Front 4wd actuator POS

Just paid stealership 900 to replace front actuator. I had 38,000 on truck when I was getting blinking 4wd light. Took it to stealership and they said it was jammed up and in a bind. Charged me 150.00 and I’m like things don’t fix themselves. I will be seeing you guys in the future. For the next week I couldn’t get it to act up. Then went to my deer camp and had to use 4wd and it would never engaged and blinked. Back to dealership that said your rear actuator is bad. I said ok thought it was front but when you replace it I want the part. Turned out to be front actuator which I had replaced on my gen 2 before. I have a 2019 with 39000 miles and front actuator was full of water. I cross one creek that may have 18” of water in it and about 4’ wide. This creek is at my cabin so I only see it once a month. This is a design flaw in my opinion. I bought a 4wd not a prerunner. I’m really thinking about pulling the actuator off and sealing it with some RVT sealant. Or get rid of truck because I got to have a 4wd that can cross a creek and not cost 900 doing it.

 

I had the same problem. Crossed a creek and 4x4 stop working and the light was blinking. The dealer said water was in it and it was all corroded. I ask the dealer how did water get in there and his answer to me was, they are water proof but you can not submerge the actuator.



I've looked for a simple solution but haven't found 1 yet.

 

Yup. Pull the new one and cram it with dielectric grease. Put a clamp on the breather.

 

I have experience changing out these front actuator. I have changed them on a 2007. Water got in from cracked breather hose. I’m going pull it and cram it full of dielectric grease as you suggest and clamp the hose. Us lowlanders have to deal with water. Heck the actuator doesn’t set that high off the ground. Going to get expensive if this doesn’t work.

 

very annoying. mine acts up every once in a while but seems to self-heal after a little while. one day i will do a manual transfer case, but i'm too lazy

 

The front ADD is very similar to the ADD in the second gen Tacomas and " YES " , they enjoy drinking water when you take your truck swimming . I highly suggest using silicone to seal it up as well as raising your vent line .

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2005-front-hub-actuator-repair-diy.285250/

 

Hi, does the actuator have a breather?, do you have a picture?, thanks

 

Engine Bay
Here are some stolen photos
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-transmission-breathers.480713/#post-14911940
there are some scattered around the forum...

edit: and https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-transmission-breathers.480713/#post-14912119

 

Super simple and fairly cheap too. Talk about solving the problem.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-deleting-add-system.427258/

 

18” is a lot of water for a non lifted truck I would be out there throwing rocks in the creek to make a crossing point.

 

That's great information. So sounds like there are a lot of breathers on third gen Tacoma. I just raised my rear diff and I thought that's it...now I find out about transmission breather, front differential breather and transfer case breather...but my question is, if I weren't to upgrade the rest of the breathers I'm still ok to cross a small creek without getting water in essential transmission areas ?, i also found out that the starter is also prone to water damage in case of river crossing.

 

I’ve dunked my 2nd and 3rd gen with no breathers now I’m scared

 

I went off-roading last Saturday and when I was leaving I was stuck in 4h and my light kept blinking. I got home and there was a bunch of mud sandwiches between my skid plate and actuator housing. I took everything apart and re soldered the connections to the actuator motor. Everything inside was clean when I took it apart, there was no residue or debris of any sort . Not sure what happened but after putting everything back together and adding extra lithium grease inside (Thankful I ended back in 2wd, but light still blinking) I started driving, I drove for 95 miles and my blinking light eventually went away on its own. I scanned the transmission control unit for codes but didn’t have any stored or present. I guess I got pretty lucky

 

My friend broke his actuator on his 16’ three times. Replaced twice under warranty. Our other friend, who is a mechanic at Toyota did the work. Knowing that, he sealed my 18’ almost immediately.

 

Could the actuator assembly be opened and re-sealed in place, or is there not enough clearance for that?

I am thinking it might be more convenient to do this preemptively and it would be nice to not have to drain the diff.

 

what about packing it with waterproof grease, like what is meant for boat trailer wheel bearings which are constantly dunked in water?

 

Dielectric grease works well. I use it everywhere.