Driveline Damage???

After coming off of a dirt road last night I forgot to put my truck back into 2WD from 4HI. I made a U-turn on pavement, felt a difference in the turn radius which made me realize that the truck was still in 4HI and then CLUNK.

I put the truck in 2wd and drove away but I am concerned that I may have damaged my driveline or rear diff due to axle bind. I've been at work all day and havent driven it much since but it seems to drive normal in 2wd.

I'm wondering if one instance of axle bind/driveline wind up could have damaged anything? That clunk noise was upsetting...the truck's 2 months old. Please share your thoughts.

Thanks

 

All good, try not to make a habit of it

And welcome to TW

 

You are fine. We all have done the same thing and hears the same noises.

 

Probably all good. Go back to the dirt road and test 4wd.

 

OK thank you, I'll test out 4wd soon. So making it clunk one time is nothing to freak out about?

 

These things are pretty damn robust

 

Depends on how well it does when you try it again.

 

My cousin borrowed my old ranger once. When it was still parked, their kid played around with buttons and controls, and he switched it to 4lo. They never drove a truck before, so they had no idea why it drove so stiff, and revved so high on the highway. But even that piece of junk Ford survived the 15 mile trip on the highway. So no, you have nothing to worry about, just don't do it a lot.

Edit: I think was a round trip, so make it 30 miles

 

Hey now older rangers were bullet proof

 

Sounds like you killed a cat... go back to that u-turn and bury the cat. Say some nice words. Send out invitations to anyone who might have known the cat. Maybe even a go-fund-me for the cats children....

 

2007, wouldn't call it bullet proof at all. Terrible suspension, brakes, electrical. But the driveline did survive occasional abuse.

 

weird my 02 was pretty solid all around

 

Maybe mine was built on Friday before a long weekend? Haha, more likely you got lucky.

 

hah true

 

when, exactly did it make the clunk sound? When you put it in 2? Or before?

You generally won't get much sound just in 4 when the driveline is loading up. But if the driveline is loaded and you put it in 2 it either will sit and flash at you or will clunk a bit when it switches and the tension is released.

You may also get some noise as the tires slip a bit and unload the drive line.

Either way I'd be really shocked if something were damaged. Next time you are driving along shift it into and out of 4wd a few times (totally fine when going mostly straight as the front and rear axles are going the close enough to the same distance if not turning tight)

 

Good point. Now that I think about it I cant remember the exact sequence. I just remember I realized it was in 4 during the U-turn and then the loud CLUNK i was praying I ran something over but to my dismay the road was clear haha. It could have been the sound of tension being released but not sure if I heard the sound before or after disengaging 4wd.

 

Try it while driving in a large circle in a parking lot, and see if the clunk can be reproduced. There will be a bit of a clunk. The manual indicates up to 50mph is ok to switch from 2 to 4 wheel drive, and suggest you drive 10 miles every month (iirc) in 4 wheel drive to exercise and lubricate the system.

for your own piece of mind, I use 4 low from time to time to parallel park on a steep incline (manual with the silly tall reverse gearing). It loads up and binds a bit (increases rolling resistance) and the tires complain, but I've had no drive line issues. Also people use 4wd on rocks and the drivelines load and unload frequently when doing that.

 

Mine did that once and it resulted in a blown CV axle (inner tulip blew apart), but that was pretty apparent when I went to put it in 4wd again and got the 'thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk' of a rotating broken CV. Also you could just look at it and tell it was fubar'ed lol.

The word 'clunk' can be used to describe anything from a normal bind up noise, or something worse like a broken part. Test it out in 4wd when you can (on the appropriate surface) and you'll know pretty quick if all is well or not.

By the way, the CV axles are the weakest link and usually what will fail if you bind up the system too badly on a hard surface. It's that way on purpose, because the other things that could fail (diff, transfer case, etc.) are much more expensive and harder to replace. If anything you damaged a CV, but again it should be obvious next time you use 4wd if you did.

Should also mention we've all done this before, me included and I've only had something bad happen once. My CV was likely already on it's way out when it did.

 

Likely nothing to worry about. Mines now above 5k miles due to a long distance trip recently for a funeral. While I was out, decided to throw it in 4 high for a bit while on a few dirt roads to just let all the 4wd components turn for a bit. Forgot to disengage then made a 90 degree turn into parking lot and remembered . 4wd wouldn’t disengage and wasn’t a ton of parking lot room so said heck with it and turned off truck and went inside for food. With 4wd controller knob still in 2wd, I started truck and did forward and reverse trick few times and never would disengage. Drove 20’ or so and loud clunk and shook truck a little. Drove another 1,000 miles afterwards and 4wd works fine here at home in the dirt. As others said, just don’t make habit of it.

 

Well thank you all very much you for the advice!

Since posting this ive noticed some clicking noise while turning on city streets. Thinking i may have damaged the CV. The trucks got 3k miles on it so if i did mess up the cv at least it is under warranty.