I've been test driving Liberties and noticed something odd with two of the three I recently drove. When in 4WD and doing slow turns, the tires seem to fight as if they don't have open differentials. It's like the right and rear tires are fighting against each other a bit. Is this normal?

Are you driving them in full-time 4wd or part-time?
Are you driving them on pavement or dirt?

Full-time 4wd can be used on pavement and should not cause any binding. But sometimes the transfer case gets hung up in part-time 4wd and will cause binding on pavement.

Part-time can be used on mud, sand, snow and ice. But should never be used on hard high traction surfaces.

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U.S. Army Retired

I'm familiar with how 4WD works. I tested on dirt and on pavement. Both were Command Trac systems. I tested 4-hi and 4-lo. What would happen is the inside tire when turning would intermittently catch (get a little spurt of power) as if most of the time it acted like a typical open diff and rolled smoothly but every few feet it would get equal power.

You felt the release of the pressure build up by binding due to slightly different gear ratio's front and rear.

Never drive in part time on pavement(wet or dry).