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Service 4wd light

12K views 24 replies 13 participants last post by  ing.fernando.haro 
#1 · (Edited)
Went out on the weekend to Port Hedland to see some family and test the jeep out on the sand.
Went out on the saturday afternoon and drove down 4 mile beach, the sand was very soft and the jeep started to crab walk down the beach to the water so we decided to reverse back across the beach and go back out the way we came. Got off the beach but when we got to the top it bogged down, Tried to work it backwards and forwards but eventually sat it on the belly. Had some mates come and pull us out but they pulled up in front of the jeep expecting to pull it forwards. Had to explain to them that it has no recovery hooks on the front and we had to go backwards, well... when the went to turn around they also got bogged so we had a land cruiser come and pull both of us out.

Today we went out to a different beach and was cuisine down the beach at about 20km/h when all of a sudden the service 4wd light flashed on and the jeep bogged down in 2wd. Had to let the tyres down to 10psi and get snatched back out onto firm sand where i reversed 200m back off the beach. Pumped there tyres back up and drove off, 200m down the road all the lights went back off and it was fine.

Ok, for the questions,
Does anyone know how to fix this problem when it happens and does anyone know the cause? When it happened another dsc light came on on the dash with th service 4wd light.
 

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#2 · (Edited)
I'd be interested to know the answer too. If it happened whilst rocking forward and backward it would be a little more understandable (not forgivable) but cruising at 20kmh?? The sand looked very soft.

Josh were you using low range? Also what Psi were you running before you had to let them down?

Ps the patrol owner would be devastated to hear you calling it a land cruiser!!
 
#5 ·
I was in high range sand/mud with max height. i was running 32psi as i had to let them down when i bellied out the day before and didn't pump them back up all the way.
The sand was very soft, the Patrol was having trouble pulling the jeep out, it took a few tries before we moved very far.
The Patrol is my cousins, The day before when i bellied out it was cruiser that pulled me out, SHAME.
The funny thing was the first tried a yamaha grizzy 4x4 quad with a winch on the front, it had no chance and didn't budge the jeep but it was funny to watch
 
#3 ·
Have also had the same problem when is sport mode and the service 4wd light will come on . Turn off the engine and restart and its all fine , but for some reason only when in sport mode :mad:
 
#8 ·
Your right Allan, i normally run 18 in sand but we were following the tracks already made so it wasn't too bad and i only got 200m before it decided to become a 2wd jeep instead. After that i figured i would go to 10psi as i would only have 1 chance to get the car out as it got pretty boggy.
 
#13 ·
My dealer is 1200km away, the closest dealer is 450km, i am talking with them to find out what the cause is and hopefully get a fix next time i am down....... In October!
 
#10 ·
I have had two friends with this issue, one petrol Laredo and one limited diesel. I haven't had any issues with mine. The dealer told my mate it was a faulty $5 part and that jeep have had a heap of them come back. Up at stockton on the Easter weeke d I ALS towed out another limited crd with the same issue.

By the way, I was able to tow the limited about 400m over soft sand up hill to the beach exit...so that shows you how well they go when they are working properly.

I'm driving a crd Laredo
 
#17 ·
Well it was my turn to decorate the Stockton beach this week end with my lovely 1 week old JGC Overland bogged down in a similar fashion. It transformed into a 2 wd (with the error message flashing 'serve 4wd'. Had to be rescued 2-3 times before being towed to hard surface and once on hard surface, the error message disappeared and the Jeep and driving well as if nothing has happened ! Planning to take it to the dealer this week and it was good to know that there is an option to interrogate the hardware.
 
#14 ·
Depends what you call recovery points, the screw in tow eye is no good for a snatch strap, it would break off becoming a projectile and doing serious damage to the car that was trying to help me out.
 
#16 ·
I used mine to tow out as well but only to tow not snatch, I guess it depends on the situation, if you have no other choice then sometimes it is worth a try
 
#21 ·
I tend to think it's calibration error that they can fix with a flash update. It's coming up against a set of parameters that doesnt occur on a hard surface. But it can absoultely be a dirty sensor too.

That's why getting the error code is so important.
 
#23 ·
4wd malfunction in sand...
Got it checked at the local service centre. They confirmed that this is a known issue and at least 4 vehicles have reported the same problem in the area. Sand driving seems to be the precipitant in all these cases and apparently Jeep has identified the software glitch (absolving me of any wrong doing...yayy) . I am told that Chrysler has developed the fix and is currently testing it and the service man asked me to ring back in 4 weeks !
 
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