"Service 4WD" message
 

Hi everyone. It's been a while since I made an appearnace here! My 03 Sierra 2500 with the 6.0 continues to be mty favorite all-time vehicle.
I'm a sandwich shy of 80k miles and the driver info center message came up "service 4wd".:eek:

Does anyone know if this is for scheduled maintenance like swapping out the transer case fluid, or could this be a major issue. Truck's driving like a champ and I'm trying to avoid losing time at the dealer.

Thanks in advance!!:D

I have found that most of the time it is the 4WD switch. Is yours a push button 4WD? Does it engage?

oh well
 

bummer, I went out and took a look. None of the lights were on. I pushed the buttons and nothing happened. I guess it's off to the dealer for me! I pray it's not the transfer case!:confused:

My father in laws 03 did the same thing and I wanna say it was the four wheel drive module or somthing like that. It was something that bolts to the t-case and it was about $120

That means it is probably the switch or a fuse. Don't go to the dealer just yet! Check all your fuses first. If the fuses are good I bet you it is the switch. I have replaced at least a dozen of those things. We will help you fix it yourself and save you a bundle of cash!

I bought a truck at an auction one time and the 4 wheel switch would not light up. I checked all the fuses and they were good. I replaced the switch and still nothing. I replaced the transfer case switch and still nothing. I started from scratch again and checked the fuses. Some A-Hole at the auction had pulled the fuse for the 4 wheel drive trying to get it cheaper so even though all the fuse were good the important one was actually missing...so make sure all the fuses are there and that they are good. I assume if you have owned this truck for a while that noone had access to pull one of the fuses, but let me tell you how stupid I felt! That will always be etched in my brain!!!!

checking it out this morning
 

Thanks guys! As soon as the sun comes up I'm gonna jump in there and check it out!

fuse
 

No go on the 4wd fuse, it's intact. Is there anotehr fuse to check as well?

Are the switches on the transfer case a dyi, crawl under the truck easy access?

Oh yeah, where do I send the six-pack?

Your still not getting any light on the 4WD switch? And yes the transfer case switch was an easy swap. I tell what I can do for you...I have the extra switch from my missing fuse truck. Look at your switch and tell me if has the Auto 4WD feature or not. If mine is the same I will send it to you and you can swap it out to eliminate that. If it works for you then you can send me $20 or so for the switch. If it's not that all I ask is that you please send it back to me. How does that sound?

Hey Mr Shamrock, that's very generous of you thanks! I think at this point, for the interest of time, I'm going to bring her in so they can look over the whole truck. I appreciate your offer, but I'm feeling pretty good that I won't need the new transfer case so if I overpay a little for the switch I'm ok with that.

No problem, let us know what they find.

Hey sorry to cut into your thread here but I wanted to get in here and tell you to wait on going to the dealer or wherever! I Just got done having this problem on my 2000 Chevy Silverado LT 1500 I have the Push button 4WD and for the past 2 years i've dealt with the "Service 4WD" message" I don't know how comfortable you are with Saudering but you have to remove that push button 4WD box from your dash (really isn't hard a couple clips and it's out 10 min. TOPS) and than take the box apart (just some more clips maybe 2 screws and than on the board itself look for where the buttons actually connect on the board and look for "CRACKED SOLDER JOINTS" just use your sauder gun to resauder the joints and you'll be good to go I did this 3 weeks ago and haven't had a problem or Message since and this is after 2 years of constantly dealing with it! A lot of people have had this issue and fixed it doing this method try it if it doesn't work you go get the replacement part pop it in and call it good but if it works it just saved you 60+ dollars. I hope this helps and you read it before you take it in!!! :)

push buttons
 

Hey G33K, I do have the pushbutton, and popped it out 1st thing this morning. All the solder points were intact. Hoping Mr Shamrock is right and it's the switch on the transfer case!

Again I don't know how much you know about saudering but mine looked fine too I just looked up a picture of a cracked sauder joint on the net and than just ended up melting them all to make sure everything was good. It's worth a try it takes 5 min and it's free can't go wrong there! Just thought i'd mention it I don't wanna see you drop money on something that doesn't fix the problem.

ok here's the resolution
 

went to the dealer, turns out both the pushbutton switch and the transfer case module needed to be replaced:

new switch: $95.88
new module: $341.21
labor: $144.26

total: $622.05:eek:

Wow man I would have had to have gotten a 2nd opinion. For both to be bad...I think they are just throwing parts at it. They probably put a switch in it and that didn't fix it so they did the transfer case switch. Typical stealerships - throw parts at something at someone else's expense so you don't have to actually use your brain to try and diagnose it. Wow!

yeah, kinda second guessing myself rushing to get it done.

That sucks Man Sorry to hear that!