then there should be no binding of the front end on sharp turns. (from left to right within the differential..) The only exception would be if you had a locker in the front, In which case you could get some binding on the front end. There may be more binding from front to rear (through the transfer case) but this would be only on dry pavement. (As you have already mentioned)  I have a Calmini lift on my 01' GV and I can turn circles all day in wet or snow. I've also had mine offraod more than a few times and have had the wheels full lock on dry granite with no issues. (on super swampers no less...)

So , back to your issue....
*Have you done any modifications to the front end?
*How are the CV joints on the front axles? (they could be binding at full lock putting undue stress on the differential and drivetrain)
*Are the front differential housing mounts still in good shape (if the mounts are rotted out it will allow the diff to rotate out of position and cause binding.)

I would crawl under the rig and do a good inspection of all the mounts and CV's

I just checked the owners manual and the only mention of keeping the wheels straight is when shifting from 2HI to 4HI or vice versa while in motion. So feel free to turn your wheels while wheelin' 

Let me clarify my above statement.

He should only drive around on try pavement in 4x4 by going straight.  What he was doing was not what the drivetrain was ment for.  I glossed over the subject, but I think he got my point as our conversation was in swing then.

Offroad or onroad in anything slick it wouldn't matter as the drivetrain can slip a bit and binding won't occur.