Truck stuck in 4WD

Let me start off by saying I've had 2 FJs, a 4Runner, and 2 Tacomas and have never had any problems with any of them. I've taken the current one wheeling on the trails behind my house countless times too.

So...last week my truck got stuck in 4 high. I tried going back and forth in a straight line and stuff like the manual and the forums say. The light just kept flashing like it was trying to disengage, but nothing. I tried switching the knob to different stuff but wouldn't switch to 4 low or 2WD. It was right by my house so I drove home. I could tell as soon as I turned in the driveway that it was still 4WD. I called the dealership and they had me call Toyota Care to have it towed. They gave me a loaner and checked it out. They had to open a case with Toyota. First they thought it was just the switch because when they hooked their computer up, it wasn't showing it doing anything but that didn't fix it. They ended up replacing the transfer case. When they opened up the old one, they found the shift fork stuck to the actuator shaft and gears were stripped. Now that I have a new shift and transfer case, everything is good.

Just thought you guys should know in case someone else has it happen.

 

Damn that sucks. Do you have the dealer service write-up notes from this? Would be curious to see them for records purposes.

 

Miles on the truck? Had you previously used the 4wd?

 

Sounds like a bad actuator assembly, it engaged but never disengaged, why it stripped your gears is another story...Actually I think these have a "high rate of failure" compared to other 4 wheel related issues, ,but not destroying the diff. It would be nice to understand why it did that (stripping the gears) instead of just not disengaging.

 

There's another post about this very same thing.... so 2 issues with the 4WD engagement problem and stripped gears.

 

Check out "Broken Taco" thread. Same thing.

 

Where's @BlueT? He blamed the OP of the broken taco thread for his 4WD issues. I wonder if he'll blame you, too

 

I don't know if this guy broke it too, but other guy definitely did because he was playing between all modes on asphalt then made turn before system could fully disengage.
In the op case don't have a clue but it's not the same problem.

 

Was the broken taco one an OR as well? I can't remember. Oh, and he didn't break it. The truck let him know that it was no longer in 4wd so shut that shit up.

 

It was a Sport.

 

Ahh gotcha. Thanks for the confirmation.

 

BlueT fell off the short bus, you have to just ignore him.

 

Damn, at least it's fixed. Best of luck with your Tacoma down the road.

 

Agreed. He's ignored on my end but when someone quotes him I still get the pleasure of seeing his posts.

 

Sorry I'm barely getting back to you guys now. I don't know what I did with the notes (probably tossed em). Had just over 4,300 miles and I'd used the 4WD on this truck more times than I can count (both high and low) on the trails and mud pit right behind my house (it's a shortcut, sort of).