First off I think the idea of the On-Demand 4WD is great, and it has kicked in a few times for me, however, the other day I was driving on a gravel road for about 30min, and the back wheels (4WD) kept kicking in and out all the time, and it was making the car more unstable than if they had stayed off or on.
Is there a way of manually turning the 4WD ON and OFF when I want to, such as a stretch of gravel road, or when icy. I notice that the car can kick a bit when the rear wheels come online, and in ice this can really freak someone out.
I am not going o be taking the car off-road, this is just for gravel and the very occasional icy road.

What would be great is a switch that flicks a solenoid on the 2WD/4WD system.

 

I'm not sure if such a thing is possible. All I can recall about Realtime 4WD is that the front wheels turn the driveshaft. The driveshaft turns an oil pump inside the rear diff. The rear axles turn a seperate oil pump inside the rear diff. When there is no traction loss, the front and rear oil pumps inside of the rear diff are spinning at about the same speed. When the front tires lose traction, the driveshaft starts to spin faster and so does the front oil pump inside the rear diff. As that pump spins faster, it overcomes the pressure of the rear oil pump and allows the clutches grab and thus turn on the Realtime 4WD system.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's how it works..

 

You've got it exactly right. Nice job!

 

I just purchased a 05 CRV and asked a tech about the Real Time. My understanding is that the vehicle operates in a 'All Wheel Drive" mode while driving under normal conditions. If an abnormal condition occurs on any wheel; it is detected and then the Real Time is activated to correct/compensate for the abnormality. Does this make sense???

 

Try pulling the ABS fuse, that's what you do on auto subies to deactivate it

 

Thanks all for your idea's, I think reading some of them, and also learning just how it works, I will leave well enough alone, I'll only end up breaking it otherwise.
Cheers
DM

 

Smart man

 

"I just purchased a 05 CRV and asked a tech about the Real Time. My understanding is that the vehicle operates in a 'All Wheel Drive" mode while driving under normal conditions. If an abnormal condition occurs on any wheel; it is detected and then the Real Time is activated to correct/compensate for the abnormality. Does this make sense???"

Your using front wheel drive under normal conditions until wheel slippage occurs in the front then your Realtime All Wheel Drive activates as PnX-R explained.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by golf &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">"I just purchased a 05 CRV and asked a tech about the Real Time. My understanding is that the vehicle operates in a 'All Wheel Drive" mode while driving under normal conditions. If an abnormal condition occurs on any wheel; it is detected and then the Real Time is activated to correct/compensate for the abnormality. Does this make sense???"

Your using front wheel drive under normal conditions until wheel slippage occurs in the front then your Realtime All Wheel Drive activates as PnX-R explained.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Question: Is there a difference between "On-Demand 4WD" and "Real Time Drive"?? Found the following info on my 05 CRV at Honda.com: The 05 model used a 'cam driven real time drive' which replace the old 'hydralic system'. Is the hydralic system the same as the oil pumps you are referring to. Thanks