Grinding noise in 4WD on brand new Rubicon

[RangerRobAZ]

I just got a new 2020 rubicon. I've put about 600 miles on it so far (road trip). Today I took it out for its first 4wd adventure. Things seemed fine, but at some point in 4Hi, I noticed sometimes a noise like metal pellets hitting a tin can coming from the front of the vehicle. And sometimes a grinding/scraping noise (metal on metal sound). It occurred in 4Lo as well. This all started right from the beginning, before I did anything serious off road. The noise is fairly infrequent. I did a decent amount of crawling around rocks with a few very steep inclines. I used front and rear lockers and sway bar. I noticed no issues, other than the occasional noise.

Afterwards, I played around a bit more and am able to consistently reproduce the noise in 4Lo and 4Hi if I do hard turns left or right at slow speeds. 4Hi it tends to just make the metal pellet tapping / ticking noise. 4Lo will catch and make the metal on metal grinding/scraping at extreme turns. In addition, when I was driving back in 4Hi, going straight around 25-30mph on a graded , flat dirt road, a couple of times the grinding noise would happen for a second or 2 and I could feel the vehicle resist forward motion ever so slightly. The noises never happen in 2wd.

I know the obvious answer is take it to the dealer, but I am 8 hour drive from where i bought it and 2 hours from nearest Jeep dealer. Is this likely something wrong with the front differential? Or maybe transfer case? Am I risking some serious damage on the trail if whatever is wrong gets worse and grinds up my gears? I can't imagine this sound is normal. My JK sport never made anything like it. Or is this somehow normal with the Rubicon?

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[enjynlf]

Please share what the dealer found.

I am having a similar issue with a 2018 JL Rubicon.

I’m in the desert for a week wheeling and after burying in on the side of a steep rocky hill with lockers engaged I noticed something in the front intermittently seems to catch and make the metal on metal grinding/scraping noise In 4H or 4L I can also feel the vehicle resist forward motion ever so slightly.

I’m planning to try to stay in 2wd for the rest of the week, but would like to know what your issue was. I have close to 12,000 miles and have been wheeling several time with no prior issues.

I will post an update once I know what the problem is for people with a similar issue in the future.

Thanks, Steve

 

[JayJay]

Please share what the dealer found.

Steve, that person hasn't been on the forum in the last 6 months or so.

Later,
Johnny

 

[ToolMan514]

I think this might be what you're talking about... And his solution is posted below...

 

[RangerRobAZ]

Here is another post reply I made after a trip to the dealer. Pinging clock sound behind steering column in 4Low when turning | Page 3 | 2018+ Jeep Wrangler Forums (JL / JLU) - Rubicon, Sahara, Sport, Unlimited - JLwranglerforums.com

Mine seems to be getting worse. If I turn off traction control when in 4Hi, the clicking noise occurrence is greatly reduced. I still get the awful ABS grinding noise, which seems like an exacerbation of the electronic braking system issues noted here. 4Lo is supposed to have most of that crap turned off, but perhaps my Jeep has a problem and 4Lo is not disabling traction control like it should (the light on the button turns on and the dash indicator comes on for it disabling when i go into 4lo)​

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At this point, I think Jeep has a design flaw in the electronic braking systems on these JLs. It seems to be overly sensitive when off roading. I spent 8 hours at the dealer one day , they even went out with me in the Jeep and called in to Jeep to investigate the grinding. In the end they didn’t seem to have a clue but said it was “normal” and not to worry, I have a warranty. Small comfort if I break down on a trail. I have been extremely disappointed overall with my JL, I am not comfortable with taking it on any more than light off-road due the frequent, loud ABS grinding. Great “feature” for a Wrangler to have.​

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I also tried contacting Jeep directly, but all they tell me is go back to the dealership. They aren't going to do anything because it only happens in 4WD. The dealership really tried to figure out the problem. A repair tech even rode with me in the Jeep on some dirt road by the dealership. He told me as much that Jeep would just stop listening once they told them it only happens in 4WD/off road. It seems like there is something wrong with the electronic braking system in my Jeep. Perhaps there is a defective sensor or badly tuned computer parameters, I don't know. I have considered buying a Tazer JL, which supposedly has an option to completely disabled all ABS / Traction control to see if that would make the awful and continual ABS grinding noise when articulating stop.

