Lights everywhere

[brenandmel42711]

I have a 2005 ford explorer Eddie Bauer with A4wd and advanced trac rsc abs light on trac light on and 4x4 high flashes intermittently doing work on the vehicle and I noticed the 4x4 motor unplugged from previous owner but nervous to plug it back in only because I don’t know what will happen if I do what steps should I take before plugging this back in ?

 

[J_C]

Welcome to the forum!

Contact the previous owner to ask why it's unplugged? Surely you would have noticed that during a test drive before purchase?

I would just plug it back in and see. If something bad happens like it shifts into 4WD low, pull it off and use hand tools to shift back into 4 high. If it blows a fuse, keep it unplugged and replaced the fuse, consider further troubleshooting or replacing the shift motor.

 

[brenandmel42711]

Welcome to the forum!

Contact the previous owner to ask why it's unplugged? Surely you would have noticed that during a test drive before purchase?

I would just plug it back in and see. If something bad happens like it shifts into 4WD low, pull it off and use hand tools to shift back into 4 high. If it blows a fuse, keep it unplugged and replaced the fuse, consider further troubleshooting or replacing the shift motor.

I was told about it being unplugged before the test drive I just figured it was something stupid as they said the dumb boyfriend unplugged it because he had said it didn’t sound right as to what they could not explain so I reached out to this forum with hopes of answers. Does the ABS affect the four-wheel-drive to not work?

 

[J_C]

^ AFAIK, ABS not working would not keep it from going into 4WD.. but I could be wrong!

I would plug it back in and see what happens, and diagnose from there. If it blows a fuse, probably a bad shift motor, considering it still has the wiring up to that point so if it were the wiring, unplugging doesn't "necessarily" solve that (except that moving any wires to unplug could also resolve a shorting wire issue).

 

[brenandmel42711]

I’ll give it a go and update with the results