Intermittent E-Locker issue

Let us know if it locks and how long it takes.
Also how long it may take to unlock and how long to go from 4LO to 4HI.

 

I tested mine today. It seems to work. I did it on the street in front of my house. Obviously care must be taken when locking the diff on pavement. Not surprisingly I found I needed get the rear wheels to turn a little different rate to get an engage or disengage and did this by turning the truck a little. But, going into 4-lo and locking the diff seemed fine. I did about 25 miles in 4-hi last week.

The first time I tried it I couldn't seem to get a disengage - just went from solid illumination to flashing. I turned the truck off and restarted and the flashing sign was gone. That being said, before I stopped the truck it wasn't driving like it was locked and I may have confused the system by going to back into 2-hi while that light was still flashing.

At this point I am satisfied that it seems to be working ok.

 

Good info, thanks.

 

Just got in from playing, here's what my experience was.

Prior to leaving I spent some time trying to engage on pavement:
- 4HI as always requires me to move a little before it will engage
- 4LO did not want to engage at all, no matter what I tried

Drove 40 highway miles and about 10 high speed 4HI miles, then tried again:
- 4LO engaged almost immediately, and disengaged equally as quickly
- Locker engaged after moving maybe 5 feet with wheels about half locked to the left
- Locker disengaged almost immediately

Not sure why I couldn't get 4LO or locker to engage prior to taking it out today, may be that the 4HI work broke the system in a bit in some way. The truck had <100 miles before heading out this morning, with <5 in 4wd.

Hope you get your baby back in working order soon Mike...

B.

 

Thanks.
Are you guys able to engage the locker while in drive or are you moving then putting it back in neutral?

 

FYI: my service guy said his 'rep' wants him to order the switch since it's the cheaper part.
However there are none available. He said the rep will try to get it pushed through faster to get me going again.

Also Toyota has an official case opened for this issue, whatever that means.

 

@DoorDing yeah I realized that was probably the case after the fact.

Mike, I am manual transmission so probably won't be much help there. Every time, I have either gone neutral or hit the clutch before engaging. I also haven't engaged while moving but engaged then started moving.

B.

 

I had to roll a bit. I think in neutral it would only go if got lucky with the gears lining up. This is why, I think, in the manual it states not to engage the locker until after you need it/are stuck, so one wheel will move more than the other and engage.

 

I tested the same in my 2013 but wasn't going to post.... However if the locker works in the same fashion....FWIW:

Mine took quite a bit of movement to lock up. Like 100+ feet. Unlock happened within 20. I've had it work much faster and even slower. I think the locking collars have to be at just the right position to mesh..

 

Thanks. Different year as you say but still helpful.

 

Once you get everything to finally engage, getting it to disengage is usually non issue...

Usually if it went from solid to blinking, it indicates disengagement, did they change ??

I'll take a stab here & say that they've probably gotten alot of complaints for the same problem, & gearing up for the soon to be 3rd gen.diff TSB....

 

I just tested the locker out today and had no issues with it engaging or disengaging.

 

What a terrible video.

 

I just reread the 4LO and locking section in the manual.
It says moving the truck to engage or disengage 4LO may be needed but only says to use the switch to lock/unlock the rear while in 4LO. Page 250 in the manual. No mention of having moving it. From the video I can see why it would need to be moved. Yu'd think that would be mentioned in the manual.

 

Yes I was also a little confused after reading and re-reading the manual. It seems to be overly cautious around engaging and using the locker, maybe to prevent average folks from doing any potential damage by misuse.

The best advice I found was from some random threads around here about the need not only to move, but to turn if necessary to cause the wheels to spin out of sync.

 

On my first 2nd gen my locker came on twice by itself in 2H .. remedied by putting the truck in 4L, disengaging the locker and putting it back in 2H.

But you have a brand new truck, why not take it to the dealer?

 

They can open a case with only one complaint and maybe that is OP. Unless the service guy said there was an existing case file.

 

I know it's not a go to trial kinda case, probably just a way to document, a fancy service ticket i guess...

 

I mean every manufacturer has a recall at some point, & I'm not saying there is one pending, my 1st gen has had a couple TSB's nothing major, & we know there were numerous TSB's with 2nd gens. & I'd imagine the 2016 isn't immune to them ..we'll just have to see... It took awhile for the 2nd gen to grow on me & it'll be the same for these too..

 

Yes, I had one started for self-reseting trip meters.