Any teenagers in the house?:dunno:

 

Hahaha, no. And no way my wife would have figured out how to shift it into 4 Low. I started thinking that may be I'd hit the lever by accident, but the truck was in park, so no way it would have gone through.

 

I had a similar incedent about two years ago.
During the summer, my Commander is mostly parked at my hangar......I detail it some, perform maintenance, whatever for the coming winter.
Anyways, one day, after it had been parked for about three weeks, I needed to move it to a different spot in the building.
As soon as I started it I heard a bunch of racket underneath, a shudder, and then the
4lo/esp off lights.
Since I'm the only person that goes into the building.....rules out any second party help.
I shifted back to 4hi, it shifted normally, and that was the end of that.....never done it since and that likely is about 25k miles ago.
I've been a wrench my whole life....this was a first, but, if I can't reproduce it, I can't fix it......so, maybe someday it'll do it again.
For now, I guess I just shrug my shoulders and say 'I dunno'

If you ever find a cause, please share.

Rob

 

Kentucky Harvester Gremlins! It's true! Gremlins!
"The same gremlins brought down our planes in the big one."
:11:

 

that's what i kind of figured - if I cant duplicate it, bringing the car to the dealer is kind of pointless. I'll see if it happens again and just go from there I guess. It's funny but the car the commander replaced - 2003 Dodge Durango - also had issues with the electronic transfer case. I remember thinking how i wished I'd bought an earlier model that still came with a lever.

 

A little condensation in the connectors, shorted a circuit and switched it?

EMI? Someone running a microwave close enough to your vehicle built up enough electrons in the wire to the control module (or inside the module itself), it triggered the module thinking the switch was thrown? I'm assuming, like many things on the vehicle, the XFR case switches are NOT directly wired to XFR case, the switch only tells the Control Module you threw it, then the module does it logic and actuates the motor on the XFR case to do shift into 4LO, I could be wrong.

robby, you mentioned a hangar, is it at an airport? I can see a lot of the strong EM fields for radio and navigation at airports being capable inducing a few stray electrons in the wiring and with the all electronic controls in the Commander, that could erronously activating some items.

Someone who knows more about the XFR case would have to think this through, but is there a defualt position for the motor if it fails? I've seen posts where they'll fail while in 4LO and NOT take it out. But, is it possible a failing motor would move on its own and actuate the linkage to shift it into low?

 

EMI very possible, the transfercase switch is monitored for a change of resistance to select the mode. FDCM through can bus is verifying a number of conditions are correct to allow a shift (transmission in neutral, vehicle speed, etc.) and then makes the correct shift. The shift is by a dc motor and position is confirmed by a sensor (voltage feedback), that the dc motor is in the correct location and the transfercase has shifted. Also there is a solenoid to hold the motor position when in LO, is it used in the other positions, not sure?

There is a lot going on in our Jeeps.

 

Mongo, friend request sent. You are a wealth of knowledge.

 

Mongo, friend request sent. You are a wealth of knowledge.

Yea, but everything I posted in this thread is a butt load of speculation, hoping to get people thinking. Take it with a big grain of salt.

 

Just wait until the solar flares start to peak next year. They will affect all of the electronics and the electrical grid.

 

Mongo,
Indeed, the hangar is at a airport.......it is my 'Man Cave'
As far as EMI....not too likely, this place doesn't even have any navigation electronics.
It is a private air park.....one of those places where many of the homes have a attached hangar and a taxiway behind the house.

Most of the aircraft are pre WWII.....many bi-planes (Stearman/Waco).....these are high end hobbiests and the aircraft are kept original.

I'd say the EMI coming off my battery charger is about all there is...LOL.

Rob

P.S.
Mongo, or anyone else for that matter.....you can look at the hangar in my garage thread....robby's garage.....apostrophe required.

 

I had the exact thing happen this week.
Went into work as usual, came out at end of day, started up , put er in drive and whoa whats going on??? then I notice it's in 4 low.
Turned it off just like you did and no issue since.