push button 4x4

[ferday]

is there any disadvantage to a push button (electronic) 4x4? it's in a ford bronco (he he not mine believe me...).
i don't think it would be any different at all inside the t-case, but as i'm often wrong i'll ask. mostly a reliability/strength concern as the truck will be wheeled moderately hard.

thanks!

 

[heeperman]

Perhaps the only disadvantages are that the actuator is more prone to moisture damage and physical damage versus a regular mechanical linkage. The actuator on my old Ranger (85) began to act up in 1991 (not too bad), basically was just moisture in the connection (common with Fords), a little bit of love every once in awhile and it will not give you any problems.......Now if your friend has a ranger/broncoII,Bronco,F-series etc.......if he has the auto hubs on it, in my opinion and past experience he will be grenading alot of hubs, get a set of manual hubs. The auto hubs lock and unlock every time you go from a drive gear to reverse, it sucks to be on an abstacle and need to shift into reverse and momentarily loose drive to your front axle!

 

[Ivan]

I had a Mazda Navajo before I bought my XJ. The push button 4x4 was the biggest pain to deal with. I had so many problems it wasn't funny. Mostly related to the solenoid that controls shift motor for the t-case. At one time I had it locked in the 4x4 mode and couldn't get it out, so I wound up taking it to the dealer. The dealer struggled with it most of the day until they were able to free it up.

While shopping for a replacement for the Navajo, I came across my XJ that obviously had a shift lever for the t-case. That alone was one of the major reasons I bought my XJ. The other bene's (solid axles, inline 6, etc) of an XJ quickly fell into place.

Personally, I would never buy another vehicle with a push button 4x4 option....

Ivan

 

[casm]

Personally, I would never buy another vehicle with a push button 4x4 option....

Never owned a 4x4 myself with push-button shifting. However, two things I can say about them:

- The last one I drove was a Nissan Frontier with the Nismo package. The 4WD worked well, but pressing a button doesn't give you the same feedback as a lever you have to physically move in and out of each range. This was particularly evident when I thought I'd shifted into 4LO (dial was in the right range, dashboard display seemed to indicate same) just before a steep hill descent, then found out differently after starting down the hill; that was one hell of a ride, let me tell you. Admittedly, I was unafamiliar with the vehicle's operation and wasn't reading the display correctly - but by the same token, a manually-shifted lever would've told me what I should've known the minute I moved it.

- Watched a Nissan Titan lose its 4WD completely during a river crossing and have to be towed out. Not sure what happened, but according to the driver (after we got him out of the drink), the owner's manual interpreted the warning light on the dash to mean just that. Whether it got soaked and died or was flaky to begin with is debatable, but again it doesn't have the positive indication of a lever. Yeah, a mechanical linkage can also fail, but when was the last time you heard of it happening in normal operation?

Just my $0.02.

 

[Lawn Cher']

KISS your T-case shifter. I did.

I bought my Sub (used) with the NP241 manual shift for its reliability and simplicity. They also offered the push button autotrac system in the years I was searching for but I didn't want more places for gremlins to pop up.

 

[Prepmech]

KISS your T-case shifter. I did.

I bought my Sub (used) with the NP241 manual shift for its reliability and simplicity. They also offered the push button autotrac system in the years I was searching for but I didn't want more places for gremlins to pop up.

Yeah, those suburbans have enough gremlins to deal with already, not to mention the one behind the wheel.

 

[89limited]

the only advice i can give on this is STAY AWAY from chev push button 4x4 if you dont have a whole lot of money for maintence. there great when they work but when they dont it is usually one of two things. the module under the dash or the motor on the t-case. we have reapired both of these at my shop by either cleaning the gears or making new gears for the motor. and fixing the burned connections in the module. these parts will run you any wear from 350.00-850.00$ to replace. however we have 3 of these as regular customers, a 91 blazer, and a 98 and 99 jimmy and the only one with no problems has been the old beat up blazer. like i said they do work when they work, just can be expensive to fix.

 

[bjoehandley]

Dad had a '95 Explorer that he used from time to time at The J, he constantly had a problem with the Pushbutton 4wd/auto hubs not wanting to release. ALot of times he just found someplace to spin the tires or pick up one of the front tires off the ground to release binding and let the truck drop back into 2wd. My boss has a Tahoe that started acting up on her this past winter, she had to take the truck back to the dealer and have the T-Case's computer reprogramed, she didn't appreciate me saying that's why I'm glad my Jeep has real linkage on the case. I also have a friend who's '90 Explorer that does the same thing, only he took the hubs apart trying to find why they wouldn't unlock and couldn't find where the binding was. I tink he thought I was full of it when I told him that it probably fixed itself when he put the front end in the air. He also thinks drive by wire is a fantastic thing to have, so much easier to work on without cables all over all over the place:dunno:

 

[Lawn Cher']

Yeah, those suburbans have enough gremlins to deal with already, not to mention the one behind the wheel.

Tell me about it. I just got done replacing the AC condenser and the octopus of lines forward of the firewall and now the AC tech that recharged the system suspects I'll need a compressor sooner rather than later. That part is an expensive mutha! Oh, and the moron engineer who decided that aluminum and steel threaded fittings would be good to use should be shot! All I had to do was replace the condenser, but I had so much trouble with the fittings due to galvanic corrosion that I damaged both lines that attach to it during removal. So I had to dismantle much more of the engine bay and buy more parts and waste more of my time. Still, it was better than paying the $675 I was quoted for the job.

 

[hicksrcool426]

push button 4wheel is just one more electronic thing to break

 

[xuv-this]

. My boss has a Tahoe that started acting up on her this past winter, she had to take the truck back to the dealer and have the T-Case's computer reprogramed....

i have only heard of this mysterious "pushbutton 4wd".aperwork i'm so glad i have a jeep.:laugh3: