BWM Brown Wire Mod 3rd Gen

[bex]

it does nothing really as far as mpg (though some might say) but the auto 4x4 suppose to give power to the front tires when it feels their is a traction problem.

i disconnected it due to the fact that when there is a traction problem the last thing is the front tires to kick in when i do not expect it, bad things may possibly happen in terms of control of your explorer when that happens. imagine taking a slight curve on a slippery road and all of a sudden have the front wheels kick in, that could cause you to lose control or at least give you a bit of a scare.

the push button is not for turning it on or off, it is for returning to normal auto 4x4 after you turned on the 4 high or 4 low.

 

[codeman200]

Is There Any Way Of Doing This To A 2nd Gen?

 

[Curtis]

New here guys, I just bought this 2002 4x4 Eddie Bauer. I guess I don't understand why the 4x4 auto button doesn't turn on and off from the factory. I mean it's a button that pushes, what does it do when you push it???? If you can't turn it off then why make it pushable??? HAHAHA! I'm all about saving gas mileage but how much does it really kick in when I'm just driving it to work and back?

The button is pushable because you are putting the X back in 4x4Auto mode vs full time 4x4. 4x4Auto is essentially 2wd until the rear wheels slip and the module automatically applies the front wheels.
My father hasn't done the BWM yet (we plan to) but had his control module out for about 4 months before we got it working again. His mileage did increase. From about 300/tank to 400/tank.
(we're in Canada so the tank I clocked on the highway was 671 kms. Or 416 miles.)
We just got the module replaced a couple days ago, So the next time we fill up Ill clock the mileage again to see if it decreased.

 

[jutgin]

Gosh if I could go from 300 a tank to 400 a tank it would be well worth the effort to do the mod. Guess I'll be chasing that brown wire here real soon. I do have the message center so my 4x4 buttons are on the right side, hope that doesn't change where that wire is or what color it is. I'll give an update when I figure it out to see if it helps anyone else.

 

[jutgin]

Found the brown wire today. Doing this next weekend. It looked just like in the pictures. So as long as I can turn the 4x4 on and off with my switch I'm good to go. I still want the 4 wheel drive I just want to be able to choose when to have it.

 

[bex]

well, driven about 1000 miles in the last week, some through snow in the north. the bwm works out fine, switched it to on so i can engage the 4x4 and switched it off when not needed, no problems at all with it, can even have fun doing donuts in the snow.

getting over 400 miles a tank, do not know if that is different before the bwm because did not drive it hardly before i did it.

the mod took all of less than 30 mintues to do.

 

[Mountaineer02v8]

..........

 

[jutgin]

Well now I'm really confused. I attempted the brown wire mod today and it didn't go as planned. I put the switch on and either way you flipped it the 4x4 buttons still worked. Then I took it to a gravel lot and either way the switch was turned the front still kicked in when trying to spin the back tires. So I decided to just take the switch off completely and leave the wire there cut in two pieces. So there wouldn't be any possible way for it to work right??? But everything worked as normal. All the buttons and the front still kicked in. I had the only brown wire in the small bundle. Just like the pictures in the start of this thread. So anyway......guess I'll leave it alone for now.

 

[Gator Jeff]

Well, if you are on an icy road and your auto 4x4 engages, you have a pretty good chance of spinning out of control.

Please explain further. I know that 4x4 or AWD can't substitute for smart driving. If you drive like a dumb-ass it doesn't matter how many assists you have. But how can 4x4 engaging when your are wheels slipping hurt you on the ice. I spent 25 years in Florida, so I'm still kind of new to this winter driving.

 

[bex]

because if the front kicks in on a slippery surface, especially during a turn, it may give a nice, unexpected jerk in which a person has the automatic reaction to go against and thus over correcting.

it is a lot nicer to know what and when your car is doing instead of getting the unexpected help from it.

 

[jutgin]

I love the 4x4 auto in the snow. But we have none in TN. At my sisters in Michigan it was wonderful, there was no jerk you couldn't control. I went from spinning and starting to go sideways without traction to front engaged and back to going forward. So it's a nice thought Ford came up with they just should have made it a feature you could turn off like on my Chevy Avalanche. There was one extra button on the Avalanche that my Explorer doesn't have-2WD. All the other buttons are the same. Hit 2WD drive and the Auto was off.

 

[bex]

well, it will not do anything for you to lose control 9 out of 10 times, but just like hydroplaning or some idiot running a red light, stuff happens. but the difference is you expected the auto to kick in, imagine the stupid thing kicking in going over some black ice on the freeway then jerking the heck out of your car doing 60mph, that happened to me on the way back from michigan on jan 2 on i-75, went right under a bridge then all of a sudden the back spun a little on the front turned and jerked the heck out of the car, had auto engaged because i had been in constant snow up until knoxville.

i didn't almost lose control or anything but the chance was there and a stupid driver may have and again, i rather know when my car is going to do something than when a computer deems it required.

was just up in michigan for new years, the explorer did great in the snow, better than i thought it would. great thing was i could do some donuts in parking lots with the auto off, it did pretty good in 2wd until the slush started freezing and the snow got to deep, then it just wanted to get squirly everywhere and spin when starting from a stop, but in 4wd it felt like it was glued to the ground.

 

[Matthew77]

The elusive brown wire

I finally found the brown wire on my 04 today. The harness does not enter the passanger area on this model year. You will find the harness in question very accessible. It is located under the hood on the passenger side. Would someone please let me know how to post images so that I can share the pictures I took.

 

[Curtis]

You need 10 posts in order to add pictures.
If you email them to me I can post them for you...

but the easiest way is to put them on a free hosing site like
www.photobucket.com
sign up is free....
then upload your pictures
under each picture photobucket gives you the link to the picture you can use to paste here.

write your thread, and where ever you want a picture, copy the link from photobucket. Then click the yellow/mountain icon at the top of the box you write your text in. A pop up box will appear asking for the link to the picture. Paste in the link, click ok. It will add the code for your image to appear.

I too have an 04 so Im interested to see!

 

[Mounty 09]

Matthew77 I would also be very interested to see what you have done.

 

[jt05319000]

i'm thinking of doing this mod to my 02 also...Sorry but i'm still a little bit confused...so when you hook up the switch when you have it on it will be in 2 wheel drive and when you turn the switch off the you will be in 4x4 auto and have the choice of choosing the 4x4 high and low???

 

[Curtis]

i'm thinking of doing this mod to my 02 also...Sorry but i'm still a little bit confused...so when you hook up the switch when you have it on it will be in 2 wheel drive and when you turn the switch off the you will be in 4x4 auto and have the choice of choosing the 4x4 high and low???

It depends on how you wire it.
Basically you are breaking the connection of the brown wire.
When its broken, the transfer case will not activate the front wheels in any 4x4 mode.

So potentially you could have only the rear wheels turning in 4x4 auto, 4x4 high and 4x4 low. You are fooling the system into not activating the front wheels. So with the brown wire "off" you could have 4x4 low but only with the rear wheels.

If you did select 4x4 low while the brown wire is "off", you'd still have only rear wheel drive. Turn the brown wire "on" and the front wheels should then activate.

 

[Matthew77]

Curtis you are correct. I used a simple two position two terminal rocker switch. I simply cut the wire, used crimp connections with an extra length wire, drilled a small hole in the firewall, and wired my switch in the dash loction shown at the beginning of this post. In order to use an "illuminated" switch you must use a relay in order to get 12 volts to the switch.

 

[Matthew77]

Curtis you are correct. I used a simple two position two terminal rocker switch. I simply cut the wire, used crimp connections with an extra length wire, drilled a small hole in the firewall, and wired my switch in the dash loction shown at the beginning of this post. In order to use an "illuminated" switch you must use a relay in order to get 12 volts to the switch.

 

[03liftededge]

if you get a chance to get the pic. uploaded id like to know where you found the wiring bundle at on your 04 b/c i couldn't find it on my 05 and i really want to do this mod.