We bought this car with 90000 miles on it about a year ago. From the very beginning we started to notice a slight shudder when backing up. We took the car in to a friends place and he changed the blue fluid in the transfer case. He said that there was a problem with the All Wheel Drive function which affects the transfer cases on these and said "lets try the fluid change first and see if it helps". After doing the change there seemed to be little difference but eventually the problem seemed to all but dissappear. We were very encouraged. The car had been fine until recently when this transmission had lost reverse, which I am told is apparently a typical and unrelated problem with these. We had the trans rebuilt and it seems to be OK except for the fact that the slight shuddering problem in the drive train is now occurring again sporadically only in reverse, but not all the time when backing up. When it happens it seems to be worse if the wheels are turned but it it so intermittent that it is hard to say if the problem only occurrs when turning or it may occur when backing up in general. Like I said sometimes it doesn't happen at all. So far I have just never noticed it when straight backing up. So my questions are:
- What is happening here?
- Did the original problem ruin reverse on the transmission and could this occurr again?
- We don't really use 4WD. Can it be disabled thereby saving us a possible costly future repair again?
- Might changing the blue fluid help again?
- Is there a solution that will really "fix" this problem or is this just a poor design. Please don't worry about providing as much technical information as possible. I really want to understand this problem and will sincerely appreciate it all. Thanks, Lenny Stein.