torque on demand failure

[eileen]

Living the great north I'm not sure if anyone else has had this problem or not. Recently when we had a low temp. of around 50 below zero, the torque on demand quit working on my 99 vx. I've taken it to the local service and the computer say's it's fine and everything is working. This is obviously not true when you try and accelerate. They can't seem to figure it out. We don't have an actual dealership so that's not an option. Any ideas would be appreciated.

The front cv joint had snapped and never made a noise. It didn't grind or anything but once done the 4wd had nowhere to go. Finally found a shop with a tech that could figure it out.

[Tone]

What are the symptoms?
What lights on the display?
Check TOD light flashing?
Transfer case in hi ?- I've had it slip to neutral and it of course won't go.
Can you put it in low and will it drive then?
What gear were you starting out in?
Now it works fine?

[thebear54]

Tone,
I have a quick question for you...is the VX capable of normal(2 wheel drive) driving in the "neutral" position? Or will this mess up the TOD?
Sorry for the stupidity but I am still on a learning curve here.
Thanks...John

[Moncha]

If the transfer case is in neutral, engine power goes no where. The only way to make the VX a "2 wheel drive" is to install a TOD disconnect but, you will still have the drive train drag, it's not like having locking/unlocking hubs on other 4x4 although, there have been some that have installed them also. There's lots of info on the subject(s) here.

[thebear54]

Thanks Scott :p
John

[99vcross]

I live in ND, and we have had some bitterly cold days too, and it seems to me that it still works and all it just takes longer to kick in/show on the tod display, I have not had any noticable difference in handeling though. I know this doesn't help you, but since it has warmed up a little like in the low single digits here, everything seems to work fine.

[mbeach]

The only thing that I can think of is that the ATF in the transfer case might've thickened up. It's happend before, and when I lived up the street from you (eileen) I had heater pads on EVERYTHING.
I suppose that if the fluid were in a syrupy state (I've seen 10w-30 freeze into Jello), it could prevent the electronic clutch from engaging.

-50 does some pretty weird stuff.

Even an auto transmission car will become sluggish at these temps, but the fluid cannot physically impede the meshing of the gears.
In the case of our TOD case however, the mush could prevent the clutch packs from touching and transferring torque.
You might think that it would warm up due to friction, but with temps like that, nothing *really* warms up at all.

I say put a small (80-100W) silicone pad heater on the transfer case.