What's the difference between 4-wheel drive & All-wheel drive?

Answer 1

Terminology mostly. Although usually all wheel drive refers to on demand (always on and sends power to the wheel that is not slipping) while 4 wheel drive you turn on at the transfer case, and sometimes have to engage the hubs manually.

Answer 2

While a lot of people will say four wheel drive should be something that you have to engage and all wheel drive works all the time, in practice, manufacturers frequently ignore these distinctions. I've seen cars labeled "All wheel drive" that had no center differential and required the driver to flip a switch to send power to the rear wheels, and it wouldn't surprise me if there are some vehicles marked "four wheel drive" where the system operates full time.

Answer 3

To the best of my knowledge - a 4-wheel drive is manually enabled, meaning that you shift to a 4-wheel option when you want to.

All-wheel drive is always all wheels.

In the past 4-wheel drive was more common, because of comfort and fuel efficiency being bad in 4-wheel drive vehicles, so it was an option. But the advancement in technology has made it possible to have comfort and efficiency in an all-wheel or full time 4-wheel drive vehicle.

Answer 4

all wheel drive is a traction control version of 4 wheel drive. when one wheel slips the tire at the opposite corner is activated. 4 wheel drive is an open diff. designand has a gear reduction in the front. it just spreads out the torque.
Hope that helps

Answer 5

4 wheel drive refers to being able to put the vehicle into four wheel drive mode. i.e. shifting from two wheel drive to four wheel drive. my jeep is full time four whell drive which means all four wheel are constanly driven. there is no way to release the four wheel drive option, i can only go from four hi to four low.
all wheel drive is the same thing as full time four wheel drive except a traction control is in involved when my jeep has posi units

Answer 6

4 wheel drive is part time and all wheel is all the time

Answer 7

4 wheel drive refers to a 4 wheeled vehicle on which all 4 wheels are driven by the engine.

All wheel drive means that all wheels are driven, irrespective of how many there are.

So a Range Rover could correctly be referred to as either.

All Wheel Drive is usually applied to specialist vehicles such as all-terrain vehicles, army vehicles etc.

I hope this helps.

Answer 8

4 wheel drive needs to be set into gear (the car will run as 2WD unless the 4WD is engaged) Whereas in AWD the car will automatically change from 2WD to 4WD w/o you needing to activate a system.