Hey guys, so quick question. So its snowing here in chicago. And this issue actually happened las t year to. So, while driving in the snow, my service awd light will come on. But, when i shut the truck off and start it again the light goes off. Even with the light on the awd seems to still work because if i give it gas i wont spin out. Now i never have an issue in the warm weather months only in the snow. Any ideas as to what would cause this?
intermittent service awd light
- Thread starter agon3279
- Start date
One other thing. There are days in the morning where i will start the truck and it feels like the transfer case is shifting into awd but then goes back to normal but there isnt a light that comes on when it happens
Sounds like you have grabby transfer case clutches, or a sluggish transfer case encoder motor in the cold.
How many miles do you have, and has the transfer case fluid been changed religiously every 50K as required?
A mechanic with a Tech II tool could run the encoder motor through its paces and diagnose it for sure. Nothing a DIY mechanic can do without this expensive data communication tool unfortunately.
How many miles do you have, and has the transfer case fluid been changed religiously every 50K as required?
A mechanic with a Tech II tool could run the encoder motor through its paces and diagnose it for sure. Nothing a DIY mechanic can do without this expensive data communication tool unfortunately.
I'm not sure if the fluid was changed in the transfer case or not. I bought the vehicle from CarMax. And when I bought it and had 71K on it. Now I'm at 91553
The day you bought it would have been a perfect time to change all the fluids so you know the baseline. At this point the transfer case Auto Trak II is WAY overdue, and may be low as well. Do that first. 2 liters, available in most towns only at the dealer. List price is about $9 a liter - don't let them rip you off for more than list. It's been attempted.
Update: So i finally got the truck up in the air to make sure things were working properly. First thing I did was check the fluid level and it was perfect. Next, I started it up and put it in drive. The AWD kicked on but it seemed like it didn't catch to well and the light went on. The driver side wheel started to spin slowly, but the passenger wheel didn't even spin with all 4 tires off the ground. I was able to rotate the tire by hand freely and it seemed to catch, but would eventually stop. Next thing I did was take off the encoder motor. I took the housing off the motor and it only seemed to spin so far in one direction and would stop so I turned it the opposite way and it also stopped after a certain point. I kept spinning it back and forth and eventually the motor spun freely. I oiled it up, put the housing back on and buttoned everything up. So I started up the truck and put it in drive. Well this time the driver side wheel caught real quickly, but the passenger wheel didn't catch on again. It still spun freely by hand and did the same thing before I took the motor off. It would catch and eventually stop. But this time, the service light did not come on. So I lowered the truck and took it for a test drive. Needless to say the AWD worked but i'm not sure if the passenger wheel was catching on. Now, after all that, when i'm turning at low speeds, I encounter the "crow hop". Could it be the motor causing the issue, or could it be the transfer case, and could the encoder motor also cause the passenger side wheel not to catch?