Four wheel drive is making a grinding noise

Tiny
SHAWN M CURTIS
  • MEMBER
  • 2001 DODGE DURANGO
  • 4WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 300,000 MILES
My wife tried to engage the four wheel in neutral on a hill part of our driveway and it rolled back. And now it is making a grinding noise and it stopped lighting up and will not engage. Can you help me diagnosis this?
Tuesday, January 16th, 2018 AT 1:30 PM

3 Replies

Tiny
STEVE W.
  • MECHANIC
  • 13,470 POSTS
So she tried the shift into four wheel drive with the transmission in neutral. It did not engage fully and rolled backwards. Now the truck will not move but just grinds when shifted into gear or does it still move okay but will not shift into four wheel drive?
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Wednesday, January 17th, 2018 AT 5:29 PM
Tiny
SHAWN M CURTIS
  • MEMBER
  • 2 POSTS
It will still move but grinds in four wheel drive. It is having trouble shifting into four wheel drive now too. I tried today and was not sure it was going to shift back into two wheel drive. The four wheel drive low light flashed today. I have been trying to research it and some four wheel drive actuator keeps coming up. Not sure where or what that is. I am mechanically inclined but not a mechanic.
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Wednesday, January 17th, 2018 AT 6:45 PM
Tiny
STEVE W.
  • MECHANIC
  • 13,470 POSTS
It sounds like you have a couple issues. One related to the actuator, it is the shift motor on the transfer case. It does what the solid levers used to do. Not real hard to change, you remove the front drive shaft from the T-Case and the yoke, then unbolt and replace the encoder then put the front shaft back in. If it is not locking fully in you could get grinding. The other issue would be with the transfer case control module. It sounds like it may be faulty and not controlling the actuator.
Your best bet would be to have a shop that has a high end scan tool plug into it and see if either piece has error codes. Those will not turn on the normal check engine light but they can still be there. Plus they can watch the output of the system as you select the various modes and can narrow it down quickly. Plus they would be able to hear the grinding and how/if it changed during mode selection and give you a much better idea of the problem.
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Wednesday, January 17th, 2018 AT 9:10 PM

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