BreakawayOffroad4x4.com.au

This was an interesting trip to Toowoomba. The weather was good, though 2 vehicles had mechanical faults even before we started.

People coming alone were :
- Capella_Ben ,
- Dalmatian and navigator(boss)
- BenJancz
- cuboid
- Dave & all sons

While Dalmatian and navigator(boss) rode with Capella_Ben, BenJancz had problems engaging the front wheels and couldn't continue.

First stop were the tracks at Murphy's creek. There were some nice green areas and some moderate tracks.


Though some areas had a lot be scratchy lantana.


Unfortunately we were only around 15minutes into the tracks when we were informed the area is now owned by a dirt-bike club, and 4x4s shouldn't be in the area.
So after a quick air-up, we were back on the black-top heading off to Upper Flagstone Creek. There we met up with Jason and his family, who travelled with us for a couple of hours.

There were numerous "wombat" holes, with many wheels up in the air.




Capella_Ben found an interesting track with deep wash-outs. Half way down, a tree stump had us doing some road building. While still too close, it was decided to try to reverse out. But given the angle and the size of the wash-outs, we had another attempt at some road-building and eventually made it past the tree stump.


There were many more wash-outs on that track.


But it was getting late, so we headed back. Having a rear locker certainly came in handy in many areas. But there was one more hill in the area. It was fairly steep, and had a lot of dry dust/dirt on top. But that didn't stop Capella_Ben from given it a go .... and was done easily.


Dalmatian knew of one more interesting hill in the area. Well, it was two hills. The first climb was done by Capella_Ben, who started clearing the track of lose rocks (by rolling them half way down the slope. Dave who was behind Capella_Ben was staring to get a little nervous since many of the rocks just kept rolling down.
Dave and cuboid wisely engaged the rear locker, but it was still an interesting trip up. Quote of the day .... "the rocks are by large ball bearings on the track"



It was an interesting day, and those who had vehicles without mechanical faults had a lot of fun.

Looks like you found a few challenging tracks to do, especially if they were dirt-bike tracks, wish I was there.

Firstly thanks everyone for trying to help me fix the car and helping me to jack it up etc.

I did a bit of research on my 4x4 system in the evening.
1. Push the 4x4 button
2. Solenoid on transfer case tries to engage 3 times before giving up and flashing a warning code.
3. After transfer case engages another switch on gearbox checks 4x4 is engaged.
4. If gearbox switch is engaged actuators engage front axles.
When i pushed my button the solenoid on the transfer case made 1 click......... not the 3 required and this stalled the whole system.
So this morning I lightly tapped the solenoid a few times with a 17mm spanner...... 4x4 engaged.
I'm off to the wreckers during the week for a solenoid and luckily not a new diff.
It was a touch and go there for a while if the Fronty would be repaired if it was the diff.

That's good news Ben. So was that noise we heard the 4wd engagement system not working? Is that why the tail shaft was not turning?

It would be good if that is all it is.

This was a pretty memorable trip.

I forget my camera, but I do have a video of the great effort everyone put in to get me around the tree root.



Thanks for the great trip Tim!

After tapping the solenoid I suddenly got 2 clicks. The second click was the actuator on the front axle clicking in. Maybe the noises were from the front axles not being engaged properly. Auto lockers are noisy by design anyway. In any case the problem with my 4x4 system was no where near the diff. When we were spinning wheels etc the car was in 100% 2wd mode, except that I had locked in the front hubs.

Hi Ben (Frontera Ben),

Good to hear the problem seems like an easy one to fix. Beside, you can't get rid of the Frontera. It's great on the beach, and offers a good challenge on the tracks when extra clearance makes it too easy for the larger vehicles.