Help… I was quoted $1700 to Replace Rear Actuator on 99 4runner Ltd at local Toyota dealer…. I nearly had Cardiac Arrest!

Well… I can say I found some very helpful info on this site! I have a 99 4Runner Limited. First good snow of the year here in Denver and my wife clicked on the AWD on the 4WD shifter Lever to help with her 1 mile commute to work on the ice. When she got in the 4runr to come back home… streets were dry… she turned off the AWD.
She told me it was still blinking and driving funny. I drove it and could tell the front axl was still locked in 4WD. I checked the things mentioned here, 4wd fuse, Vacuum lines under hood, front actuator… they all seem to be working good . I disconnected vacuum lines on front actuator and applied vacuum to passenger side of actuator, and the front would unlock. As soon as I reconnected the vacuum lines and started the vehicle, front axel would re-lock. So Im sure the front actuator is working. This following link posted by “MLT 4runner” mentioned testing the Solenoid under the dash but it did not show the connector image so I didn’t know how to test it, and I did not test the rear actuator: http://toyota.off-road.com/toyota/ar....jsp?id=399612

I decided to head to the local Toyota dealership this morning and their diagnostics said it was the rear actuator that has failed and the part was $950, misc gaskets $50 and Labor to drop the transfer-case and replace the actuator was 6 hours at $105 an hour. All told with tax it would be $1700. I paid their $115 Diagnostic fee and came back home to check here.

Two things: I’m not convinced it’s the rear actuator, And I cant believe Toyota would design this in a way to require the transfer case be removed to replace this actuator.

Any advice?

Thanks in Advance!!

 

Found this info recently posted by "Pilottech":

"If you pull the plug on the actuator and use 12volt source to see if you have a bad actuator.

With the plug to the actuator in your hand and the lock of the plug in the up position the pins are #'d backwards 321 on the top row and 654 on the bottom. With + on pin 3 and - on pin 2 the DC motor will drive the actuator into 4WD and then +2 and -3 it will go back to 2HI. This will tell you if the actuator motor works or not. If the motor works then you can look other places. "

Ill give this a whirl in the morning!

Man I love this site!

 

Pulled the plug on the actuator and used 12volt source to check and see if I had a bad actuator. With following info posted by "Pilottech" here... it works Perfect!
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"With the plug to the actuator in your hand and the lock of the plug in the up position the pins are #'d backwards 321 on the top row and 654 on the bottom. With + on pin 3 and - on pin 2 the DC motor will drive the actuator into 4WD and then +2 and -3 it will go back to 2HI. This will tell you if the actuator motor works or not. If the motor works then you can look other places."
********************

I have tested the front actuator, rear actuator, and both of these are good. On xfer case actuator I apply + power to pin 2 and - to pin 3 and that baby disengaged 4x4 perfect. Did the reverse and went back in. Back and forth and it worked great. Disengaged it, then plugged everything back in and 4x4 on dash stopped blinking. Did a quick test, Car turned on, and push the button for AWD and it went on, then I turned it off and it does not disengage. I think i need to move on to the next step.

Can someone provide me a photo or diagram of the 4x4 solenoid that is in the truck on the passenger side of the stearing cloumn? I need to troubleshoot that now but dont know what kind of device/connector I'm looking for. Otherwise, can you direct me to someone who knows?

Looks like this Awesome Advice on these posts has saved me $1700 !

Thanks Everyone!

 

OK... its all fixed now!

So they say you have to cycle in and out of 4WD about once a month or so... Yep.. got to do it!!

So I fixed the problem with help from this site (and no one even replied to ANY of my posts!)

When I spoke to one guy (Fred at Mountain States Toyota in Denver) He said they might be able to fix the problem with just an hour of labor by just manualy cycling on and off the actuator. Well Fred was not there when I took the car in on saturday as it was his day off. I told the Other service guy Romney what I had tested in an effort to save some time in troubleshooting. When they gave me the price... $1700 to replace the rear actuator... I nearly messed my pants! I said I wanted to talk to the tech (Antonio Rojas Paz) and we went back to take a look. He said the xfer case had to be removed to to replace the rear actuator and thats why the cost was so high! I'm a sales guy and I know how to read faces... my instincts told me that Antonio was feeding me a line of crap... so I declined to have them do the work and paid their $109.38 diagnostic fee.... and got a free car wash. Woopie! This happened Yesterday Saturday 11/25/07.

Today using info I found on this site as I listed above, I cycled the rear actuator by applying 12 volts on Pin 2 and 3 and reversing polarity back and fourth. While still on jack stands... I plugged everything back together and then started it up. Pushed the button for AWD and after a clunk it was in Hi 4WD. Let the tires turn and shure nuff... all four wheels were doing their thing. Pushed the switch to turn it off... and let wheels turn again.... a little clunking and sure nuff it was back in 2WD. So ALL is working fine! I know for a Fact that Mountain States Toyota tech Antonio never did this cause it would have popped right out of 4WD!

