4*4 question, what the

Gday all

Spent a few day’s up at a mates property out of Geraldton, Did a bit of beach driving and managed to do a grate job of bogging myself on top of a sand dune after stoping at the top for a look, jumping back in Low Reverse got about half a meter and was on the diffs ( Arr nut’s I forgot the shovel and I have 2 broken finger’s).

Now hear is when it gets interesting, after doing a half assed attempt of digging out (Broken Finger’s, No shovel) Managed to get a little bit of movement agene before I heard a kind of grinding/popping sound, I stoped and Thought ohbleepe if busted the CV’s or a hub.

At this point a local was driving down the beach and sore me. He stoped a shouted out if I was right. I asked him if he could give me a snatch but he was not confident that he could get his 4WD up there without getting bogged him-self so he grabbed a shovel and gave me a hand digging out.

He then recounted a story about how a similar thing happened to him in his old Pajero and a Transmission cooler line burst and sprayed the exhaust manifold and set the car on fire, just what I needed to hear. Dropping the pressure from 25 to 10Psi I was out of trouble.

Going back along the beach the noise was gone and the 2 other times it was in 4*4 at the farm no noise, got home late last night and got onto the grass park near my house in 4*4 no noise except the odd bit of CV noise on full lock (Perhaps as it was still a fairly hard surface).

The Explorer has auto locking Hubs and electronic 4WD selection.

Any thoughts on what this sound may have been, maybe when I put it back in 4*4 the hubs only half engaged, would this cause something like this to happen?