Was thier any service work done to the Ram before it went T up?

Your next option is to put in a insurance claim, you may have hit something on the road that hit a diff cover and you lost diff fluid, or transfer case fluid..

If all drive train fluids were at the correct levels, Thiers a slim chance damages are inturnal..

I lost a diff on my 02 F-150 4x4 and the dealer and ford would not warenty damages because of loss of fluid, ie bent rear diff cover..

Let us know !!!

To the rest of the world ..Winter is here in Alberta..

 

Dodge 1500s come with a couple different transfer cases it sounds like your transfer case is like mine...3 settings (2WD 4Hi and 4Lo) with a button for neutral. This transfer case is not intended to be set in 4hi and run at highway speeds especially if your truck is equipped with a limited slip differential. What happens is in 4WD if there is no slippage under the tires pressure can build up in the transfer case and do exactly what happened in your truck. If you were travelling at 110k I can bet there was no slippage under the tires to release this pressure. even though the road was straight it only takes 1 tire that is down a couple PSI to cause this pressure to build up.

The other available transfer case has the addition of a 4WD auto setting which relies on the computer to detect wheel slippage before the 4WD engages. It is designed for running all the time in possibly slippery conditions.

I would never run my truck in 4Hi unless I started to slip first or was running on roads where I am certain this slippage can occur.

 

Well it is Dec 31 a month and half later and we are still waiting for a final answer from Chrysler Canada.

Below are the facts presented by our dealer. We are going into another discussion with a different dept in Chrysler Canada next week. If this fails all we can do now is put in for arbitration which is another 2 months waiting time or fix the truck and live with a huge repair bill now coming close to $16K according to dealer. Repairs + replacement vehicle expense + lease payments while the truck is sitting in - 40C weather outside is seriously adding up. With our lease up in July, we will not get much use in the time remaining.

We have checked our insurance but we have no insurance claim argument to put forward.

Story: Front diff pinion bearing seized, pinion then twisted off. Then the front drive shaft hit the engine mount bracket and tweaked and split the transmission case. The drive shaft also hit the engine oil pan and made 2 dents on the side of it. The pinion got jammed in the ring gear and cause the front differential case to split. The front differential got so hot from the seized pinion bearing that the fill plug and the wiring harness closest to the front diff melted.

Question to anyone out there...could the above damages result from driving on 4WH?

We are a company and some may say a company can eat this type of cost but it is a hit on the company's budget. What if this happened to a family who depended on a vehicle? They would have to secure a loan to pay for everything and go into serious debt.

So far everyone I spoke with in our community says 4WH is mandatory even on highways. We have made a safety guideline for our workers to maintain this setting to help with maintaining proper traction on our northern highways. Even one of the largest trucking firms in our community uses this setting all the time on the highway. This is not the first time we ever used this setting on a highway.

We have checked our manuals and no where is there a speed restriction on 4WH.

Have a safe and Happy New Years!

 

Short answer - yes, those types of damages can occur from running 70mph in part time 4wd for a long period of time.

As a side note, running in 4 wheel high on highways is ridiculous unless you have a fulltime/AWD setting - you are just asking to have driveline failures, although I would normally expect the transfer case to fail first.

 

In a word, yes. It could happen. And yes I have seen it happen. On an old Jeep. Same thing, the pinion snapped due to the binding. You have to look at it like this: there is nothing between the front end and the rear end to provide any differentiation in wheel speed. Hence, something is going to bind if it is left in 4wd and there is no slippage to relieve pressure. It's the same as welding your axles together. When you go around a corner, something has to give. The tires will scrub or slip and that will relieve the pressure but if they don't, something will break.

Honestly, I drive in snow country roads 6 months of every year and I only place it in 4wd to get moving on a slick hill or actually off-road. It does nothing for you when going straight down the hwy anyway. My buddy did a 360 going down the hwy in the snow and couldn't understand because he was in 4wd. When asked, he said he was doing 75mph. That'll do it! Apparently he believed he had a AWD Audi or some such. Even during a snow storm I only place it in 4wd auto and then back to 2wd after the roads are cleared. Good tires and some weight in the back does it for me.

Just because they made it a simple button or dial on the dash doesn't change how the system works. Mechanically, they are the same as 20-30 years ago.

By the way, if you have 4wd Auto you will lose gas mileage if you leave it there all winter. In Auto, you are effectively locking the hubs and spinning all the front drive-train. A big drag on mpg. Just thought you should know.

 

Well maybe Ram needs to come up with something that disables the 4 WD at a certain speed so as not to damage their drivelines.....My wife's Rav4 only uses 4 x 4 until 25 mph and then the rear diff unlocks. If Ram is having drivelines that are exploding at speed then maybe something like what the Rav has is needed to prevent some pretty major money loss to the consumer. (Not that I have heard of this problem very often...) Heck even a buzzer that goes off over a certain speed if you are in 4 wheel Hi to warn you are approaching warp speed. Wouldn't take that much and it would save people some un-needed down time possibly. I can't imagine the gas mileage was that good at 70 in 4 wheel Hi though....

 

You can only idiot proof things so much. How about an interlock to keep people from throwing the truck into reverse on the highway too. For as long as there have been 4wd systems this "problem" has existed. It used to be that only a select few had 4wd and typically knew how to use it - now it comes on stuff like Rav 4's

I doubt that he's going to have much luck with Ram, having admitted to leaving a part time system on full time.

 

I know in the manual on my 2012 PW, it says do not ENGAGE 4wd at speeds over 90km/h…
Personally, I only use 4wd in town if I am spinning or on grid roads in Sask/FSRs in BC and there is a foot of snow on the ground. Then I am not going over 70km/h though.
Other than that, my 4wd is used when offroading. Even then it is when doing a very steep hill climb, mud, or if I don't think I will make it without the traction provided of the engine weight pushing on the tires.

 

First, Ram owners do not need a warning as they are already familiar with their trucks, and if they are not, they read the manual. Second, auto disengage would not work because, get this, ....it has nothing to do with speed. Toyata did that because that lock is a last ditch effort to get unstuck. The Rav4 already has an AWD system. It has to do with lack of slippage. Put it in 4wd Lock, get in a dry empty parking lot, and drive in a left circle at 5mph. It will bind and break.

Does this damage happen often? How can truck makers still use this? No, and because it works for a truck. It's simple and strong and it has worked for 50+ years. Unfortunately, in today's world of AWD this and that everyone kinda expects them all to work the same. Well, your Ram is not a Toy Rav4, it's a truck built for truck use. As such it's 4wd is not something you engage because there are flurries out or just to drive over the curb to get closer to the fireworks or to drive down a dirt road.

 

How would Chrysler know you were doing 110km/h? (69mph)? Why would you tell them this?
All they need to know is that it failed while driving. It's up to them to prove that is was due to wrecklessness!

Also, I do believe the owners manual states 55mph is max 4wd speed. Maybe thats just for activation? I dont know, but I have activated at greater speeds than 55mph seamlessly just to verify things.
Front diff is no different than a rear differential besides that fact it has CV shafts which is no different than the AWD verions. I dont see why it's a problem running 4wd all the time on slippery surfaces even at highway speeds? The ONLY reason they consider it "Part Time" is because it cant be used on dry pavement due to binding. That is the only reason.

I'd say Mechanical failure!!!