I have taken my 1998 Explorer 4X4 on the beach many times over the years with no problems. In deep sand, I usually use the LOW 4x4 mode. My Explorer has an electronic shift transfer case selector switch, and, as usual, when leaving the beach, I pulled off the beach into less deep sand, stopped, put the transmission in Neutral and turned the 4x4 selector switch from 4x4 LOW to 4x4 HIGH. However, this time I did not hear the customary "clunk" I usually hear when it comes out of LOW. I then tried putting the selector switch in the AUTO position which should have kicked me out of either LOW or HIGH. I drove forward a bit and I knew from the feel that I was still in 4x4 LOW even though the selector switch was now pointing to AUTO and NO 4WD indicator lights on the dash were lit. I slowly drove a bit further and both the 4WD LOW and 4WD HIGH indicator lights began to flash at once! Also, the dash Overdrive Off indicator kept flashing on and off. I cut the engine and restarted it several times, and tried several times with the Selector Switch to get it out 4x4 LOW with no luck. I managed to drive to a paved area and, from the way the truck was handling, it was obvious it was still in LOW and both the LOW and HIGH 4WD dash indicator lights continued to flash simultaneously. I looked for any blown fuses in both the under dash and underhood locations. I pulled and checked all the fuses in the underhood power distribution box and none were blown. All I had with me was the owners manual, and it was not in-depth enough to do much more trouble shooting. However, it did mention which relay may be involved, and I switched it with another relay which was identical in the underhood power distribution box. After 30 minutes of pulling and checking fuses(none were bad), switching the relays, tapping on relays and starting and stopping the engine, I started the engine and all at once the Selector Switch began working normally, and I was able to change 4x4 modes. (I was sweating bullets by then, I was in a remote location and about 200 paved road miles from home) The switch is working perfectly now. But now I have no idea what the problem was or how I fixed it. Could it have been a computer glitch, and I fixed it by pulling fuses and resetting it? Once at home, I switched the relays back to their original positions, but the problem did not reoccur. I really want to understand what happened here and prevent this from ever happening again. If anyone has ever had a similar problem or have any ideas on what could cause this, I would really appreciate hearing from you here or by e-mail .

Thanks
Jay
wildguess4(No Email Addresses In Posts!)

 

I had a similar problem with my 98 Explorer, but my vehicle engaged into 4-lo automatically after I slowed down to about 50km (30 mph) to make a left turn. The switch was set to AUTO and non of the idiot lights came on. I pulled over and tried to put into park, but it would not shift properly, so I left in in neutral turning the switch to 4-HI and 4-Lo trying to get it back into Auto Mode. Ended up turning the vehicle off, managed to shove it into Park. Put it back in neutral rolled it forward(very hard pushing in 4-LO), started the vehicle and heard the transfer case clunk as it went into Auto mode. I checked my tranny fluid level and it was ok. I'm thinking that the small motor in the transfer case is defective, and I'm going to have them check it this week.

Does anybody else know what could be the problem here?

Thanks

Dean

 

I had the same odd experience with my '95 Explorer.
Shifting to 4-LO can only be performed with the lever in Neutral, the car completely stopped and the brakepedal pressed.
The gears are actuated by a solenoid, going back to 4-auto sometimes fails when there still is some torque on the gears.
If so, it is no use to try to get in 2 wheel mode because the lo-gears first have to be disengaged.
It helps when you put the switch in 4-lo and let the car roll back and forth a little by shifting from D to R and back.
Then try it again in Neutral and switch the **** in 4-auto.
It helped me anyway, greetz, Tony

 

Thanks for the reply and the advice, Tony. I think making sure that there is no torque on the gears at all may be something I will pay more attention to in the future. Although I had not had it freeze in 4-LOW before in the many times I gone in and out of 4-LOW, it is definately possible that torqued gears were the start of the probelm. Then, perhaps, driving a bit with the Selector pointing to AUTO while the transfer case was actually still in 4-LOW may have caused the strange flashing 4-HIGH/4-LOW indicator lights. However, after this happened, it was a real bear getting out of 4-LOW and getting the Selector switch back to normal functioning. Neither cutting engine off and on, nor going thru the stopped-brake- Neutral-4x4 AUTO sequnce several times got her out of 4-LOW until one last try when all worked as usual. Still working fine, no more problems. Thinking maybe that by pulling certain fuses, I may have reset something that got the Selector switch back in sequence and working again. Hard to say, but any info further info of this subject is greatly appreciated.

Thanks Again,
Jay

 

Thanks for the quick respond, BTW if, after an occasion like this the 4x4 lights keep flashing, disconnect the negative and positive terminals of the battery for a couple of minutes, this will clear the computer's memory.
Greetz, Tony.