4WD Failure

[austinVR]

Wildtrack SAS
20k miles

Hey all, I am having a 4WD issue that my dealer is "unable to replicate" and has had no luck diagnosing. When in 4H, 4L, or 4A the front wheels are receiving no drive. The rears will spin all day long on a slick surface while the fronts do nothing. In any 4WD mode, after what I assume is the ABS seeing the rear wheels spin and the fronts at zero RPM, I receive a "4x4 Temporarily Disabled" message on dash. After gaining traction and driving 30 or so feet I get "4x4 Restored" until the next time the rears spin. To me it seems to be an obvious transfer case or transfer case solenoid issue, but the dealer understandably started by performing the AWD module re-program TSB even though I wasn't seeing the same symptoms described in the TSB. They called it a good fix because there were no faults and the dash indicated it was correctly engaging 4H, 4L, and 4A - just as it was indicating to me on the trail. I never received any kind of "Service 4x4" message with wrench icon. Along with that 4WD issue the dealer also did a calibration of the parking brakes because my rear left caliper was (unrelatedly) sticking on and giving me a "Park Brake Fault Service Now" message. I was skeptical of either of these reprogram fixes when I picked up my Bronco and both systems unsurprisingly failed on my way home. So, I returned to the service center next morning and again dropped the vehicle off. They gave me an Uber home and as I was walking in my front door the Service Advisor asked me to come back to go for a ride-along with the mechanic. When I got back (45 minutes after having dropped it off) my vehicle was in the service lot. I asked if they had even pulled it back into the shop yet and checked DTCs and was told no. Annoyed, I asked what they needed me to verify with them as I was quite descriptive of the issues I was having. We went to the vehicle and the park brake immediately faulted each time I attempted to set it. For the 4WD I asked them to put it on a lift, raise it a foot or so off the ground and let it idle in 4H or 4L to see that the fronts don't turn. They gave me all kinds of reasons for why this test would not work along with 'well, the shop is full right now so there aren't any lifts available'. I showed them that the system was obviously not working because when verifying the night before the rears had flung mud all over the back side of vehicle and the front was clean.

Anyways... they have had my Bronco for a week now. They fixed the park brake issue which was a leaking rear left caliper and a rear left park brake motor/solenoid. Not sure if the failure of either of those two components caused the other to fail - damn electric park brakes. The 4WD is still undiagnosed; they put it in their lot for 4 days waiting for brake parts instead of digging into the 4WD even though they said they would diagnose while waiting for the parts. I just received a text that they are still unable to replicate the complaint. Does Ford really not have a way to verify working 4WD systems? Lift method? Roller wheels? Nothing? I'm getting the impression that they're determining that if the computer says it is all working then it must be working and they don't need/want to look any deeper. This should be a really easy thing for them to at least verify.

Anyone else had this 4x4 message that wasn't followed up with faults and never actually corrected itself? My research indicates this message is typically displayed when the transfer case gets too hot. I know that didn't happen because I was in the snow and out of 2H (and in 4H) for just a brief moment - less than 20ft and 1 minute - before getting the message. The front wheels never even attempted to drive.

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[Ducati1098]

Bring it to a different dealership? The one you’re at sounds awful.

 

[Ft. Worth Rob]

I’ve had similar happen a couple times. First time in Normal mode when I had to induce some wheel spin then this past weekend in Rock Crawl mode in 4L, both times trying to get some momentum to get over some rocks with wheel spin. I’ve not bothered with the dealer. Next time out I might see if there is an ABS fuse I can pull.

 

[crenca]

Not even halfway through your first paragraph I knew you were going to have to go to another dealer/shop. No reason to bang your head on that brick wall any longer...

 

[austinVR]

Bring it to a different dealership? The one you’re at sounds awful.

Oh I for sure think this is my last visit to this service department. Would like to not have to start from scratch elsewhere with this issue but if this place can't even verify an obvious problem then clearly they are not the right technicians. It's not like this is an intermittent problem I'm having; its a constant failure.

And I forgot to mention they have neglected to write up my leaking (active drip) front differential pinion seal on my past two oil changes. They also "didn't see it" at the initial 4WD failure visit last week when they were diagnosing, so I had them pull it back in and repair before I picked up the vehicle.

 

[austinVR]

I read the thread where someone said that had luck pulling that ABS fuse, but it didn't

Not even halfway through your first paragraph I knew you were going to have to go to another dealer/shop. No reason to bang your head on that brick wall any longer...

Glad I am not the only one seeing it this way. Wanted to verify my thought process before taking elsewhere purely out of frustration or impatience.

