Hello,

Last week I purchased my 2014 F-150 STX used from a dealer. It’s a beautiful truck and only has 21k miles, but in the past few days I have discovered one issue with the 4WD. Occasionally (maybe 10-20% of the time that I drive the truck) switching the 4WD knob to 4HI (and/or back to 2WD) doesn’t illuminate anything it’s supposed to on the dash panel. No “4x4 shift in progress”, no “4x2” or “4x4 High”, etc. Once when I noticed it I pulled into a parking lot, turned off the truck, then turned it back on and everything lit up like it’s supposed to. Thankfully, I haven’t yet heard any grinding noises that seem to accompany similar issues people have had.

Doing some research, it sounds like replacing the IWE Solenoid may be a good place to start? Would a faulty one cause an intermittent issue like this without the grinding noise?

Thanks in advance.

it could but, usually no light means the transfer case shift motor is not working.. once it moves properly.. you get your light. with only 21K miles on it .. i would think it’s still under warranty... oops, just noticed it’s a 14.. warranty up.

Thanks for the responses, sounds like I may have been going down a rabbit hole with the IWE solenoid thought.

Would it be worth trying the “hammer-tap” I’ve read about to see if it loosens it up, or should I just continue to drive it and do some switching back and forth between 2WD and 4HI? The dealer said (supposedly, you never know with their stories) that the truck was an employee’s dad who is an airline pilot. If true, he probably mostly drove it around the city and it probably sat in airport parking a lot. Maybe the 4WD just hasn’t been used much.

that works 50% of the time.

I’ll keep up with some switching back and forth and see how it does, thanks. The few times this problem has happened I’ve been on my way to work in rush-hour highway driving and it’s been hard to tell if the 4WD has activated or not. If it happens again I’m hoping it’ll be in a situation where I can pull onto a snowy side road where it’s more obvious.

I’ve read that you can tap the transfer case motor as someone switches it to 4WD and that can get it “unstuck”. Not sure if that would help with an intermittent issue like this, though.

Well I didn’t have to wait very long for it to happen again, the issue popped up when I left work this afternoon. As always, the truck had been sitting in the cold (20 degrees) for 8+ hours and I remote-started it and let it idle/warm for about 8 minutes before I left. The 4X lights never came on, I tried to determine if 4WD was activated when making a turn out of the parking lot, but honestly it’s so quiet shifting into that mode that I’m only partially sure that it was activated (the turn felt a little stiff compared to 4x2, though).

Before getting onto the road I put the truck in park, turned it off, turned it right back on and the 4X light came right on and switched back and forth with no problem.

I would like to try that KAM reset next. Do you know if it would reset the aftermarket (Compustar) remote start? That is my only hesitation.