I have been having problems with my 2003 4X4 not going into 4WD. After searching here and finding many problems with the vacuum actuated hubs I jacked it up to take a look tonight. The vacuum actuator is functioning properly as I can see it moving the full length of travel on the front axle. I then jacked all four wheels of the ground and confirmed that the front drive shaft is spinning. Last I pulled the actuater off and manually moved the lever on the front axle while my neighbor put it in reverse, again no luck. The lever without the actuator feels very loose like it is not connected to anything internally. The truck has just over 37K miles, and the problem showed its face about 36.5K. Any ideas of what it will take to repair? Also, people who have had good luck getting warranty repair when out of warranty as a good will gesture, what was your approach with the dealer. I have heard of this happening in the past. This is the second F150 I purchased from my dealer, so hopefully that will carry some weight on getting it warrantied if it is a major repair.

 

For those who may be interested, I took the truck to the dealer. They replaced a fork in the front axle and Ford covered 70% of the cost as it was so close to warranty as well as this is my 3rd F150 in a row.

 

Where I live was recently pounded with snow and my 4 wd seemed to work for awhile, but then seemed to stop and I was fish-tailing all over the place. Another thing I noticed was in 4 high....there was a clinking ever so often.

What do I need to check first? Should I just take it to the dealer?

'03 SuperCrew FX4...20 thousand miles.

 

Definitely tak it to the dealer. I had a similar situation with the noise. Turned out to be the tranfer case. It had to be replaced. It's still under warranty at 20k.

 

yeah, I think I hear some whining from the rear-end as well, but I guess that could be the t-case..

 

I have exactly the same problem 2003 F-150 4X4. how long did it take them to repair? I have the extended warranty,mine failed at 48K

 

Took my truck in yesterday at 4:30...got it back today at 5:00. My dealership has some great mechanics. They said that some fork broke inside the front differential.....It's all better now.

 

That was the same problem with mine, shift fork of some sort broke in the front diff.