# Four Wheel Drive

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/four-wheel-drive/61614>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Tags:** explorer, noises, ford\
**Created:** [February 20, 2011, 4:45pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/four-wheel-drive/61614 "2011-02-20T16:45:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![iemusic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19adc/32.png) [@iemusic](https://community.cartalk.com/u/iemusic)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 4:45pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/four-wheel-drive/61614/1 "2011-02-20T16:45:47Z")

</div>

Over New Years I had to engage the full-time 4x4 button on my 2003 Explorer. Shortly thereafter I started noticing an airplane propeller noise that comes and goes with acceleration. It’s pretty loud. It has not affected mileage or dashboard engine indicators. Tires still have 40% left, not them. Have I ruined an axle or something? There is a rear end whine that Ford says is endemic to this model and year, but I think they are not related.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MikeInNH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a587f6/32.png) [@MikeInNH](https://community.cartalk.com/u/MikeInNH)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 1:54pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/four-wheel-drive/61614/2 "2011-02-21T13:54:42Z")

</div>

The only thing I can think of that would be related to the 4wd system is the auto-locking hubs aren’t disengaging. You need to get this checked. This could be serious.