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Ford Explorer AWD 4WD Questions

184 messages,  Last post on May 15, 2013 at 9:11 AM

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What is this discussion about? Ford Explorer, Ford Explorer Sport, Ford Explorer Sport Trac, Auto Repair, SUV

Messages Page 11 of 19

#94 of 184 2002 ford explorer v-6 automatic 4x4 by jtruckergirl

Jan 23, 2010 (12:00 pm)

My Ford Explorer tries to engage into 4x4 while driving down the road at all speeds. We had the actuator checked and it is working. Sometimes it does it sometimes it doesnt. When driving it acts up and the 4x4 light flashes also. The transmission itself was serviced and fluids and filter changed, This truck only has 124,000 miles on it. It is something up front, you can hear it when it acts up. Its like a shutter type feeling also feels like tranny is slipping but it isnt. Any ideas on what this could be...I dont want to take it to Ford because I know that they will guess and charge me too much money. Any inut would be greatly appreciated, Thank you

#95 of 184 Re: 4x4 blinking light [jtruckergirl] by fillr68

Jan 23, 2010 (4:40 pm)

Replying to: jtruckergirl (Jan 23, 2010 11:55 am)
I had a problem like that with my 99 Explorer..found that my front tires were out of balance the vibration which was very mild caused the 4 wheel drive to engage at any speed..hope this helps..

#96 of 184 Re: 2002 ford explorer v-6 automatic 4x4 [jtruckergirl] by fillr68

Jan 23, 2010 (4:42 pm)

Replying to: jtruckergirl (Jan 23, 2010 12:00 pm)
I had a problem like that with my 99 Explorer..found that my front tires were out of balance the vibration which was very mild caused the 4 wheel drive to engage at any speed..hope this helps..you may want to check the wheel bearing hubs driver side goes up around 100.000 miles they can be noisey....

#97 of 184 Re: 2002 ford explorer v-6 automatic 4x4 [fillr68] by jtruckergirl

Jan 23, 2010 (4:52 pm)

Replying to: fillr68 (Jan 23, 2010 4:42 pm)
Thank you...would the wheel hub cause it to want to try engaging into 4x4?? We just bought the truck last week and it has 2 matching tires on back but 2 different tread designs up front...all the same size though, the 235/70/16's all the way around. So you think its the tires or could still be the wheel hub. Now we do have a noise on the driver side, sounds like a rotor rubbing, would that be a wheel hub?? or jsut the tires you think?? I am willing to try anything before taking it to a dealer because i have been reading horror stories on here all day..lol...thank you so much!!

#98 of 184 Re: 2002 ford explorer v-6 automatic 4x4 [jtruckergirl] by jtruckergirl

Jan 29, 2010 (7:30 pm)

Replying to: jtruckergirl (Jan 23, 2010 4:52 pm)
ok i just bought brand new tires all the way around and mytruck still making noice up front. You turn it to the left and it makes a rubbing type noice ( wawawawa) you go straight or to the right it doesnt make the noice...any ideas??

#99 of 184 Re: 2002 ford explorer v-6 automatic 4x4 [jtruckergirl] by fillr68

Jan 30, 2010 (2:09 pm)

Replying to: jtruckergirl (Jan 23, 2010 4:52 pm)
yes......wheel bearings hubs make a nasty grinding rubbing noise..and the driver side goes bad first..I changed both of mine and the truck drives great..and they are fairly easy to replace..

#100 of 184 Re: 2002 ford explorer v-6 automatic 4x4 [fillr68] by jtruckergirl

Jan 30, 2010 (3:26 pm)

Replying to: fillr68 (Jan 30, 2010 2:09 pm)
Thank you, We are ordering the wheel hub for the drivers side. We still have our 4x4 unplugged so that wont keep engaging. We live here in Florida so we dont use it anyway. The tires sure did make a difference in the ride and took care of some of the problem. So we have our fingers crossed that the wheel hub makes the difference and fixes the problem. I will keep you all posted. Thank you again for the suggestions,

#101 of 184 Re: 2002 ford explorer v-6 automatic 4x4 [jtruckergirl] by jtruckergirl

Feb 06, 2010 (1:49 pm)

Replying to: jtruckergirl (Jan 30, 2010 3:26 pm)
Ok any other ideas????? we have replaced all 4 tired with brand new ones, today we jsut replaced the drivers side hub and still no change at all....any other guesses?? I am starting to get irritated and im going to sell it if we cant figure it out....this is nuts. The ford dealer dont know whats wrong with it...the truck has been in for a complete trans service including fluid and filter change...everything looked great with the tranni...no burnt fluid or metal shavings in it...he said its one of the best condition trannis he has seen. So what the heck else could it be...we have the shift motor on the back of the transfer case unplugged so that the 4x4 cant keep trying to engage....took it for a ride after changing the drivers side hub and still makes a rubbing type noise when turned to the left....still have a shutter up front when driving down the road but not all the time.....please help me!!!!!

#102 of 184 Brown Wire Mod by fillr68

Feb 07, 2010 (6:43 am)

there is a Brown Wire Mod this will bypass the automatic 4wheel drive.. you will still have the 4wheel but you will have to turn it on yourself.. you will have low and high I could not find the link to that thread I will give you a link to the forum look up Brown Wire Mod..it is very detailed to show you how it is done ..I feel it is worth it to do this..
it is a very good forum..you may have to pay a small fee to join I have been there for a longtime... Brooklyn Bay is a user name you can look him up on that forum he is better at this.......hope this helps.....

#103 of 184 Re: Brown Wire Mod [fillr68] by jtruckergirl

Feb 07, 2010 (10:56 am)

Replying to: fillr68 (Feb 07, 2010 6:43 am)
Ok, Well before we did the tires and the wheel hub, we unplugged that brown wire mod. So we drove it like that for a while and didnt have the problem of it trying to engage. When we put it in 4x4 manually it would make a bunch of noises and you couldnt drive it in 4x4 high. So we left it in 2 wheel until we bought the new set of tires and then we were still having issues of it grabbing an makin noise up front in 2w drive....so we changed out the front drivers wheel hub bearing which when we got the old one off it didnt turn freely like it should...so obviously that is what we were feeling...it felt like it was grabbing up front...so after we put the new hub in last night...i decided to plug back in the brown wire mod and try the 4x4 out....I was shocked and amazed I was able to put it into 4H and drive it...so it definatly the tires or the new wheel hub or both that fixed the 4x4 trying to engage itself...I have drove it 200 miles since last night with it plugged back in and the new wheel hub and tires and no issues...the only problem now is it still feels like the front end is binding up when picking up speed but is fine once you are to your speed you want. So I am thinking if the drivers side hub was that bad then most likely the passenger side is too...So this next weekend I will change out the other side....seeing how I bought the last one at our parts store. They gotta order another one. So I think I am on the right track...I am able to drive with that mod plugged back in finally and it seems to be fine so far ( knock on wood ) I can drive in 4x4H if i want to..other than the slight binding up up front...Thank you so much for your help. I will keep you posted!!

Messages Page 11 of 19

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