Fwd fuse

[nephite_guy]

I know this has been discussed before, many times, but i never found an answer to the question.

i have a 90 legacy sedan, LS, AWD, AT, and it has the cool "FWD fuse"
i read many posts where it screws something up or it doesn't. no real answer. so i am looking for one.
if i drive my car with the fuse in, is it going to hurt something?
this goes out to anyone that has a similar car and has done it, or you experts. please help. the guy i got the car from drove it like that all the time i think. so i wanna know if it got screwed up.
thanks in advance

[Manarius]

There's varying response with the FWD fuse. Most people say and agree that it's meant specifically for troubleshooting only. 30 miles on the FWD fuse at the most.

Others have driven with it in for hundreds and thousands of miles with no problems. Maybe they were just lucky?

Odds are, if the car drives just fine with the fuse in or out, there's nothing wrong with it and no damage has been done. There is no real reason to drive with the fuse in, except maybe to chirp at stop signs (then why did one buy a AWD car anyways?).

[Legacy777]

You're not going to find a specific number of the amount of miles that you can drive on it, and be "OK".

The FWD fuse sends a constant 12v to the duty c solenoid, which essentually disables the AWD. The solenoid is designed for a pulsed signal, not a constant signal. So depending on the condition of the solenoid (age), how it was made, or how the winds are blowing that day will determine whether it will fail prematurely.

Running the solenoid with a constant signal is bound to take some life off the solenoid, but it may still work the rest of the life of the vehicle.....

So no, there's no real definitive answer in my opinion. The fuse was put there to use by the factory, so if you need to use it, use it.