My 98 Prado has been an extremely reliable vehicle.  Mind you , since new I have serviced it every 5,000km.  However the other day I finally got my hydrogen generator installed and running and I noticed two bad noises coming from the centre of the car.  I tried everything to narrow these noises down.  One was a sort of continual rumbling on acceleration and deceleration, while the other was a high pitched screaching, something reminiscent of running a finger nail down a chalk board.

I had people running beside the vehicle trying to work out where it was coming from and by that night I had convinced myself that it was a gearbox bearing.  Next day I took it to work and got 2 of the techs (at different times) to diagnose the problem.

Both techs came up with the same theory – a dry universal joint.  A quick re-grease of all joints and the problem was fixed.  I had done a couple of big river crossings just after my last service, so it’s amazing how quick the grease can wash out.

Moral of the story, have another quick service done after decent river crossings.

Traction No matter what you have heard or learnt in the past, this is the most important thing for successful four wheel driving. Without TRACTION, your 4×4 will get nowhere. There are five key elements to traction…. 1. Track condition. 2. Tyres. 3. Suspension travel. 4. Engine revs. 5. The number of driven wheels. Just one of these in poor condition or of the wrong type and your forward motion can be seriously limited.