 

[SierraBronco]

I’ve had similar happen a couple times. First time in Normal mode when I had to induce some wheel spin then this past weekend in Rock Crawl mode in 4L, both times trying to get some momentum to get over some rocks with wheel spin. I’ve not bothered with the dealer. Next time out I might see if there is an ABS fuse I can pull.

Pulling the ABS fuse just pisses the thing off. It locks out everything on ya.

 

[WarthogJr]

Another vote here for “try another shop.”

 

[Ft. Worth Rob]

Pulling the ABS fuse just pisses the thing off. It locks out everything on ya.

Do any of the goat modes prevent this issue? I mean, Ford should expect rock crawl mode to need to induce wheel spin once in a while.

 

[Brian_B]

I had a similar issue and i was able to “fix” it by pulling the FAD and fiddling with it - noticed it in snow when fronts wouldnt turn - after a minute or so would get 4x4 failure notice

That said - i don't know exactly what caused it other than i futzed around with the FAD gearing and it started working again, and (B) that doesnt exactly help you at all since you don't even have a FAD on a SAS/WT

… but you do have the ESOF solenoid on the transfer case and that was going to be my next thing to fiddle with. I would be looking at that.

 

[4x4fun]

Fill a complaint with https://bbbprograms.org/programs/all-programs/bbb-autoline

keep good records of how long issue has been going on, when you first noticed it, when it’s been at the dealer, what they did. Get copies of all records from them.

when I first t got mine I had transfer case motor and module issue. It was a headache but BBB got me some money from ford and I got a free premium care ford extend warranty. Hope this helps

 

[austinVR]

I had a similar issue and i was able to “fix” it by pulling the FAD and fiddling with it - noticed it in snow when fronts wouldnt turn - after a minute or so would get 4x4 failure notice

That said - i don't know exactly what caused it other than i futzed around with the FAD gearing and it started working again, and (B) that doesnt exactly help you at all since you don't even have a FAD on a SAS/WT

… but you do have the ESOF solenoid on the transfer case and that was going to be my next thing to fiddle with. I would be looking at that.

I am trying not to fuss with it too much because it is under warranty and shouldn't be my problem. I did check the normal things like connector on passenger frame rail, wire harness going over top of rear driveline, and connectors at transfer case.

Losing a lot of faith in the dealer service centers. They just sent me home tonight with the broken Bronco for a second time. Their repair notes indicate a 15-mile test drive and no issues or codes. No mention of verification that the 4WD system is actually even engaging the front wheels. Will be calling the Service Manager in the morning and then getting it into another dealership ASAP. Guess my weekend wheeling plans are cancelled though...

 

[SierraBronco]

Do any of the goat modes prevent this issue? I mean, Ford should expect rock crawl mode to need to induce wheel spin once in a while.

The offroad goat modes will turn off ABS and traction control. I haven’t confirmed this but looking at the module codes it looks like they might also change some of the airbag parameters so those effers don’t go off on ya when you don’t want them to. Then of course the louvers, steering, throttle, etcetera.

I was playing around trying to get the brake-over-throttle to stop limiting the RPM while holding on the brake to get better bumps. Was in 4L and rock crawl when I pulled the ABS fuse. That’s when I discovered that the bronco won’t let you change GOAT modes-it actually wouldn’t let me take it out of 4L either! So that was interesting to discover. Put the fuse in and cycled the ignition-good to go!

As far as the issue the OP is having I haven’t a clue what the issue is. Initial thought would be the electronic shifter but one would think if it’s not actually accomplishing the task then it would throw a code.

 

[Brian_B]

As far as the issue the OP is having I haven’t a clue what the issue is. Initial thought would be the electronic shifter but one would think if it’s not actually accomplishing the task then it would throw a code.

What I found out with the FAD was that it wouldn't throw a code until you got into a condition where it expected all 4 wheels to be turning, but the front's weren't.

So if you were just tooling down the road with decent traction in 4H/4L, and the fronts were rolling along, the Bronco (and I) thinks everything is just ok. It wasn't until the rear wheels lost traction and you were hoping the fronts would pull you out that it would throw a code (and I would start throwing things).

Now, I'm not sure if the Tcase has a feedback signal that checks engagement, or even if it does if the failure mode couldn't work around that anyway in the case of what may be the cause of this.

 

[Brian_B]

A decent check, since you have a WT/SAS - does it do the same thing in 4A, since that's an entirely different engagement method? Not exactly sure how you would test that - don't know if it will spin all 4 up on a jack in 4A.

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