bacon bits
New Member
- Joined
- January 30, 2012
- Messages
- 2
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Lake of the Ozarks
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1997 Ford Explorer
Hello everybody. I need a little help on diagnosing a problem and I figured this looked like a the place to go. I'll get right to it.
I have a '97 Explorer with the 4.0, automatic tranny and the autotrac 4wd. The other day I was driving down the road at about 65mph with the cruise control set. The gas pedal started jumping around a little and acting weird so I shut down the cruise control and manually drove it. Not long later the speedometer started jumping around between about 35-75mph. When started doing that it also started making a strange clunking noise from below. It sounds like the transfer case is making it. The issue doesn't happen constantly; it seems to be mostly at highway speeds after I have driven the car for a few miles. It also seems to occur more when I change speeds. The car only makes the clunking noise when the speedo is jumping around and it only does that maybe 5-10% of the time I'm driving it. The clunking sound almost sounds like the transfer case trying to go into 4wd but it shakes the whole car for a brief second then goes away.
I just want to know if you guys have ever had this problem or know of someone who has. I don't know much about these cars and the electronics behind the 4wd aren't real familiar to me. I have a theory that the front speed sensor on the transfer case is going out and not reading the same as the back ABS sensor and causing it to try to throw the car into 4wd on the highway. However, I don't know if thats even close to the issue or not. Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated, thanks guys.
I have a '97 Explorer with the 4.0, automatic tranny and the autotrac 4wd. The other day I was driving down the road at about 65mph with the cruise control set. The gas pedal started jumping around a little and acting weird so I shut down the cruise control and manually drove it. Not long later the speedometer started jumping around between about 35-75mph. When started doing that it also started making a strange clunking noise from below. It sounds like the transfer case is making it. The issue doesn't happen constantly; it seems to be mostly at highway speeds after I have driven the car for a few miles. It also seems to occur more when I change speeds. The car only makes the clunking noise when the speedo is jumping around and it only does that maybe 5-10% of the time I'm driving it. The clunking sound almost sounds like the transfer case trying to go into 4wd but it shakes the whole car for a brief second then goes away.
I just want to know if you guys have ever had this problem or know of someone who has. I don't know much about these cars and the electronics behind the 4wd aren't real familiar to me. I have a theory that the front speed sensor on the transfer case is going out and not reading the same as the back ABS sensor and causing it to try to throw the car into 4wd on the highway. However, I don't know if thats even close to the issue or not. Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated, thanks guys.
