Changing Front Wheel Drive RAV4 to All Wheel Drive ~ 2007 Toyota RAV4

[niterider40]

I just bought an 03 with a manual tranny but only frontwheel drive. I also have a parts car with all wheel drive and an automatic tranny. I'm wondering if installing the differentials will be worth the trouble and if anyone has experience changing to all wheel drive. My new rav only has 50k miles so I wanna fix it up and modify it alot. I can get help doing the work if its beyond my capability and any info is appreciated.

 

[toyotafan]

I've done this before on an old blazer. Rwd with a donor 4wd. Not as quick and easy as you might think. What are the specs for each vehicle? How far gone is the donor vehicle ... that is use that as the base and swap everything else?

 

[niterider40]

I've done this before on an old blazer. Rwd with a donor 4wd. Not as quick and easy as you might think. What are the specs for each vehicle? How far gone is the donor vehicle ... that is use that as the base and swap everything else?

the donor truck is horrible. Its just parts. so using it as the main vehicle wont be a good plan. Mine only has 58,000 miles and seems almost new except for some dings and dents from joyriding drunk the previous owner someone said just swap out the differentials and I'd be done. I don't see it being that easy. I'm hoping you can tell me a few things

 

[MuddyTacoma]

It all just ends up coming down to time and effort. Can you do it? Sure, you probably can. I'd imagine that most of the mechanical stuff will swap over without issue, but you have to get the right electronics and module switch over to take advantage (or ever actually make work) all of the new stuff that's coming over.

 

[MuddyTacoma]

Take some pics of both vehicles so we can see what we're looking at.

 

[toyotafan]

I just bought an 03 with a manual tranny but only frontwheel drive. I also have a parts car with all wheel drive and an automatic tranny. I'm wondering if installing the differentials will be worth the trouble and if anyone has experience changing to all wheel drive. My new rav only has 50k miles so I wanna fix it up and modify it alot. I can get help doing the work if its beyond my capability and any info is appreciated.

What did you end up doing? Anything?

 

[niterider40]

I decided not to attempt it now but maybe down the road if I get some more pointers or help, I might be able to. It is front wheel drive and Im driving it so I'm waiting till I get another car. I need to figure out where all the electronics are first.

 

[toyotafan]

I decided not to attempt it now but maybe down the road if I get some more pointers or help, I might be able to. It is front wheel drive and Im driving it so I'm waiting till I get another car. I need to figure out where all the electronics are first.

Let's see a pic of your ride.

 

[niterider40]

Let's see a pic of your ride.

The white one is the doner and it looks better than the multicolored I'm driving. The multicolored one only has 68k miles and it runs great. Its just front wheel drive but thats ok. It still rallys.

 

[toyotafan]

The white one is the doner and it looks better than the multicolored I'm driving. The multicolored one only has 68k miles and it runs great. Its just front wheel drive but thats ok. It still rallys.

That's an impressive color pallet, lol.

 

[DanHoffman]

Will you be engaged in pre-equipment or give it to the service? What experience do you have in car repair? Perhaps you have more experience than anyone here or not. It’s probably not worth asking questions as they arise, but to be honest, I don’t quite understand the economic meaning of this undertaking. It's interesting to see the result though. I came across the fact that otherwise 4 wd cars were made into 2 wd and there was a problem with the engine control unit from automatic transmission to mechanics, but this is not really your option, since you have a complete donor, then everything should be intuitive