Help: Transfer Case question when buying Used Truck

Hi All,

I have a quick question.

I am looking at buying a 2nd gen Tacoma, or FJ.. still deciding. I want to go with a manual transmission 4x4.

I was looking at an FJ 08 and Tacoma 07 yesterday, both around 80K miles and both appeared to have never seen dirt, no scratches on skids or arms. My thought is that neither of these trucks have been put into 4wd or 4Lo or at least not many times, especially the FJ because it made slight grinding noises when entering 2nd and 3rd gear in 4LO with the clutch on the floor.

My question is this, if a truck has 80k-120K miles and has never used 4wd / 4Lo, do you think I am going to run into problems when I start using 4wd a lot?

Also - Drive by wire is TERRIBLE. Ive heard there is a chip to help...

I currently have a 1st gen 4cyl 4x4 with 395k miles and I freaking love the little goat. And I am having trouble falling in love with anything else.. I payed 2K for it, its crazy reliable, I have done most of Bronco Buster, a level 5 trail at HF with stock suspension and 265/75 tires. Finding something as capable and reliable right now is seeming more difficult than I thought.

 

I don't think there would be any problems when starting to use 4wd, the issues usually come when it isn't used enough which makes it harder to engage due to lack of lubrication. If you decide on either, one of the first things I would do is change the fluids in the transfer case and both diffs.