2LM PnP - Plug and play 2WD low range for the 3rd gen. Tacoma

The wires for the airbag come in from the door side and there is a bit of slack. If you disconnect the battery and drain the residual power by leaving the key on you can *probably* safely disconnect the airbag so you don't risk ripping out the wires. Just make sure to reconnect the air bag before the battery.

And no, the airbag clips are very stubborn. Even with all the screws removed it is difficult to pop out.

 

I followed the instructions @BigWhiteTRD
wrote up from his original mod and everything went smoothly. Once you get the five bolts loose, you really have to give the top side of the glove box a firm tug towards the rear of the truck. Those clips are pretty tight.

On another note, I got my kit in today. Can’t wait to get it installed! Unfortunately it’ll be next weekend before I can get to it. :/

 

I could only get it to warm to the touch in my testing. It probably could safely be a 1 watt resistor, but I made it big to be safe.

Under all normal operation when using 2-lo, the resistor gets only milli- or maybe micro watts of power, as the 4wd ecu checks the resistance looking to make sure the ADD actuator is there. It only gets any kind of power in failure modes.

The only time the resistor gets any power is when you dont follow the 2-lo sequence. Assume you are successfully in 2Lo. You fail to turn off the 2lo switch and change back to 2hi.

The 4wd ecu will apply voltage to the resistor trying to operate the ADD. The ecu only applies voltage for a few seconds before it throws a code and fail-safes to remove power. So the resistor only gets any power during this failure, and only until the ECU kills power.

So I sized the resistor to stay cool under this failure, and probably selected excessively conservatively large....

 

Sorry, habit.
All references to vehicle coordinates to someone sitting in driver seat.

 

No problem, that is the standard convention. I just don't always if the people I am dealing with use the standard or their own interpretation. Especially after that airbag put up such a struggle. LOL

I think I am going to wait a couple weeks to tackle it again. I have dual battery setup on the way. When I have the battery disconnected for that install, I will go after the glove box/airbag again. I may be a little overly sensitive, but working around those things always makes me nervous.

 

Too right!

I am impressed with your sizing and such in that area.

Just insert a slotted screw driver on the upper side and pry upward gently while pulling aftward. They will release without much force.

No. I wrapped a large ziptie around the big meshed bundle. Then threaded one of the provided zipties through the large ziptie and the hole in one of the ears on the resistor. One end fastened down is plenty, I believe.

When I did my steering wheel badge, that is exactly what I did with zero issues.

Thanks! I like the cut of your jib! Conservative in this area is all good by me.

 

I've probably cycled through 2LM in engaged 4Hi and / or 2Lo about 15 times so far. Just a joy to try out and working flawlessly. The switch position (second from the left on my @MESO LSP7) makes it a natural move to then grab the knob.

I took zero notice of the lighting. We'll see at night, but with the OEM blue, it doubt that I will care. Honestly, it will be a cool conversation piece if nothing else.

I am thinking about shortening the switch harness sometime down the road. One wire at a time so I don't pull one of my usual moves.

 

Mounted below the HVAC controls you don't really even notice it. I find myself using 2lo even when I don't really need to. It just makes life so much easier and it's easy enough to engage/disengage. I haven't timed it, but I can probably do it in 5-10s easily.

 

Exactly.


It is very fast. I think because it is 'sensing' the ADD a lot faster? It was almost a natural move this morning shifting out of 2Lo after backing out. I pulled into the garage (aka shoebox) with 2Lo last night.

 

It is faster because the ECU doesn't have to wait to detect that the actuators have shifted. The relay gives it the signals it is looking for instantly.

 

That was what I was thinking.

The 2LM will most likely be used everytime I pull in. Now, to teach my wife just in case she jumps in it.

 

This may be a dumb question, and it may have already been asked here but I haven’t read through every comment... but from what I understand the truck thinks it’s in 4lo only without engaging the front end. So wouldn’t then you be able to use your factory E-Locker in this 2lo mode?

 

Yep! The 2LM only fools the 4wd ECU into thinking the ADD is engaged.

The other side benefit is being able to work in the 10mi/mo 4wd exercise without having to worry about corners. You will want to cycle through real 4Hi every once in a while to keep the ADD actuator happy.

 

Yes. I believe that is correct. I haven't tested it since I don't have an e-locker, but the truck has no clue that the front end is not engaged so all normal 4lo functions are available.

 

I think I will be buying this!

 

Order form filled out I’m F’in excited

 

Enjoy it!

 

This mod is definitely on the short list.
Should be great at the boat ramps.

 

Added paypal links to the first post. You can use these instead of the order form if you are not using GooglePay.

Paypal Order Links:
USA - $115

Canada - $130

 

Got the first part of the mod done!