4WD light

[aardvark]

Hi
While driving to penrith today I noticed the 4wd flashing b4 I turned off at Narellan road and once on the way back too. Has anybody else had experience with this
Cheers Phil

[mpsgarage]

Transfer box high oil temp.
a) wrong tyre size
b) oil needs to be replaced
c) rear diff clutches

[Onyx]

Transfer box high oil temp.
a) wrong tyre size
b) oil needs to be replaced
c) rear diff clutches

B as in engine oil?

The 4WD lights came on once and I thought it was a warning as I was losing traction on a wet surface. (?)

[aardvark]

Its just had its 60k service from mazda 2k ago and apart from them tell me the disks and pads needed to replaced in 2k they mentioned nothing else. I wasn't pusing it at the time on the time but it prob reached 62k then. and once on the way home when I did take off quick.
Cheers Phil

[shakespeare]

Transfer box high oil temp.
a) wrong tyre size
b) oil needs to be replaced
c) rear diff clutches

Its just had its 60k service from mazda 2k ago and apart from them tell me the disks and pads needed to replaced in 2k they mentioned nothing else. I wasn't pusing it at the time on the time but it prob reached 62k then. and once on the way home when I did take off quick.
Cheers Phil

b) would be my guess too, transfer case oil may be low or need replacing! Low possibly due to transfer case oil seal leak, though when mine leaked it only lost 100ml in about 20,000kms

[aardvark]

I'll check underneath for oil leak signs, and confirm with mazda whether the 6 year extended warranty by servicing through mazda instead of the normal 3 actually applies. They mentioned when I bought it new. But quite frankly they charge an arm and a leg and I want to see some benefit now the 3 years is up. I should have read the small print.

[kmh001]

There are only two things that can make the AWD light illuminate: AWD system failure or high (rear) diff temperature.

High diff temp is most commonly caused by incorrect tyre pressure or mis-matched tyres. That's the first thing to check.

[bd581]

There is a 3rd. Don't know what it is though
I know the AWD light flashed on dads a few times when reversing on very wet and slippery and uneven ground.

[aardvark]

Well the tyres are all falken ze912s. The front are spankers but the rear need replacing soon so there would be a difference in circumference. The rear will be replaced next month and moved to the rear. It only happened on a long trip. Didn't happen today around town

Sent from my Milestone using Tapatalk

[aardvark]

Oops obvious new goes to front. Old to rear

Sent from my Milestone using Tapatalk

[kmh001]

That could do it. It only takes a few mm difference in front to rear tyre height to cause the diff coupling to get hot.

[aardvark]

Perhaps trying to extract the last 2k out of a pair of tyres is a false economy then. I'll ring kmart and get the last 2 ZE912s. Then they rotate and align them every 10k and tell mazda not to

Sent from my Milestone using Tapatalk

[aardvark]

Ok booked the car in for friday to get the last 2 tyres done. So I'll know when I go to exchange the rotors in penrith on Saturday whether that was the problem. Only change one thing at a time

Sent from my Milestone using Tapatalk

[kmh001]

It's a bit of a band aid solution to do this - but you can use tyre pressure and a ruler to match the tyre height so they are equal all round. However you would probably only want to do that if there was significant diff overheating and you needed to get yourself some distance to get the tyres fixed up.

[aardvark]

Well replacing the rear tyres solved the problem. No light during the drive to penrith today. Even gave it a bit of stick and no probs.
Obviously tyre rotation is crucial so all 4 can be done at once

Sent from my Milestone using Tapatalk

[kmh001]

Thanks for the update. Hope the AWD light stays off for you.

[aardvark]

Yep, sure has, so that was obviously the problem

Sent from my Milestone using Tapatalk