Fried IWE actuators?

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vegascarnut

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Think I probably fried them anyway. Sounded and acted EXACTLY like part throttle detonation I had on my blown mustang—light throttle, uphill, etc. Went on for about a month and a half, and quite a few miles before I zeroed in on it. A cracked vacuum line.

Haven’t tested it off road yet, but with the vac line disconnected and the solenoid plugged in 2WD I get a random click here and there. Should be quiet except for some extra whine from the rotation of the shafts right?

Oh well! Shit breaks.
 

CoronaRaptor

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With no vacuum to the iwe's they should be fully engaged. You driving around like that for now?
 
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vegascarnut

vegascarnut

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With no vacuum to the iwe's they should be fully engaged. You driving around like that for now?

I was going to but because they don’t sound quite right I’m not. Basically that’s what IWE deletes are, engaged all the time. I think the noise could be coming from chewed gears in the hub/actuators.
 

MFNG

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I was going to but because they don’t sound quite right I’m not. Basically that’s what IWE deletes are, engaged all the time. I think the noise could be coming from chewed gears in the hub/actuators.

Did the delete and just hung the lines for the time being. What do I need to do with them?

Plug them? Completely disconnect entire hose assembly? Is it bad to just leave them after you delete and do nothing?
 

Dane

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Loose axle nut is very common and will cause partial engagement in 4WD - scraping or clicking.

Plug the disconnected line - it's a vacuum sucking in crud.
 
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vegascarnut

vegascarnut

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I connected a T between the actuator hose and the solenoid, and ran a vacuum gauge into the cab so I could watch what was happening on the way to work this morning. As expected, in higher gears, low RPM, slight uphill I can watch the vacuum drop from about 20 all the way down to below 10. It's downhill to work, so I didn't have a chance to try a couple of spots on the freeway where I always hear the "detonation (LOL)" but I'm confident that when I do try it on the way home I'll see that vacuum reading get down to 5 or less on those hills, and will start to hear the familiar sound.
 
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vegascarnut

vegascarnut

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I'm going to replace the vacuum line to the IWEs, because that is leaking for sure. The question I have is about a sound I hear when I engage the hubs (disconnect vacuum) in 2WD. There's no noise backing out of the driveway, turning, or starting out, but when I get up to about 20 mph I hear a clanking noise. It's not regular, but random. I'll hear clank, then nothing, then clank-clank-clank then nothing. Almost like a nut in a coffee can.

CVs would make a sound turning, and you would hear it all the time if they were bad, right? Could one of the IWEs be chewed up enough to make a noise like that when engaged? Would a loose axle nut sound like that? What else do you think it could be. I'm planning to start checking things out and just looking for advice.

Thanks!
 

The Car Stereo Company

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you wont know until the hoses are changed. i replaced my drivers side and the noise went away for me. hopefully that solves your problem too. once you have proper vacuum you can check other things, if the problem still exists
 

letsgetthisdone

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Easy button is just delete the IWE's. They're a known issue due to vacuum line failure as well as breaking under high load offroad. Save yourself all this work and head scratching, toss the RCV deletes in.
 
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