Rear Diff Lock Question / 2004 Tacoma TRD

I recently purchased an 04 TRD extended cab, manual gearbox & I was told by the seller that it had rear Diff Lock. When the truck was delivered I checked on the lower left side of the dash for the button but it wasn't there. I do notice a red RR Diff light flash for a sec on the left side of the dash when I was messing w/the 4 wheel drive system but am unsure if my truck has it or not.

Can anybody please shed some light on this ?

Thanks to all in advance for your help !

 

It shiuld be rightvof the clutch cancel switch

 

That sounds dicey as hell.

Here is what an OEM RR Diff Lock switch looks like, the red one just to the right of the rotary light dimmer switch.

 

Nope, not there. Why then do I get RR Diff Lock flashing in red on my instrument cluster when I mess w/the 4 wheel drive system ?

 

Dude I have no idea. Did the previous owner do some aftermarket stuff to it? Are there any other switches anywhere in the console or somewhere?

Time to get under the truck and look on the driver side of the rear diff (third member) and see if the locker is actually there.

 

Truck is all stock, nothing aftermarket on it all.

 

OK, but is the factory e-locker actually installed on the rear axle?

 

It looks like it is there, left side of axle. The right side of the axel diff looks standard.

 

Snap a picture of the dash and both sides of the diff and post up here

 

Will do but doing a double & it will have to wait until tomorrow once I surface.

 

@urseppos
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/rr-diff-lock-2002-4x4-tacoma.322642/

Does the driver side rear axle look like this?

 

Yes.

 

So....I was wrong about the rear diff lock light coming on when I mess with the 4 wheel drive. It flashes on the left side of the dash when I initially start the truck & goes off almost immediately. I'm not sure what I have or don't have but taking her to get looked at this week so I can get a better idea. I bought her being told she has rear diff lock, all I know for now.

I can tell you this much though, stay the feck away from Parker Auto LLC in South Carolina as they are the stereotypical used car dealers.

 

Any update on this situation? Curious, I am.

 

Unless I am mistaken, ALL TRD trucks came with the rear diff locker.

 

Yes they do

 

Yes and No. The diff locker was offered as part of the TRD Off Road package starting with the 1998 model year. But, the TRD Off Road Package with the locker only came with trucks that had the 3.4L V-6 in both Pre-Runner and 4X4 options. However, there are a few member who have claimed to have a first gens with the TRD Off Road package without the diff locker. One guy actually posted up his dealer sticker that showed this. IIRC his truck was a 2004 4 cylinder Pre-Runner. So you have to do some investigating when you buy a 1st Gen TRD Off Road. Its easy to "fake" a TRD with some stickers. You got to check the rear diff for the locker. The big problem is the VINs on Tacomas don't show if the truck came with the Off Road package. Kinda like how you could decode old muscle cars to see if it was a factory Z28.

 

My father was going to buy a new tacoma back in 2001 or 02. I was reading the dealer brochure while he argued with the sales man and it said there was two different trd off road packages for the tacoma that year, TRD Off Road package #1 and #2. I don't know which had which but I do remember reading one of the packages had the locker the other didn't. This may be only a dealer installed Trd package and not one from the factory. Hopefully this sheds more light but probably just made thing worse.

 

This is just a hypothetical, but I know many of those shady used car lots buy damaged and/or totaled cars and trucks from auction and fix them up to be sold as "clean" titled vehicles (there are many here in Southern California that do this anyway). Maybe this truck did indeed come with a factory locker but due to some kind of damage, it had the inside dash replaced with one from a non TRD Taco, hence why you don't have the RR Diff button?

 

I haven't had a chance to get the truck into a shop to find out what I have. I ran an Autocheck & no previous accidents & all original VIN stickers are in place. Saying that, it may have had a shunt at some point & was repaired by PO & on his dime ?

All I know at this point is that it has all indications of RDL but no button on the dash. I will hopefully be able to give an update in a few days.