2005 XLT Traction/AWD/ABS Problem
 

Hi All,

I'm not too enlightened when it comes to mechanical matters, so I came here looking for some insight before I waste anymore money. Here's a short background which may be relevant to my current issue: basically about a month ago I had to remove a fuse because my ADVTRAC light kept coming on, and even worse eventually started braking against any effort to accelerate. In lieu of having it towed, as I'm pretty poor right now, luckily the guy at the Ford service department was able to tell me which fuse to remove in order to disable the debilitating misfiring of my ABS.

Now my brakes went and I ignored it (due to lack of funds), but like an idiot I waited way too long and I needed the whole kit for each tire, from pads to rotors. Unfortunately my state inspection was expired, and apparently the inner ridge of all of my tires was starting to wear which I was told indicated that I needed new tires. All of this was taken care of at Pep Boys, and until going there to fix my brakes I had no other problem than the ABS. Long story short, because I had no inspection they raped me for about $1,200 for two new front tires, four complete brake sets, state inspection, oil change and new wipers.

I ended up bringing my truck back again today because as I accelerate or decelerate around 35MPH it sounds like there is some friction and resulting slight tonal whine in my front end, each occurrence followed by a slight jolting deceleration. Then it happens again, each occurrence lasting maybe 2 or 3 seconds. I brought it back thinking that the monkeys I dealt with at Pep Boys f&%ed something up.

After 6 hours they told me it had nothing to do with what work they've done, but apparently in the past when my ADVTRAC warning went on and was disabled via fuse, that was the result of a broken in half tone or exciter ring on one of my rear wheels. They told me the whining and jolting deceleration was due to the incorrect signal being sent from the broken ring messing somehow with the differential. The mechanic told me it was somehow causing the rest of the wheels to try and sync up.

Finally, my question. Does this sound plausible, or did they screw something up? I'm guessing they took the broken ring off and put it back on incorrectly because I have never had this problem before, and I'm pretty broke, without the means right now to spend over $200 to fix it.

Is there a fuse that will disable this incorrect over-correction? Or do I need to go to a dealership, as Pep Boys didn't carry the part. Please help if you are familiar with this problem, I appreciate any responses.

Bryan

Do you have the Auto4WD system or AWD? The A4WD system has 3 buttons on the dash for selecting 4X4Auto, 4X4High, and 4X4Low. The AWD system doesn't have those buttons.

So, you now have 2 new front tires and 2 older tires on the rear? If so, my guess is that's what is causing your shuddering and jolting.

I thought that the AdvanceTrac equiped vehicles have a button on the console to turn it off. Maybe I'm confused - there is no ADVTRAC OFF?

BTW, $1200 isn't really being raped for 2 new tires, new rotors and pads at all 4 wheels, fixed your ABS problem (whatever it was), oil change, and wipers. It's more than you want to pay at Pep Boys (ok, I wouldn't let them change my oil let alone actually work on anything) but I've certainly heard of much worse.

ps: welcome to FTE!

Hi rrgone!
Thanks for replying and welcoming me to the forum, I have the A4WD model. I did not get my ABS repaired at Pep Boys, just the 2 tires, completely new sets of brakes, oil change, front wipers and inspection.

There is a button to disable ADVTRAC on the center console, but when my ABS malfunctioned and automatically engaged the brakes at the slightest application of gas, the warning light would go on, I guess it thought I was losing traction. So I removed the ABS fuse which automatically turned off the ADVTRAC.

The Pep boys guy told me one of the rear wheel exciter rings was broken and that was most likely the cause of my problem, but if the ABS fuse was removed it doesn't make any sense unless the exciter ring sends information to another sensor or different fuse set. If it is due to the broken ring I would imagine this problem would have occurred before I went to Pep boys, which it didn't.

Which only leaves me thinking it either has to do with the tire size difference or they f^*&ed something else up, but I've had different size tires on another car I owned in the past and the only problem I ever encountered was pulling to one side or another.

Is there a fuse I can remove to stop this traction control, if that is causing it?

I'm pretty sure that your A4WD system is activating and causing the shudder you are getting. That's because the axles are turning at different speeds due to different size tires and the system reads that as wheel slip. You are feeling the axle windup which happens when you run the 4WD on dry pavement. It should be worse during low speed turns.

I think that if the exciter ring on one of the wheel speed sensors were broken you would have the ABS indicator lamp on. Any chance you can take it back to whoever fixed your ABS problem and get them to scan the ABS system again? They should be able to have their scanner look at each sensor to see if it's operational and make sure there are no trouble codes stored.

I don't have wiring schematics for the 2004 or 2005 Explorers so I'm not sure which fuses are inline to your transfer case. In my 2002 it's fuses #17 and #18 in the battery junction box but yours could be different.

Problem Solved!
 

rrgone,

Thank you very much for your input and thoughts, you are correct. I called the local dealership with my scenario and they said that it is imperative to replace all four tires at once on a ford explorer or mountaineer, they said they've been seeing a rash of these problems and that if all four tires are not of the same circumference the transfer case will get ruined.

So beware, Explorer owners, replace all four tires at the same time!

Thanks again, rrgone!