is 4L mean 4 wheel drive in equinox?
What does the owners manual say?
4L means Four wheel drive Low range. That engages four wheel drive, but means two things in your case:
1: All four wheels will be locked in to drive until you turn Off 4L. This means that the “sometimes on, sometimes off” of the automatic all wheel drive mode is disengaged. You can’t drive on dry pavement or really anything that isn’t slippery.
2: You’ll be in low range, which essentially changes the gear ratio of all of your transmissions gears. Rather than the engine turning at -for example- 3000 RPM at 65, it may now turn 4500 or 5000 RPM at 65. You don’t want that.
Four wheel drive low range is only for “crawling”, when a sudden lunge of acceleration will break your traction, or if you need to get up something steep, etc.
If your car has an AWD or Auto setting on the four wheel drive selector, that is probably where you want to keep it 9/10 of the time.
- Open glove comparment
- Find Owner’s Manual
- Read Owner’s Manual
You will be amazed at the information that is contained in that book, which is likely still sealed in its original plastic wrapping.
4L means that the vehicle is in 4 wheel drive, and the transfer case’s gear reduction has been activated (typically via another gear set or chain) This effectively multiplies the overall gear ration by around 1.69 :1 to about 4:1 for most stock vehicles. This provides greater torque multiplication for low-speed/high demand situations like stump pulling. It can also provide greater control when off-roading or descending a steep hill whilst off-road. Typically you don’t use it much.
I have only had one 4-wheel drive, a’99 S-10, but 4L is so slow that I doubt seriously if it would run anywhere near 65. I know it would be a BAD idea. And never use it on dry land or pavement. As FoDaddy says in another post, it is for stump pulling.
I’ve only had to use 4L maybe 3 times…All three was when I was towing my pop-up up a loose gravel hill.
I think you mean L4, not 4L. The Equinox is not a 4WD vehicle, instead it is either FWD or AWD (those are the options available). L4 simply means that the transmission is prevented from going into 5th (it has a 5 speed auto). BTW, L2 means that the transmission will not shift above 2nd gear.