As it turns out, I was on my way to pick up a family member who had surgery that day. In getting on the interstate, it was a hard left turn (nearly in a U shape for turns), and heard a "clicking grind" type sound. I pulled off, it stopped, I moved slowly forward & the problem didn't happen again ... then 10 miles down the road it started again. I pulled off at the exit and there happened to be a truck stop there, so I circled the parking lot, turning sharply left as when I had gotten on the interstate, and then back to the right, nothing.. I go straight and heard the sound again, stopped got out looked, nothing out of the ordinary ... so I start moving forward again ... this time the clicking wasn't as loud but the spin of the engine wasn't getting to the transmission. I put the transfer case selector into 4 wheel mode, got some movement and then the spinning sound without clicks. It was at that point I realized the transfer case had completely gone.
I had the jeep towed to my local mechanic, the one that performs all my non-warranty work, got a new re-manufactured transfer case for 1300 with a 5 year 100k warranty and had it installed. All told about 1500 dollars.
After this transfer case was installed ... several things were noticeably different, the first of which was that I no longer had a "clunk" when going into gear, forward or reverse. The Jeep also seemed a bit more throttle responsive, like before there had been a bit of molasses between pressing the gas and getting a decent response. And of course, I no longer had problems getting into or out of 2 wheel / 4 wheel mode (AWD not 4hi/lo).
I see now that had I been more assertive with the dealership I probably should have gotten the work done years ago as the clunk has been with this jeep from day one. Almost needless to say, I will never buy another jeep vehicle. I've had numerous problems, this being the most expensive so far.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
As it turns out, I was on my way to pick up a family member who had surgery that day. In getting on the interstate, it was a hard left turn (nearly in a U shape for turns), and heard a "clicking grind" type sound. I pulled off, it stopped, I moved slowly forward & the problem didn't happen again ... then 10 miles down the road it started again. I pulled off at the exit and there happened to be a truck stop there, so I circled the parking lot, turning sharply left as when I had gotten on the interstate, and then back to the right, nothing.. I go straight and heard the sound again, stopped got out looked, nothing out of the ordinary ... so I start moving forward again ... this time the clicking wasn't as loud but the spin of the engine wasn't getting to the transmission. I put the transfer case selector into 4 wheel mode, got some movement and then the spinning sound without clicks. It was at that point I realized the transfer case had completely gone.
I had the jeep towed to my local mechanic, the one that performs all my non-warranty work, got a new re-manufactured transfer case for 1300 with a 5 year 100k warranty and had it installed. All told about 1500 dollars.
After this transfer case was installed ... several things were noticeably different, the first of which was that I no longer had a "clunk" when going into gear, forward or reverse. The Jeep also seemed a bit more throttle responsive, like before there had been a bit of molasses between pressing the gas and getting a decent response. And of course, I no longer had problems getting into or out of 2 wheel / 4 wheel mode (AWD not 4hi/lo).
I see now that had I been more assertive with the dealership I probably should have gotten the work done years ago as the clunk has been with this jeep from day one. Almost needless to say, I will never buy another jeep vehicle. I've had numerous problems, this being the most expensive so far.
- tg2, Strasburg, VA, US