Thread: Descending Hills - D2 Auto Lockup for braking

Hi Jon,

I think you can safely lock the centre diff, although the MY03 owners manual makes no mention of doing so in the sections relating to HDC and descending steep hills.

RAVE contains this information:

Vehicles from 03 model year (with differential lock fitted) – At speeds between 0 and 62.5 mph (0 and 100
km/h), ETC uses brake intervention in axle pairs to maintain even torque distribution between the front and rear
axles. If the centre differential lock is in the locked condition, the differential lock warning lamp in the instrument
pack is illuminated. The ABS, EBD, ETC and HDC functions are retained, but with revised parameters to suit the
locked differential.

cheers
Paul

Been away twice over the last couple of weeks, first time was before this came up and I just used the auto, locking it into the required gear by hand not realising that the "sport" button did the manual/lock up thingy.

Last weekend used the sport and the over run difference was chalk and cheese. If as noted you don't drive it to achieve fluid coupling prior to the descent it does get a bit freaky as it looks like it's not going to stop but it pulls itself back.

This actually reduces the need to engage HDC as much, which while I'm a fan of it, being "older" still like to do some things myself.