Stuck in 4 lo help

So my truck was parked in our steep drive way in 4hi. We live in the mountains with lots of snow today

My wife went to pull the truck out of the driveway and turned the switch to 4lo by mistake. It was never put in N and allowed to fully engage.

Now the truck is stuck in 4lo and the 4lo light is blinking. The traction control light is on as well.

I checked the fuse in the cab and have tried all the pull forward/backwards stuff that usually works. The switch seems to not do anything.

I’m stumped on this one?

 

Did you do the standard drive it back and forth, put it into park and drive?

 

If it is blinking, you are not in 4Lo.

 

I did. No luck.

 

It is 100% in 4lo. High RPM’s and all.

 

Lesson #1

Don't let wife drive the truck.....

OP you may have to take the positive off the battery for a few minutes and put it back on to solve that!

 

Make sure the switch is in 4Lo. Drive forward a couple feet and put the truck in neutral with your foot on the brake. Switch truck to 4Hi and wait for a minute and see if it disengages 4Lo. You may have to do this a couple times.

 

If it was never in N and is flashing, some real voodoo happened.

Don't touch the knob, put it in Park and cycle the ignition. Start things again, and try to get it out. 4Lo is just engaging a different gear set, so you don't need to move for it come in or out.

 

Happened to me once. I put my truck in neutral, turned if off , restarted it turned the knob back to 4 hi and drove forward about 3 truck lengths. All was good

 

I had this happen to my 2nd generation tacoma. The fix was to leave it running for about 30 minutes on asphalt roadway. After it heated up under the vehicle, the transmission switched back into 2WD when I backed up and then drove forward. I think the cold freezing weather, and the truck sitting without being driven for several days caused this problem.

 

If all of this happened on pavement the drivetrain might be bound up. Try again on some grass, dirt, snow, or gravel. The 4lo <=> 4hi transition can be finicky.

Note that the 4lo light blinks when transitioning both directions, i.e. when the transfer case is in hi range and the selector is on 4lo and when the transfer case is in low range and the selector is on 4hi. It's normal.

 

It happened on snow.

I tried to leave the battery unhooked for 30min, no luck. Tried the backing up, going forward, etc. No luck.

 

Try driving a few feet and stopping. Put the parking brake on and put truck in neutral for a few seconds then go right to park. Shift to 4 hi and turn your wheel to the left and right a few times. If that doesn't work do the same procedure again, but go backwards and proceed with procedure. besides crappy paint, this is the one thing I hate about the Tacoma. . . . . . .the 4wd engage/disengage irregularities. Really wish you could get a manual lever.

 

Tried all of that. No luck.

I’m almost thinking it’s the switch. I dropped the skid to listen and when the switch is moved from 4lo-hi it makes zero noise.

Is there a relay or fuse for the 4wd under the hood?

 

I'm not sure this will help, but there have been a number of threads on this subject. I believe in one of them a process is described to force the transition if the automatic mechanism is busted. I vaguely remember you can remove the transfer case actuator and move the rod by hand. I hope it doesn't get to that point for you.

https://www.google.com/search?q=site:tacomaworld.com+stuck+in+4lo&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS956US972&oq=site:tacomaworld.com+stuck+in+4lo&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i58.877j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

put it back in neutral and switch to 4hi, then 2wd. if it doesn't work, the actuator is probably frozen. try parking it in a warm garage for a while.

 

Already tried that (a lot)

 

This is just a shot in the dark, but I would put it in 4lo and try to get that light solid. Drive around a bit or maybe? I had the 4lo light flash one time and I vaguely remember the light finally went solid in lo before I could go through the steps to get it back to 2WD.

 

I drove it about 10miles now.

I’m leaning toward it being an ADD issue. No relay clicks when I turn the switch.

 

You drove 10 miles in 4lo on the street?

I’ve never heard any click when first activating the transition nor can I confirm or deny there is a solenoid involved. There is a mechanical click/clunk when it transitions though. There is some discussion of how the ADD works in a thread on here that might be in the search I posted.