ToolMan, thanks for the videos. Unfortunately my noise is nothing like that and happens most any time I am driving in 4WD, turning or not.

Since I last posted, the grinding problem has only continued to get worse. It happens much more frequently in 4Hi now. I've put the Jeep in 4Lo once in the past 9 months and that reminded me why I don't put it in 4Lo. I've seen other people comment on the excessive pinging/clicking noise while offroading (due to electronic braking system relays clicking on and off), but haven't really seen any posts about this grinding noise. I feel like I flushed $50k down the drain by buying a Rubicon and a Jeep and will never buy one again. I owned 2 prior and loved Jeep, but I at this point I can't even take it offroad and Jeep won't do anything to fix it. I've driven 4WD vehicles exclusively for over 20 years now. I know what the binding noise sounds like related to 4Lo turning and this grinding is not that. I can easily replicate the grinding noise by purposefully engaging the ABS system (drive at some speed on dirt road, press brakes hard). My previous 2 Wrangler Sports (2011 and 2016) never once made any noises while driving off road even close to my 2020 Rubicon.

Steve, what you are describing is exactly what I noticed in mine the first time I took it offroad in 4H at about 600 miles on the odometer. I thought maybe something was hanging down and 'catching' on ground or on vehicle somehow. Mine is much more extreme though, if I go up a rocky hill requiring 4Lo, the ABS grinding noise happens near continuously and is quite disturbing to listen to. Other than wearing out the electronic braking system components, I don't know if it would cause a serious issue while off road (except see below). Of course hard to convince myself of that in the middle of nowhere over extreme terrain listening to a god awful grinding noise the entire time.

I tried unplugging an ABS sensor to disable the ABS/electronic braking systems. There is no ABS fuse as in prior generation Wranglers. However, the entire 4WD system will not even turn on if ABS is not working. Imagine that, on a trail and an ABS sensor wire gets cut or fails in some way. Now you're completely screwed because your 4WD will no longer work. I had that exact situation happen in my 2011 wrangler. Fortunately it wasn't designed like such a fragile piece of crap and didn't disable the vehicle because of an ABS sensor failing.

Rob

 

[enjynlf]

Appreciate the info, at first I thought I had a rock stuck, after I couldn’t find anything visible, I was thinking a piece of broken gear was catching and dragging. It does almost seem like the breaks are getting applied to one wheel or there’s a binding when I hear the slight grinding noise. left front does click a little so will tighten that and try to stay in 2wd .

 

[RangerRobAZ]

Can you elaborate? It's not easy to understand how an electronic issue with the brakes would disable the ability to pull the mechanical transfer case lever and physically engage the 4WD mechanism.

I would like to better understand what you are trying to describe.

Thank you.

Its a programming decision by Jeep to disable the 4WD system when ABS isn't working. If you pull a sensor, the display lights up with errors and you cannot enable 4WD. The dash display tells you 4WD is disabled. It is not commonly posted on the internet, but I found some posts claiming that ABS not working disables 4WD in the JLs. I didn't believe it either, as you, so I went and pulled the ABS sensor connector anyway. And sure enough, 4WD completely disabled. I dunno if it would throw you out of 4WD while operating the vehicle, but I pulled ABS sensor with jeep not running and when I started it, got the 4WD disabled situation.

 

[HoundDude]

I had a wheel sensor fail while driving in 4H through a "puddle" and can confirm that 4WD (and ABS, traction control) was immediately disabled. fortunately I was able to drive out in 2H.

