Thread: Old Nissan Safari query

As mentioned the fully auto hubs are absolute shyte, the other type which are manual/auto are the best in all seriousness.

The auto side is pretty adequate for general stuff, fundraiser, light river or club grade 2 use. For serious grade 5 shyte then just use your wheel brace or tyre iron to switch the hub from auto to manual....they rarely fail or let you down.
I've got genuine Patrol manual hubs on my Safari, I love em...but I've got a couple pairs of mint factory auto/manual hubs tucked away.

The only time I EVER had trouble with the above hubs was winter to summer, during summer i'd run factory recommended fluid in the transfer case, during winter when that oil was thicker due to the cold temperatures here in the South Is...when I left for work in the morning and the fluid being thicker - the auto hubs tended to engage, this only occurred until things warmed up. So to prevent that I'd run auto transmission fluid in the transfer case. It worked perfectly and incase anyone thinks it a bit weird then Google it or look on the Patrol4x4 aussie forum.

Originally Posted by Twodiffs

As mentioned the fully auto hubs are absolute shyte, the other type which are manual/auto are the best in all seriousness.

The auto side is pretty adequate for general stuff, fundraiser, light river or club grade 2 use. For serious grade 5 shyte then just use your wheel brace or tyre iron to switch the hub from auto to manual....they rarely fail or let you down.
I've got genuine Patrol manual hubs on my Safari, I love em...but I've got a couple pairs of mint factory auto/manual hubs tucked away.

The only time I EVER had trouble with the above hubs was winter to summer, during summer i'd run factory recommended fluid in the transfer case, during winter when that oil was thicker due to the cold temperatures here in the South Is...when I left for work in the morning and the fluid being thicker - the auto hubs tended to engage, this only occurred until things warmed up. So to prevent that I'd run auto transmission fluid in the transfer case. It worked perfectly and incase anyone thinks it a bit weird then Google it or look on the Patrol4x4 aussie forum.

Good to know. Mine is the factory auto/manual variety that takes the wheel brace to change from one setting to the other.

Originally Posted by XR500

Good to know. Mine is the factory auto/manual variety that takes the wheel brace to change from one setting to the other.

They are OK, although this was the type that did the 50Km/H 'self-engage' on me driving around town... I replaced with fully manual and no more problems with the bloody things trying to engage at 50Km/H while in 2wd mode. The cheaper auto type (like what you normally get on the early xtrails and the like) are not recommended, but the auto with what they call the emergency manual override option are also not entirely bullet proof.

To be fair, when I was doing a lot of 4wd work I just used to leave them engaged and let the front diff sort it out. Didn't notice any issue with either steering handling or fuel economy from it, and usually when I was working the rest of the crew parked on your arse so you couldn't reverse to unlock the auto hubs anyway so no real change there.

I used to just run the same LSD diff oil in front and rear, as it meant 1 bottle rather than two using half in each end. I think I was able to get a 6L which just did it if I recall, never had any issues with the hubs as I was running manuals anyway. I expect that the issue is due to the axles 'dragging' on the oil viscosity, but no real issue I can see unless you get a handling issue from it???