Question about 4L (4low)

Hey TW,

Long story short I accidentally went from 4H to 4L (instead of going back to 2WD) for about a second until I realized I was on the wrong gear.

I was on the freeway going about 10mph. I noticed on the instructions that to engage 4L I have to have the truck stopped, Neutral then select 4L.

So my question is, did I engage 4L by being on Drive or am I safe?

I’m hoping I didn’t screw anything up. My truck is only a few months old.


FYI, I own an automatic transmission.
Thanks guys!

 

don't you need to push the knob in to engage 4L ?

 

Yeah, I wasn’t paying attention. Had a *blank* moment lol

 

It will just buzz at you, the computer won't let the transfer case shift unless you are stopped and in neutral. Well neutral for sure.

 

The 4Lo should have flashed and beeped and never have gone solidly lit. If so, you never really engaged 4Lo, and there is nothing to worry about. It is really unlikely that the 4Lo light went solid, but if it did, you would have felt it. Nothing bad should happen at that speed.

 

If you were moving it seems likely that you didn't actually engage 4L. If you turn the knob it will beep at you and try to engage, but you do have to be stopped in neutral for it to actually engage/disengage. Was the truck beeping/4L light flashing during your few seconds? If so, it wasn't engaged. It stops beeping when engaged.

 

Trust me you would have felt it go into 4low huge RPM spike and slamming into gear. Its actually a bit trick to actually engage 4low when even trying for that very reason lol.

 

I had my music blasting so I didn’t hear any beeps. It maybe took a second or so to realized I was on the wrong gear until I switched back to 2WD.

 

Yeah, didn’t feel any of that. The whole way home I was stressing tho.

 

Awesome, thank you. I was stressing for sure

 

I used 4LO again this morning to get down the ice covered driveway and it is finicky to say the least. Meaning there is no way you were in 4LO so you are good.

As others have said, you have to be stopped. You have to be in Neutral. You have to wait for 4HI to engage first, then put it in 4LO, at least in mine. You will definitely know when you are in 4LO because you will feel like you are hauling a battleship in the bed.

Does it work as advertised. Hell Yea!



Hard to judge the complexity but this driveway section is only about 50' long from the bottom to where I am standing, but the height difference is at least 20', maybe more. It's old, smooth asphalt, under around 3" of semi-dry snow.

Not too impressive except, if you look close at the tracks, there is no snow spinout residue from the tires breaking traction. Why, because in 4LO the Taco is very very deliberate in what it does. I do not have crawl control either. I did not disable the traction control. And you can see how I had to make a left turn from the right hand side of that common drive at the bottom up the hill. The other tracks are from the other neighbors on the common drive, leaving for work that night. The had to park at the bottom of the common drive when they got home in the morning.

 

What’s a black moment?

 

Think he meant Blonde. I hope.

 

He drank too much and blacked out.

 

Your best friend on the forum when Auto Correct fails you:

 

Lol I meant *BLANK moment. I guess I should start proof reading before I post haha

 

Lol, nice. Shit happens. We fix them and move on.

 

Wait... On freeway going 10mph in 4wd high before you accidentally switched to low? Sounds like great weather conditions to even be in 4wd high, or hope you weren't just on dry pavement in the City of Angels traffic... we want to hear the long story part!