My son bought a 2007 automatic 4x4 Toyota FJ cruiser with 134K several years ago that had been set up to be flat towed. He got a good deal on it because of this. From everything I could gather back then, the only way to safely flat tow automatic FJ’s without damaging them is to install a decoupler between the rear differential and rear drive shaft. Something I haven’t been able to find out, is if the mileage would be accurate, or does a decoupler such as this not cause the odometer to change IE since it decouples the rear drive shaft does that mean the miles on the odometer don’t include the miles it was flat towed? Or would the miles on the odometer still represent any mileage while it was being flat towed? I tried to add a pic but couldn’t.
Thanks in advance.
flat towing (with the decoupler) won't put any wear on the engine and transmission , which is what most people care about when looking at the odometer. Furthermore, odometers haven't been mechanical for decades. If the vehicle is shut off, there's no way for it to count miles/km.
@imperator
Thank you for your reply, that answered my odometer Q. Wish someone would have just brought up the electronic vs mechanical odometer issue before on other forums lol
After going to multiple RV & FJ forums , that seems to be a common misconception that drives premature wear in FJ’s and many other cars that are flat toed and why there are a few companies who make these decouplers. When I was trying to find out what this device was that was on his FJ I came across several people who had found out the hard way that an FJ is not an ideal vehicle to flat toe and conversely is why Jeeps are so popular. Several Toyota Master Technicians who work specifically building cars to be flat towed made a couple points but the topics were so old I could not get a response to my question from them. According to them, There are many cars who’s transmissions undergo a lot of wear because they are not being lubed as they would when the vehicle is being driven, because they don’t “decouple” and the pump or mechanism that lubes the transmission when the car is on is off when being flat towed. I’m not mechanic, but it Makes sense to me that if a mechanical part is moving it would need lubed. Maybe this is just a ploy to sale a part and provide an unnecessary service, but they had a small list of cars that needed them and a big list of cars that didn’t.