Sorry if this posts twice.. I seem to have lost my first post while editing...

I'm a new owner of an 03 Tribute that I might want to use for limited off road travel. But before I go anywhere challenging I need to know more about the locking feature.

Can someone please explain how the drive train works. Looks like with lock off it is a normal all wheel drive where wheels will slip as necessary on hard terrain.

What happens with lock engaged? are all four wheels locked or just front and rear with left-right slip?

For example- if I have both right wheels on the ground and both left wheels are in the air will the wheel in the air spin and the ones on the ground loose traction?

Thanks for any help.

 

I'm guessing that this would lock the center diff only and not the front and rear. If it acts like an AWD in normal driving mode it would shift power back and forth between the front a rear axles when needed. This lock button locks the center diff and allows equal power to be distributed to the F & R axles for better traction. As far as the side to side distribution I'm not sure. If you're ever in a situation where you are getting wheel slip, use your brake. If you ride the brake a little it helps shift power back and forth to the non-moving wheels. Hope that helps some.

 

Sounds like a reasonable guess. I'm guessing the same thing.

However I just found a pretty detailed description about Mazda/Ford Escape AWD and it explains that there isn't really a center diff at all.

Check this out. I found it very instructive. Sounds like this is all done by electronic wheel motion sensing and fluid dynamic control and there really is no physical "lock" at all, even though the switch and the manual says so.

Escape City - Ford Escape Forums - Ford Escape, Mercury Mariner, Mazda Tribute, Ford Maverick - View topic - How does the 2001-04 A4WD work?

If anyone on this forum knows somehow that this info is bogus let me know.

Thanks.

 

Under normal driving conditions the vehicle is only driving the front wheels, when you start to loose traction it engages the rear driveshaft or diff to create 4WD. As far as I'm aware all the switch does is lock up to 4WD on demand.

 

I'm used to a Landrover and with that car "lock" really means the two are connected via hard gears. They really are "locked" together. With this truck it's not really locked (at least according to the post I referenced before). He says the following-

In the “4x4 On” mode, the rear axle is engaged quicker and more securely. The front and rear axles are, however, never locked together except during front wheel slippage. That way there is never any crabbing or binding in tight turns, and there is no need for a center differential.

With no limited-slip differentials, it is possible – with opposite corners in full droop and airborne, for example – for an Escape to get totally stuck. And that’s why this ain’t a true four-ba-four."

His final example is exactly why I was asking the question.

Anyway- maybe he's wrong but with all the detail he is including, it sounds like he knows this drive-train inside and out, literally : )