God I am a moron

Well, this evening I was messing around with my 2016 SR5 V6 4X4 (auto transmission). Specifically I want to get a handle on the 4WD and 4LO settings.*

At a stop but in drive, I tried to shift from 2WD to 4WD the 4LO. The first step was no problem (2WD to 4WD) but when I moved to put it in 4LO the 4LO indicator was beeping and blinking.

In desperation I decided to use the last resort on any man: read the instructions. Reaching across the dash to the owners manual I .... accidentally let her role 10 or so feet with the 4LO indicator on and beeping.

I then read the instructions (blurgh) which told me that I should have been at a stop and in NEUTRAL when I went in to 4LO.

I followed these instructions and it seemed to go into 4LO just fine (just solid 4LO light with no beeping).

My question is whether I messed anything up with my initial shift while in drive or 10 foot roll? It seemed to work fine once I did everything correctly.

My guess is not (I assume that the blinking and beeping is a warning that it is not in 4LO) but decided to ask you folks on the forum.

One final question: when I engage 4WD the 4WD indicator sometimes just keeps blinking (no beeping) and I have to sort of mess around to stop the blinking (e.g. if I engage in park I likely have to put it in reverse or drive before it stops blinking and 4WD engages). It is almost as if the truck is having a brain fart about going into 4WD and just needs a little additional nudge. This is particularly true when I switch into 4WD in park. Is this typical?

* My only other 4WD vehicle was Rachel, my jeep that I bought with 300k miles on her. Rachel was ... forgiving. Kind of vehicle you could forget to engage the clutch before changing gears lol.

 

You're fine.

Folks have done a LOT worse things.

 

You're all good, no worries. It's a stupid system.

Usually I roll at a coast to get into 4x4 HI, and I make sure low idle and neutral for 4x4 LO.

Play with it, it takes a lot to break these drivelines!

 

I have a hard time going from 2WD to 4WD and back at a dead stop. I get the flashing light too. On the fly however it engages no problem.

No you didn't do anything.

By the way, Rachel wasn't forgiving, just easy to float gears in.

 

I let my dad drive her one day. He hadn't driven a manual in like 40 years at the time and wanted to try again. I told him he had to stop and let me take over when we started smelling something akin to "burning wrenches". It took him exactly 4 minutes to get us to that point.

Rachel didn't like my dad, apparently.

 

If it’s blinking, it’s not in 4wd or 4lo. The system won’t let it engage 4lo if you’re not in neutral, so you’re ok there.
Because it’s electronic, you have to roll a little bit to get 4wd/2wd to engage and disengage. The axle is always spinning, sometimes it takes a little bit for the gears to line up. Everything is ok, no worries.

 

The gears have to mesh together. If your parked they have to be in just the right place to engage 4wd. So you need to roll a little to line up the gears so they can mesh together

 

On a side note in case you have trouble shifting into 4WD HI, when in D, shift to neutral for a second, and back to D. That will engage 4WD.

 

^This.

 

Back when you had to get out and lock in the hubs, some times ya had to rock it back and forth a little to engage the lockers. I kind of miss that getting out to lock the hubs.

 

Mine used to be slow about engaging into 4lo but I started shifting it into 4lo 2 or 3 times a week and driving in 4hi for about 10 miles or so a week and it seems like it works alot better now.

 

I literally never can get mine into 4H or 4H

 

Warranty. Or lessons.

One will work.

 

The 4 low is a little tricky. You have to be in neutral and stopped and then push and turn to 4low. Does it engage, hell no! so foot off brake and let it roll a little. Oh but we are in sand, why the hell else to we want 4 low? OK, no problem, put it back in 4H and bump it in Drive. Stop and go to Neutral and try 4L. Did it go in, Hell No! Cuss and moan, and then try 4H and reverse. Back to Neutral, etc and it will go in there eventually but I am not betting any important money on it.

 

Turning a knob is hard

 

Actually, you have to push and then turn the knob to get to 4L...

 

These trucks wont physically let you shift into 4wd/4lo if it will cause damage.

 

My work trucks are 2 f350s and a f450 rack back with manual hubs as were many other trucks I've used over the years of work. However my dads old 86 suburban had automatic front hubs and I always remember him taking it out of 4 then going in reverse for 5 to 10 yards to get the hubs to unlock when coming off of the beach, I did that in the Tacoma as well and laughed a little. I only needed 4w hi one time this winter so my experience is minimal with this truck.
Also my salesman said you can switch it into 4w hi at up to 60 miles an hour when we were on a test drive. It was hard not to scoff a little and inquire a situation where some one might ever need to do that or think that's a good idea.

 

Wow I thought mine shifts nicely into 4lo.