First, Happy New Year to everyone! I've been a lurker on these forums for quite some time as I've now on my 2nd 05 Dakota (wrecked the 1st one on black ice) and just a little over a week ago my 4wd service indicator light was intermittantly coming on and off but the truck seemed to run just fine. Due to the holidays I wasn't able to get it into the shop and have an appt this coming Monday to take it to the dealer to get looked at... however, I have some concerns... first, this is my only vehicle so I've had to drive this thing roughly 65 miles a day, sometimes more to and from work... starting Monday this week I noticed what seemed like was my truck becoming sluggish on the highway and my truck seemed to start guzzling gas more then normal. Keep in mind this truck is equiped with AWD so I only get 13.6mpg to begin with but now it seems like it's down to 7 to 10mpg this week. A few times pulling out of parking lots when turning the front end seemed like it was engaged in 4lo and the tires would seem to "pop" like what would normally happen in 4lo when trying to turn on dry pavement. A few times I've even heard what sounded like very brief grinding like it was trying to engage itself into 4lo on it's own when making a turn. Starting Tuesday when driving home from work the 4lo light flashed on and over very very briefly a few times at speeds around 40mph+ with eventually the Service 4wd light would then come on for about 10 to 15 mins and then would go off, same performace (slugglish) from the truck when driving. Driving into work this morning with about 2 inches of snow on the road the Service 4wd light would come on and then go off, then the 4 lock light flashed briefly on and off and the same with 4lo... coming home today I babied her home going no faster then 40mph on the highway but pulling in to get gas notices again the truck acted like it was in 4lo when turning...

My biggest concern here is what kind of damage am I doing or can I be doing to the transmission on the truck if in fact the truck is engaging itself on the highway at 4lo?

Has anyone else experienced this same problem? I'm hoping this is just a sensor problem, but I have a sneaking suspision that this is going to be a costly repair and I'm only 8k miles past the 70k mile warranty. The dealership(s) I have localally already said they can't help with any warranty so I'm kinda left out on my own here...

Your thoughts? Thanks!

- Mo

 

first off, welcome to the forum!
I don't think are trucks can engage 4low unless the truck is stopped or moving at a rolling slow speed, I myself have never tested this but it should have a safety that would prevent such damage from engaging 4low at speed, but if its trying to engage without you fliping the switch I would def get it looked at asap and find out whats up,

I assume the AWD trucks only have two options, AWD and 4LOW. right?

 

I have engaged 4WLo at a crawl. Works fine like that. I wish dodge offered rear lock up.
GM you now can switch for limited slip to full lock all the way around. Great idea when really stuck or pulling in 4WLo

 

It's definately engaging in either 4hi or 4lo and at some point does engage into 4lo because when turning at slower speeds the tires in the front are definately grabbing the road and it's very very difficult to turn and the tires "skip" on the pavement when making harder turns... as far as my switch settings, I have it set all the time on AWD, but the other options are 4HI and 4LO. In order for me to put them into either of those when I turn the switch, in the past I've had to have the truck in Park in order for them to switch over.

 

well Idk about your 4wd issue, but I really would get that mileage thing looked into...my mom has a 2001 Durango with full time AWD and hers gets almost 19mpg on the highway and like 15 in town....

 

Yeah, I'm going to have the dealer investigate that as well if I can get away with this 4wd issue not costing alot, however, I bought this truck used after totalling my first Dak (see post https://dodgeforum.com/forum/3rd-gen...ota-sport.html for pictures). My 2nd 05 Dak has alot of extras my old truck didn't have such as nerf bars, spray in bed liner, toneau cover, split rear exaust (wish I knew who made the exaust, it growls very nicely and I get a ton of comments on it), and CAI by AIRAID so I don't know if between the CAI and the dual exaust if any of that could be bogging down the mileage as well.

 

Welcome to the forum.

FYI, about the 4WD LO option...you are not supposed to exceed 25 mph in LO. 4WD lock can be used in excess of 25 mph. That could be your issue. It clearly states these limits in the owner's manual.

 

SilverGhost, I understand what you're saying, and you may be assuming that I'm chaning the switch to 4LO which I'm not. My switch is set to AWD. I'm indicating that the 4wd is switching by itself into 4hi and 4lo on it's own without my assistance. I know the rules regarding speeds for the various 4wd settings.

 

Then I wonder it is a bad switch vs the 4WD needing to be serviced? Maybe?

 

I dunno, I just hope #1 I haven't messed up the transmission, and #2, the repair isn't costly... *sigh*... either way it's sitting in the driveway going no-where till Monday morning's drive to the dealership.