Hey guys I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue before. Yesterday coming home from work in our first major snow storm of the winter I put the truck in 4wd on some of the back roads. However when I took it back out of 4wd it was still steering and driving as if it was. The dash display said I was in 2wd but it felt like the front hubs did not disengage right away. It took anther several miles for the front hubs to disengage. It was very cold yesterday afternoon here, about 18 degrees, and once I got on the main road I was sitting in heavy traffic. I talked to my mechanic about it and he said it's fairly common in the cold, especially on trucks where the 4wd isn't used much. Has anyone else had this issue. And how are front hubs actuated on these trucks? Are they electronic or vacuum operated? Forgive the rookie question but this is the first 4x4 I've owned. Right now the truck has about 44k miles on it so the mileage is low-average for the year (2012).

 

Mine does the same thing. If you switch back to 2-high while driving, the hubs still have torque applied to them. They won't unlock until you completely stop. Occasionally I have to back up a few feet. But most of the time they'll unlock first time I stop.

As far as how they work, they are designed to be locked all the time. When you select 2-high, vacuum is applied to the hubs to disconnect them. But in 4-high or 4-low, or when the engine is off, there is no vaccum being supplied and the hubs default back to locked status.

 

I'm sorry this just made me laugh

Sounds pretty common with auto hubs, I know a 2004 we had which had the same system would act about the same. Backing up a short distance would typically unlock them quickly.

 

Yeah Russ I realize 18 degrees is a warm, Spring day for you but for most of us in the lower-48 that's plenty cold enough! LOL
I was wondering if backing up would unlock the hubs, but I was slogging it out in heavy traffic and couldn't put in reverse until I backed into my driveway. By the way, coming to a complete stop didn't unlock them either, although the more I turned the wheel that seemed to help a little.
They eventually did unlock and the truck drove fine coming into work this morning in 2wd

 

I would double check to make sure your vacuum lines on the IWE's do not have leaks/holes/breaks in them.

What you experienced seems fairly normal, but it isn't hard to visually check the lines. If you really want to get in to it, you can pull them off and apply vacuum using a small pump to make sure they aren't leaking.

 

Thanks I'll keep that in mind if I continue to experience the problem. I put it into 4wd tonight getting into my driveway (mostly just so I wouldn't slide into the house, not much room for error there), and when I took it back out it was fine. The front hubs disengaged perfect. I'll learn my lesson from this that I need to use the 4wd more than once or twice per year if I expect it to work right.