2008 4x4 works but no dash light or shift in progress?

[Jmar93]

Looking for some help diagnosing the above issue, I’ve scoured the web and can’t find anything. For my ‘08, the 4x4 (high and low) both work, don’t know how to test or confirm if 4A is working but the dash light doesn’t come on for any selection or say “shift in progress.”

I originally thought the transfer case motor was shot and the 4x4 wasn’t working so I replaced that with a Doorman unit and through this process have also replaced the dash switch and IWE solenoid on the shroud. Any ideas? The other odd thing is for 4low, the traction control light (the 2 squiggly lines) illuminates on the dash where it would normally say 4low when it’s engaged.

 

[eddytheexpy]

Page 277 of your owner’s manual. It seems an error has been detected in the AdvanceTrac system. I wish I could help you beyond that but I have little understanding of that whole situation.

I know there’s more meat to your situation but if something funky is going on with traction control, it may make things get screwy. I’m curious if you did a bunch of 4low shifts if you could coax a “shift delayed” message out of it since that’s sort of important.

Now that I think about it a little more, if you’ve confirmed that the vehicle goes to the gearing that it’s commanded to, maybe it’s some electrical issue of simply sending those end-result messages to the cluster. If the vehicle didn’t know what gearing it was in, it would throw a service 4x4 message/light. So chasing wires and just cleaning/reattaching connectors might do you some favors.

 

[eddytheexpy]

I was thinking about it some more and did some digging. I think the link below is what your need and it does actually point to an electrical connector issue with your cluster. Let us know what shakes out!

4x4 RTT diagnostic

 

[Jmar93]

That’s really helpful, thanks for the link! What’s that from, is that the service manual?

Should have mentioned in the original post, I hooked up to 4scan but didn’t have any codes. I didn’t know there was a 4x4 module (as that link suggests), so this is great info to explore because it definitely seems related. I will follow up with anything I find. Thanks!

 

[eddytheexpy]

no problem! And yeah it seems to be from the ford service manual.

And yep look at pages 308 and 309 of your owners manual, it shows the fuse locations for the 4x4 module and the 4x4 module motor.

yeah I doubt you’d get a code because you confirmed it’s doing what it’s commanded to do and the vehicle has its own positive confirmation that it’s doing the job right. It’s just dropping the ball at the one yard line of getting that info to you. How many checks can you really expect the system to have before it turns into a 2023 that won’t start because it can’t communicate with a taillight hahaha

Now that I think about it, if you’re in 4low I believe that automatically changes settings in traction control. But if the RTT isn’t showing 4low but the cluster is getting input about the changes to traction control, it probably interprets that as though you are not in 4low with traction control commanded off which is why the light is illuminated.

 

[eddytheexpy]

That’s really helpful, thanks for the link! What’s that from, is that the service manual?

Should have mentioned in the original post, I hooked up to 4scan but didn’t have any codes. I didn’t know there was a 4x4 module (as that link suggests), so this is great info to explore because it definitely seems related. I will follow up with anything I find. Thanks!

Hey, I was just thinking of something that reminded me about this thread. You never followed up, did you wind up getting to the bottom of this?