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4x4 owners - Dont Do this!


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Just a public service announcement of an issue I had. I pulled my truck up onto some beveled 4" blocks to give myself extra room to glide around on my creeper while changing oil. I put it in 4wd hi to get a little extra oomph to get up the blocks. No bid deal.

 

When i was done, I put the truck in neutral and let it roll back of the blocks without starting up the motor.

 

When I started the truck up, I got a service 4wd message. The vehicle was locked in 4wd hi and would not deactivate.

 

Thankfully I have the 100k mile power-train warranty and they fixed it. But involved replacing the entire actuator.

 

Seems like really weak excuse for such a big problem.

 

Anyway, dont do that.

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Apparently not. Or you cant do it without starting the truck first. Or you cant do all that and allow the truck to roll backwards. I'm not sure. In any case, it messed up my actuators over something that should be totally benign.

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Coincidental I am sure - heck my 2500 threw a code when they brought it around to deliver it brand new - ended up replacing the TCM before I ever drove it for the first time. But no other issue in 10 years of daily use.

And I always used 4-HI to put it up on ramps for LOF...........

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It's gotta be something else. That's too easy for anybody to do. I frequently let my vehicles roll back without starting; like from the garage to the driveway in neutral. If having it in 4WD would cause even a small problem, that disclaimer would be all over the place...I would think anyway.

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Never had this problem in any other vehicle I have owned or company truck but then again up until now all of my trucks have had the shifter on the floor that I also put in N.

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I got a 4W Drive service message during the snow storm we have in Portland. All I did was put it on 4x4 High, parked it and the next day i couldn't get it out of it. It was replaced under warranty, possibly just bad actuator.

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Put the transmission or transfer case into neutral? Regardless, I would NOT expect that to occur.

 

 

I think it was coincidental because in order to go from 4Hi to 4Lo you have to stop and move to neutral in order to make the change.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I may be late to the party here. I am new and still reading through many post to learn about a truck I have not even taken delivery of lol..

 

anyway

gmc told me that the vin i gave them had a recall that 4wd would get stuck in cold weather and I needed to take it in. obviously i haven't yet

 

it is a 2014 slt z71

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When I shut my 15 Sierra off still in 4hi or auto I can hear some actuator moving when I get out. I think it is shifting out of 4x4 to allow the vehicle to be towed.

 

When I still lived with the rents and owned a 2000 F150 I would have to park in 4x4 so the truck would not slide down their steep snow covered driveway when I would shut the door. Or do a small brake stand to burn the rear tires down to the pavement so I could park in 2wd.

 

Just curious what would happen with my sierra if it does shift out of 4x4 when shut off. Especially if it slides with the rear wheels locked in park and the front free rolling.

 

I guess I could find out if it snows again this year. I'm still under warranty ;)

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Was your ignition off?

My ignition was in the accessory position. Engine was not running. I just used it to allow my to free the shifter to put it in neutral.

 

I need to check to see if I need to get this update folks have mentioned.

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I did it all the time on the Avalanches and now on the Silvy rolling backward off the drive ramps......drive up ramps in 4WD so the front wheels grab instead of push the ramps...place in Park...then key on to release tranny lever and shift tranny to Neutral and then roll off the ramps..never touch the transfer case switch , leaving it in 4WD....restart up in 4WD then shift to 2WD never had a problem with a transfer case lockup. Why should it, the release is in the tranny not the transfer case?

 

But, I would never dream of using the transfer case switch to go from 4WD to N with the ignition off....there are specific instructions to shift the transfer case from 4Lo to N while the engine is running......my guess is that when power is shut off in 4WD and the transfer case knob (not the tranny lever) is shifted to N with the motor off , not just the power turned off....it will definitely screw something up because as soon as the power is supplied the actuator servo is out of sync with the gearset.

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