02 Eddie 4.6 V8, Speedometer and 4x4 low issue

[Bratwurst]

Hi everyone - brand new member.

Just bought an 02 Eddie Bauer this past Sunday at Carmax. Wife drove it off the lot, we went to lunch right down the street for about an hour. I drive away from lunch, and can tell immediately the thing isn't shifting right. Then I noticed that the speedometer is reading close to 100 MPH and I'm at most driving 30 MPH on a big turning arc entrance ramp to a major road. Once I get on the road and try to come to a quicker speed, the thing starts sputtering, car jerking back and forth violently.

Needless to say, I'm pissed. I just bought the damn thing.

I drive back to the dealership at 25 or so the whole way (I'm assuming thats how fast I was going, the speedometer is hosed) because if I want any faster the thing would start jerking and jumping again.

Guy at the dealership gets in, starts driving it, and starts fumbling with the 4x4 stuff. He says, it must be in 4x4 low, when they were cleaning it they must have hit the button or something. So he shifts into neutral, changes to 4x4 high, then 4x4 auto. We drove around, truck is fine now, no problems. Speedometer even was normal again. I drove all the way home, about 30 miles, and everything seemed great.

So fast forward to today, wife gets into truck with our 2 month old boy (its going to be her everyday vehicle), doesn't touch the 4x4 buttons at all, and the whole thing happens again. So my question is, is this a 4x4 problem? Would the thing shift into low range by itself? Or is the speedometer messed up and therefore the computer doesn't know what to do when it thinks the truck is going 110 mph when it is actually going 30?

Anyways any help would be appreciated. I'm beginning to think there must be a bad reason I only paid $14k for this thing...

Good news is that the truck should be covered under a 30 day warranty from the dealer. I just wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts before I got a return phone call from our sales guy.

 

[MonumentalX]

ttt, Welcome to the site. Sorry to hear of your troubles so soon. I have an '03 but have yet to experience anything like what you are talking about. Be patient there are some very knowledgable guys here that will chime in sooner or later. In the mean time did you try a search for the problem you are having? It is in the bottom right corner of the header bar. I am sure you will get some responses as people log on after work. Good Luck.

 

[IAmTodd]

It sounds ike it may be a speed sensor issue and somehow when you push the 4HI and 4AUTO buttons it resets it. Although the 4WD computers have been known to have issues. Take it back to the dealer and tell them to fix it. Since its under warranty it shouldn't be your problem.

 

[Bratwurst]

Hey thanks for the responses guys.

I got home from work and drove it around quite a bit to see if I could get it to duplicate and it drove like a charm. I don't get it. I know that it has a problem, I just hope I don't take it to the dealer and they tell me I'm crazy because they can't duplicate it.

I was thinking along the same lines that it is some sort of sensor issue, and when the truck thinks its driving 100 it doesn't know what to do as far as shifting, or what.

 

[Bratwurst]

Update - drove it this morning to see if it would do it cold.

Acted up with the speedometer and the shifting issue, had the jerking when I got over what the speedometer was saying was 110 MPH (probably actually 35 - 40MPH). Neither the 4x4 low range nor the 4x4 high lights were displayed on dash, so I am thinking that it might have nothing to do with 4x4 modes at all.

Sensor issue?

I'm not quite sure but I have to get this back to dealer and fixed since this is the only vehicle I have that my wife can use with the baby. My other truck is a 2 door Ranger, and I can't put a baby seat in that.

 

[IAmTodd]

I would say sensor issue. If it were still in low, it would read the speed as normal. IE nothing over 35ish MPH. Because its thinking you're going 110, its applying the speed limited because it thinks you're crazy And the sensor is on the output side of the transfercase, so Hi/Low range shouldn't matter.

 

[IAmTodd]

Have you tried disconnecting the batter for a half hour or so?

 

[Bratwurst]

No haven't done anything like that to try and fix myself.

 

[IAmTodd]

Disconnect the battery for a half hour, it resets the computer. Just something to try and cure yourself. And it doesn't cost anything

 

[Bratwurst]

Will I have to put in some code to get the radio and stuff to work afterwards? I ask because that happened when I got the battery replaced in my honda.

 

[Bratwurst]

I'm getting the run around now trying to get the thing in for service. Oh brother!

I want to try the battery thing but I don't want to fix it that way, then have the issue come back past the 30 days worse and then have to pay for service.

 

[MonumentalX]

If you do disco the battery only disconnect the negative side. Should not have code problems then.

 

[IAmTodd]

If you do disco the battery only disconnect the negative side. Should not have code problems then.

That makes no difference.

 

[Bratwurst]

Another update -

Dropped the truck off at the dealer this morning. Got a fun little Taurus as a loaner :thumbdwn:

I'll let you guys know what they find out. Service advisor had absolutely no clue as to what was wrong. That made me feel like I was in good hands....

 

[Bratwurst]

Thought I would drop in with an update on this issue.

Just got a call from the service dept. They had sent it out to a transmission shop last week where they replaced a sensor. They thought that had fixed the issue but while the dealer was driving it to get the MD state safety inspection done, the problem came back.

So word from the tranny place today was they hooked the transmission up to a computer where the thing said through some codes that it had overheated, and that it had done damage to the clutch assembly.

So, they are going to rebuild the transmission.

Question - should I get away from this truck now and return it saying I don't want to deal with this anymore, or should this be seen as a blessing that I am getting basically a new tranny in a used car? I don't know if this is good or bad?

 

[ExplorerDMB]

Question - should I get away from this truck now and return it saying I don't want to deal with this anymore, or should this be seen as a blessing that I am getting basically a new tranny in a used car? I don't know if this is good or bad?

If it was me, and I was going to be dealing with this in the long run -- drop it now. A '02 with an already rebuilt transmission in it -- not a good thing to hear. Also, a rebuild is only fixing the problem you have -- they aren't remanfacturing it (meaning the only thing they'll replace is the things that are wrong, not everything). So this means something could come back in the future and take a hit on ya. I would drop it -- and yes you are defilently blessed to have the chance to get a different vehicle.

-Drew

 

[Bratwurst]

I think you are correct, this is definitely not what I was bargaining for when I purchased the truck.

I've spoken to the sales manager who says that since I am outside of 5 days since the purchase date I need to talk to the service manager to get this resolved and return the car.

I've left him two messages and haven't gotten a reply. Its driving me nuts. I'm really starting to get to upset now - I'm itching to get this resolved.