lockers quit working

[77and21]

I was about 4 miles into a 22 mile cross country trail when my lockers quit engaging. I still had 4WD but no lockers. I had several messages that popped up on my dash, service stabilla trac, service parking aid, the abs light was on. A little later I got a few more messages, service parking brake and a couple others I can't remember right now. I was able to finish out the day but had to have a Jeep drag me over several obstacles. No fun let me tell you. The tires were at about 25 lbs pressure for about 4 hours when it happened. We looked everywhere for a broken sensor or a loose wire but couldn't find anything. We disconnected the ECM. took the battery cables off in hopes of resetting the codes, no luck. The master cylinder was hot so I thought it may have had something to do with that. We let it cool overnight but still had the problem in the morning. It was a tough day getting out of there. Luckily a lot of the other people there were kind enough to help us through. At one point we thought we were going to need to stay another night with no food or water in hopes of getting a recovery team in the next day to pull us over the last big obstacle. Again, due to the good people there and the last of the good karma I had built up over the years a young guy came along with a custom built Jeep Commanchee p/u and got us out. Without him it would have been a much more expensive trip. It's going to be bad enough with the damage I have to the rig due to the fact that I couldn't maneuver without the lockers. When we got back to pavement and aired the tires back up the messages dissappeared and lockers started to work again. I thought it could be due to the low tire pressure but drove another Bronco at the Moab Off-rodeo for about 8 hrs with similar tire pressure, no problems. Does anybody have an idea what may have caused the problem or how to make sure it doesn't happen again?
Thanks

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[Toasty]

Definitely do not think it was your tire pressure. You honestly were aired up too high to be in that terrain.

I would take it to Ford immediately, find out what's wrong, and post back here for a repair. It could be anything.

 

[mj63]

Sounds like an ABS module that wasn't able to find center (steering) after a fault, so wasn't able to clear the fault to me.

 

[Silver-Bolt]

Sounds ABS related. Wheel sensor maybe.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

I was about 4 miles into a 22 mile cross country trail when my lockers quit engaging. I still had 4WD but no lockers. I had several messages that popped up on my dash, service stabilla trac, service parking aid, the abs light was on. A little later I got a few more messages, service parking brake and a couple others I can't remember right now. I was able to finish out the day but had to have a Jeep drag me over several obstacles. No fun let me tell you. The tires were at about 25 lbs pressure for about 4 hours when it happened. We looked everywhere for a broken sensor or a loose wire but couldn't find anything. We disconnected the ECM. took the battery cables off in hopes of resetting the codes, no luck. The master cylinder was hot so I thought it may have had something to do with that. We let it cool overnight but still had the problem in the morning. It was a tough day getting out of there. Luckily a lot of the other people there were kind enough to help us through. At one point we thought we were going to need to stay another night with no food or water in hopes of getting a recovery team in the next day to pull us over the last big obstacle. Again, due to the good people there and the last of the good karma I had built up over the years a young guy came along with a custom built Jeep Commanchee p/u and got us out. Without him it would have been a much more expensive trip. It's going to be bad enough with the damage I have to the rig due to the fact that I couldn't maneuver without the lockers. When we got back to pavement and aired the tires back up the messages dissappeared and lockers started to work again. I thought it could be due to the low tire pressure but drove another Bronco at the Moab Off-rodeo for about 8 hrs with similar tire pressure, no problems. Does anybody have an idea what may have caused the problem or how to make sure it doesn't happen again?
Thanks

Hello, Scott! Send us a private message with your VIN and the name and location of your local Ford dealer. I’d be happy to see what I can do to assist with this concern on your Bronco. Thanks!

 

[AZMikeL]

I've had the same thing with a ABS wheel sensor. Sucks that it disables the lockers (usually when you need them the most). This event *should* log to your FordPass app, so you may be able to see the offending part.

Ford really needs to provide a way to override this and turn the lockers on. A $30 part disabling them is unsafe, and frankly, complete bullshit.

 

[Merc4x4]

At a minimum, keep extra water in your truck. Always be prepared to spend an extra day or two without services. Doesn't matter if your road trip is on the interstates or the back country, break downs can happen anywhere.

If you prepare ahead of time, you have better chance of thinking critically in an emergency.

Wheel speed sensors seem to be the achilles heel of the Bronco. A big over-site to disable (what I believe are) mechanical locking differentials vs software traction control. Also seems extra pointless as a mechanical locker will make the speed differential between the wheels zero.

 

[Felix808]

I'm thinking you could wire them to a couple of aux switch's, as it should just be just 12v switched power to activate, bypassing the sensors.

 

[Dingbat]

I'm thinking you could wire them to a couple of aux switch's, as it should just be just 12v switched power to activate, bypassing the sensors.

There's a thread on this forum discussing the stock E-lockers. IIrc, They engage with a particular voltage/amperage, then the current steps down to hold engagement. Speculation was that the strategy is to avoid excessive heat build up in the actuator but just switching it off the 12v would likely work, especially for emergency use.
I'll see if I can find a link to it later...

Eta: For a parallel circuit like that you may also want to break the connection back to the module that runs the lockers normally just for the unlikely possibility that back-feeding it w/12v could damage it. Assuming the factory circuit would tolerate being switched between the module and locker, you might be able to run both circuits through a relay with one rigged NO and the other NC. Then you could activate it all off one Aux switch.

 

[Felix808]

There's a thread on this forum discussing the stock E-lockers. IIrc, They engage with a particular voltage/amperage, then the current steps down to hold engagement. Speculation was that the strategy is to avoid excessive heat build up in the actuator but just switching it off the 12v would likely work, especially for emergency use.
I'll see if I can find a link to it later...

Thanks for looking it up.
I would be surprised if the voltage changes as I'm thinking it should be a simple solenoid that snaps on snaps off, but never under estimate electronics to complicate things
Someone could always meter the voltage when the switch is engaged.

 

[flip]

 

[flip]

OP, DM me your VIN, I'd like to look at the VHR.

 

[Felix808]

Thanks as always Flip. But Translation?
It looks like you could bypass the module to me to activate the lockers. No?

 

[flip]

I was looking at the operation in the WSM and it's duty cycled after that but going through the pin point test to see what it was but haven't had much success yet.

 

[Dingbat]

Here's the thread that talks about the current stepping down:

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/thre...dive-overview-skip-if-youre-tldr-prone.41973/

This thread may have some info relevant to the original topic of this thread too:

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/transfer-case-technical-discussion.52097/

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