Got Stuck in Desert for Hours Because Bronco 4x4 System got Temporarily Disabled for no Obvious Reason

[Black Bronk]

UPDATE: Unfortunately things got worst. The Bronco completely died today (Nov 26, 2023) while going to get tacos 2 miles from home. This post has all the details and a video to proof it. This car only has 9k miles

I bought a used 2022 Bronco WildTrak with 8k miles on it. I love the exterior and interior looks of the vehicle, the comfort, etc except I just can't trust the car off-roading anymore. It just hasn't been reliable.

I went off-roading solo in one of the desert trails outside Vegas. Its an easy trail (rated 3/10 difficulty on ONX ), total driving time was supposed to be about 2 hrs to and fro and its mostly sand and gravel with a little rocky steep patch not longer than 10 feet and about 15 degrees incline. I drove in and it was all smooth but on my way back my Bronco suddenly reported an error, "4x4 Temporarily disabled". There was no obvious signs that could have caused this. I didn't hit/scrape any rocks and had only driven about an hour. Due to this I wasn't able to climb a small sand hill because I never had enough traction. Since the hill was small i decided to drive around it which meant going of the trail, its the desert so I wasn't blocked by any trees but the path was rocky and with 2WD it was quite the ordeal. I'd keep lifting a tire in the air, stop, then stack rocks under the tire so I could continue. This would have been super easy with 4WD but due to this my return which was to be about an hour took 3 hours.


I have tried to Google the issue, it can be caused by several factors and overheating is one of them. It was 70 degrees Fahrenheit out and I only drove for about an hour with my max speed being 40 mph, no hitting rocks or super steep climbs. If that alone is enough to overheat the 4x4 system how can I even trust this thing to go overlonding?

If its not overheating what can cause an 8k mile bronco fail this bad at the one thing its supposed to do? Have any people dealt with this, I wonder how common it might be? I've seen threads in other forums about this without the driver even going off-road.

Funny thing is the 4x4 system was renabled about 15 mins after I got out of the desert and was back on the highway.

EDIT: Based on how often this happens and in not so challenging situations I think the statement "A jeep will take you there, but a Toyota will take you there and back" should be updated. It should include the fact that a Bronco won't even get you there. This car seems to have been designed for mall crawlers.

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[Hashlak]

This has happened to me before and quite a few people in our Local Bronco Club..

It tends to happen when we get stuck in soft sand and are pushing too hard to get out.. Not sure why exactly, but this just triggers the car to disable GOAT modes, however I have not had the 4x4 system itself fail.. And as you said above, after like 15 mins on the road everything goes back to normal.

What we are doing now is that we just pull the no.29 fuse on the fuse box and disable all the nannys.. They you can use the car to the full potential, only disadvantage is that GOAT modes will be disabled and you need to use the car in Manual mode for best results..

 

[ScottyC]

If you can't "trust" it anymore....better trade 'er in.

 

[Fivefingerheist]

This has happened to me before and quite a few people in our Local Bronco Club..

It tends to happen when we get stuck in soft sand and are pushing too hard to get out.. Not sure why exactly, but this just triggers the car to disable GOAT modes, however I have not had the 4x4 system itself fail.. And as you said above, after like 15 mins on the road everything goes back to normal.

What we are doing now is that we just pull the no.29 fuse on the fuse box and disable all the nannys.. They you can use the car to the full potential, only disadvantage is that GOAT modes will be disabled and you need to use the car in Manual mode for best results..

I've went pretty hard-up muddy hills. I wonder if certain GOAT modes make this less likely to happen.

 

[Machinepirate]

I am finding these cars are ultra sophisticated and prone to just failing with all the electronics on them. They aren’t dependable with all the crap on them and with the slightest hiccup your going to have exactly what happened to you. Don’t forget they haven’t been out that long and I see a lot of fixes for exactly this kind of issue down the road.

 

[Hashlak]

Honestly, its quite common out here in the soft desert sand. Doesnt matter what GOAT mode you are in, Baja mode or Sand mode.. If you get stuck, and just keep giving throttle trying to get out (where you end up digging in more) turning left/right, it triggers this. Ive seen it happen to others and myself once.

Once you hit the road, everything goes back to normal.. Its something that less experienced drivers face as they do not know how to get unstuck and just try to power through.

 

[PWillette]

This has happened to me before and quite a few people in our Local Bronco Club..

It tends to happen when we get stuck in soft sand and are pushing too hard to get out.. Not sure why exactly, but this just triggers the car to disable GOAT modes, however I have not had the 4x4 system itself fail.. And as you said above, after like 15 mins on the road everything goes back to normal.

What we are doing now is that we just pull the no.29 fuse on the fuse box and disable all the nannys.. They you can use the car to the full potential, only disadvantage is that GOAT modes will be disabled and you need to use the car in Manual mode for best results..

I've never heard of the fuse #29 trick? What does this fuse manage?

 

[j_marinelli]

I've never heard of the fuse #29 trick? What does this fuse manage?

according to the manual, its the anti-lock brake system pump

 

[PWillette]

according to the manual, its the anti-lock brake system pump

Interesting, seem to me that would disable the truck? I see he is in UAE, wonder if there's a different arrangement.

 

[da_jokker]

Something like this would only happen to me once.

I've never heard about the Fuse 29 trick, but I've heard many people will unhook the battery for a bit in attempts to reset the "Stupid"

Mechanical breakdowns are one thing, but being stuck for sensor complaints should be a lawsuite. Sort of like Jeep Desiels that will shut you down if you run out of DEF.

Side note: those temps should not be to excessive.

 

[Silver-Bolt]

Were you in 4HI or 4A?

 

[orion]

I've heard of people just shutting off their Broncos and restarting will clear some 4x4 inoperable situations. OP, did you try this or ever shut your Bronco off when this was happening?

 

[climb2descend]

Had this happen to me while I was in a wash, I was descending into a wash in 4-hi, got a bunch of errors for abs, advance Trac disabled etc, foolishly I switched into 2-hi to try and clear everything and then it wouldn't let me switch back to 4- hi. Tried turning the bronco off and on multiple times, it wouldn't clear out the errors. Meanwhile I was stuck in the wash trying to get back out a steep hill and not enough traction, definitely a frustrating and scary situation. After some heavy throttle attempts trying to get out and banging around up the hill the errors went away and all was fine..That only has happened to me once and hasn't happened again, I suspect it was a wheel speed sensor issue but who knows. I was going to try and disconnect and reconnect the battery but I wanted to see how far I could get in 2wd in this type of scenario. Next time I would just disconnect the battery and reconnect and prevent any anxiety lol.

 

[Brostango]

So pull fuse 29 before off-roading. interesting. This will not create other faults? Will all the hero switches still be functionable? I tend to manually shift anyways.

 

[PWillette]

So pull fuse 29 before off-roading. interesting. This will not create other faults? Will all the hero switches still be functionable? I tend to manually shift anyways.

Jury is out on this #29 fuse trick. The OP is driving a UAE spec truck, may not be the same configuration as US spec.

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