This site and knowledgeable folks like "pilottech" who post excelent and Acurate info saved me $1700 bucks!

My next call will be to the service manager in the morning! Ill send them a link to these posts and see what they think.

Thanks YotaTech and everyone who posts here!

Eric "EZs4runr"
Denver Colorado

 

Well I'll be the first to say GREAT. I haven't been here as long as some of the other vets here but there are many noobs here that don't even put the effort into figuring out there own problems. They just post here and hope someone will spoon feed it to them. It's great that you actually searched and were able to help yourself and save a pile of money to. I read your posts shortly after you posted but couldn't have been of any assistance so I didn't bother yo reply before. Anyways great you got things figured out and your trucks working as it should.

 

i am really starting to wonder just HOW MUCH MONEY yotatech is saving people by helping them work on their own trucks... maybe we should start a thread, actually, im going to do that right now. i know this site has saved me considerable amounts of money!!

oh, and congrats on using the site to your advantage! more noobs should use the search button and quit cluttering up the boards, its becoming hard to find relevant info on some searches now from all the crap postings...

 

Thanks "One 96TR4" and "RunnerUp" for the kudos! I did a lot of searching and reading... and YotaTech had the best info. Yes... more people should take the time to search, then READ, then T/S and then post questions. I have a 2003 Cobra Vert (my street rod when I’m not playin in the mountains) I have used an online site to learn TONS about T/Sing problems and performance upgrades. These Forums are awesome and extremely helpful when you can learn from others experiences! Ill look for the "YotaTech saved me money" thread!

Oh… and thanks to “Pilottech” as he posted the info I needed!

 

Welcome to YT and "way to go". I've used the 'net countless times to fix problems, automotive and otherwise. Can't remember how I ever got by without it!?!?!

And I agree 1000% with One 96TR4's thread.

 

Great job on getting this figured out!

This is why people call the dealerships "Stealerships", seems they are always trying to make a buck, even if the part is working, they are trying to screw people over. I'm glad you got it fixed. I don't get on here as much as I used to, otherwise I probably could have helped you with the manual stuff. I have the FSMs and have frequently helped other folks with info from the manuals.

Thus far, I've not had any issues with my '99 Ltd's transfer case; even after leaving the 4x4 light flashing for a long, long, long time.

Anyhow, glad to hear you got it fixed.

 

Okay I have the same problem with the OP of this thread. I tested the fuse and it is good. I applied 12v to the rear actuator the transfer case of my 99 4Runner LTD. I put 12+ to pin 2 and - to pin 3 and it disengages fine. I cycled the polarity between pins 2 and 3 to cycle the actuator into and out of 4WD several times. I started the rig up after I disengaged the rear actuator back into 2WD. I drove it and the front automatic hubs are not locked into 4WD mode and the light does not blink. Then I shifted the transfer case into 4WD HI (not using the M/M button) it comes into 4WD mode fine. I shifted the transfer case lever back into 2HI and the light stays blinking on the dash again.

I had to manually disengage the 4WD again by putting 12v to pin 2 again to put it back into 2WD mode. I don't want to keep doing that every time I need 4WD.

The only thing I haven't found is the solenoid under the dash on the right side of the steering column for the 4WD. ?Where is it located exactly and what does it look like? How do I test the solenoid?

Thanks for the help in advance and this is an awesome site to find out info for troubleshooting

 

Hey, just checking to see if you figured your problem out?

You might want to start a new thread and see if someone jumps in to help out.

 

Cool dude, i can tell the PO never really used AWD cause it was rough to get in and out. i had to put it in neutral, the go reverse/forward, reverse/forward and turn and it would lock, then the same to get it out. one time it did it at 35 with a nice BANG but it's been perfect since then... also i found some wires at the 4wd mechanism that had been stripped off! i taped them up and now they cant short on each other. i can get in AWD pretty easily now.

 

Hey, Good job! You know its pretty easy to fix a bunch of stuff with the help of a site like this!

All I can say is when you need a good toyota dealer to work on your toyota.... STAY away from Mountain States Toyota! I'm in the market to buy a New Toyota 4x4 for my son.... I had met a nice sales person while I was twirling my thumbs for 3 hours waiting on the clowns in service to SCREW me... And I would have probably bought a new car through this dealership cause its the closest to my home... But NOT NOW!
You ever hear the term... What goes around, comes around? Well Im NEVER going around Mountain States Toyota in Denver again!