 

[Lenkeit Overland]

I just got a new 2020 rubicon. I've put about 600 miles on it so far (road trip). Today I took it out for its first 4wd adventure. Things seemed fine, but at some point in 4Hi, I noticed sometimes a noise like metal pellets hitting a tin can coming from the front of the vehicle. And sometimes a grinding/scraping noise (metal on metal sound). It occurred in 4Lo as well. This all started right from the beginning, before I did anything serious off road. The noise is fairly infrequent. I did a decent amount of crawling around rocks with a few very steep inclines. I used front and rear lockers and sway bar. I noticed no issues, other than the occasional noise.

Afterwards, I played around a bit more and am able to consistently reproduce the noise in 4Lo and 4Hi if I do hard turns left or right at slow speeds. 4Hi it tends to just make the metal pellet tapping / ticking noise. 4Lo will catch and make the metal on metal grinding/scraping at extreme turns. In addition, when I was driving back in 4Hi, going straight around 25-30mph on a graded , flat dirt road, a couple of times the grinding noise would happen for a second or 2 and I could feel the vehicle resist forward motion ever so slightly. The noises never happen in 2wd.

I know the obvious answer is take it to the dealer, but I am 8 hour drive from where i bought it and 2 hours from nearest Jeep dealer. Is this likely something wrong with the front differential? Or maybe transfer case? Am I risking some serious damage on the trail if whatever is wrong gets worse and grinds up my gears? I can't imagine this sound is normal. My JK sport never made anything like it. Or is this somehow normal with the Rubicon?

i too have a new 2021 rubicon jlu and when I put it into 4 wheel low, I hear grinding. It almost sounds like a chain slipping on gears. I have not heard it in any other gears and am certain it’s not wheel rub because I’ve gone through the same motions in different gearing and it only happens in 4 wheel low.

 

[Michaelorton]

Hello all, new to the forum. I have a 2021 JLU Rubicon with about 2K miles. On our second trip off road I experienced the grinding while in 4L. It seems to be coming from the drivers front wheel when transitioning anything technical or turning the wheel sharp. I was thinking it was a locker that wasn’t fully disengaged. After reading I would say it does feel like braking as described in the forum previously. Seems like many of us are having this issue, does anyone have an answer from Jeep yet? I have driven may 4x4s and this is not “ normal”. Hope there is a programming fix to follow soon.

 

[enjynlf]

Welcome, I’m new too, but have been picking up useful info for about a year.

My Jeep is at the dealership now, but they don’t think they will be able to reproduce the issue since there’s no where near to off-road. I did not have the noise or any issues in 4wd on the street. They found an TCU error code, and will check everything out.

I will post whatever info I get.

I did have clicking on the drivers side and tightened the lower ball joint a half turn and think it’s gone.

Thanks for the tipToolMan

 

[krishhere]

I had the same experience on my 2021 Jeep Wrangler, It was my first time off-roading and thought will search and find some answers. I am thinking of taking it to dealer. Mine is not a clicking sound, its like grinding two metal parts.

 

[Obi.Wan.Shawnobi]

Hi @RangerRobAZ, by the oddest coincidence, I happened to be speaking to someone this morning and they mentioned that a broken wheel sensor on their JL disabled their 4WD capability. I took the opportunity to ask how it could affect the 4WD and they explained that electronic F.A.D. Front Axle Disconnect will not connect under the circumstance. You can engage the transfer case and spin the front driveshaft, but the wheels are not going to function as 4WD.

It seems like an arbitrary choice made by Jeep that is hard to make sense of.

Thank you for the info. I wish you good luck with resolving your issue.

i'm curious if this is that full time AWD system on the Sahara models? I had wonky stuff like this happen on my Cherokee (while i had it)

 

[enjynlf]

Dealer called today and hasn’t found the issue, but as soon as they put it in 4wd they do get some TCU and brake error codes...

At least they see something isn’t right and are still digging ng.

fingers crossed

 

[enjynlf]

Dealer called today and they say something is binding in the front axle. Since it’s a newer design they aren’t authorized to take it apart to repair. Seems crazy, but maybe Jeep wants to look at what went wrong. They ordered a new one and it will be a couple weeks... Hopefully, that takes care of my issue. Prior to this I have been off-roadping several times without any problems.

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