Hey,

I have a '98 Limited 4runner, and I don;t have the owners manual (doi! ). Other than my standard shifter, there is one that is used to engage 4WD. no sherlock right?

Well on that it goes
4L
|
N
|
H

and on the side is a button that says 4WD. I assume this button is used to engage 4H. How can I tell if its engaging? because I can percieve no differences when it is pushed/unpushed. Whether I push it in park or while idling foward.

Nothing comes up on the dash when I place the tranny in 4L, i get someting like ATP when its in neutral, and nothing when I press the 4H button. Something tells me that there should be a light/thing that says your in 4WD...

4L works, at least the engine works in much lower gear, but I still dont know if thats only putting me in 2L...

I am a TOTAL newbie when it comes to 4x4's as this is my first car to own with this feature. I really appreciate any help you yota gurus can give.

Whats the problem with that? How can I diagnose/fix?

Also, my cruise control doesn't seem to be working, I was wondering where the fuse would be located for this?

Thanks!

 

I had the same problem on my 97 4Runner Ltd... when I pushed the button in to engage the 4 wheel drive, the little green light on the dash didn't come on... and then every now and then, it would. I found that most of the times I would test it, it would come on, but then when I really needed it, it wouldn't come on at all.

I was told by a mechanic that this was a common problem with the 4Runner push button 4 wheel drives, unfortunatly, I don't remember what he said it was.

I ended up replacing the entire shift nob for the 4 wheel drive and it seems to have corrected the problem, I don't get times where it won't engage anymore.

Also, it may just be that your light is burnt out... try turning on dry pavement, the 4Runner should resist the turn if 4 wheel drive is enabled.

Hope that helps.

 

My 4wd lever sounds completely different. Can you post a picture of the lever? Mine looks like a small trany shifter.

2h
l .....4L
l...... l
4h---N

No buttons.

There should be a 4wd light on the right side of the gauges. Mine looks like a 4wd drivetrain (wheels, axle, transfer)

\----\
...l
...l
l----l

you could find somewhere that has a loose surface (gravel, sand, dirt, snow) and spin the tires (burnout) in the loose stuff. Then try what you think is 4h and try to spin them again. If it is going into 4wd it won't spin as much, you should be able to tell.

 

I think the push button 4WD is only available on the LTD's... I could be wrong though.

 

Okay,

No 4H for me by button push. I can verify that 4L works... how would I go about seeing if I can manually engage 4H?

 

If the light doesn't come on, I don't think your 4L is working either, it would feel like you're in 4L because of the torque, but I had the same problem and was running a really torquey 2wd.

I would jack the truck with all 4 wheels of the ground (make sure it's stable), and put it in 4H and 4L to see if your wheels up front spin.

 

You said you fixed your problem by replacing the entire shifter knob... Where did you get this?

now that i think about it, its only really torquey 2wd... doesnt resist turns at all! DAMN IT. I just bought this car 1.5 weeks ago and they said the 4WD worked. bastards...

I'll jack it up next time I can get to 4 jacks..... that'll be fun............

 

My dad had an extra transmission laying around with the same push button shifter, I just took that off and used it... I'm sure you can get them from the dealer but wouldn't do that for sure unless you're 100% sure.

I'm still not 100% sure that this is what was wrong on mine, with the old 'broken' one, the 4 wheel drive would sometimes work and sometimes not. Double check first before you spend money on it, I don't imagine it's cheap.

 

but even when I try to shift it down into 4L thats using the Tcase manually and not a button... So how could replacing the button fix that?

I'll not rule it out, since the O/D button is faulty as well. I popped the switch out, jumped the wires, and voila! that'll be fun to fix. probably just mount a new switch somewhere on my dash... bleh.

it seems like half the time I put the Tcase into neutral I get AT/P on my dash, then other times I dont... This could explain some spottyness...

Anyone else know of this or any way to fix it?

 

I was having a similar problem with my sr5. It wouldn't engage and I was scared because we just bought ours too. I don't have the button, but this is what made mine work....I shifted from 2h to 4h while rolling at 5-10 miles per hour (on a damp,wet street). All of a sudden, the light on the dash was on! Woohoo! Then, to really add to the proof it was working, when I tried to park the beast, it wouldn't turn! Or at least was difficult compared to 2h.

What I would try is driving slow and hitting the button (preferably on a wet surface)...that seemed to do it for me!

PS DO NOT try to go into 4L while rolling!

 

you sure it's not just on w/o the light? I know 4H doesn't always DIS-engage until the transmission shifts.

 

With the push button 4 wheel shifter, I think you can safely engage the 4H at speeds up to 70-80 km/h (I'm in Canada). Check your manual, it says in there. Mine wouldn't engage at any speeds - if you have a friend with the same shifter, maybe ask if you can borrow his/hers to test it out. Takes like 5 minutes to take out.

 

Same here...able to shift it when traveling under 80KPH (50 MPH?)or something like that.

Also, there is no need to jack up the whole car to check...just drive it, engage it, then while leaving it ingaged, park it (put in park), pull the E-brake and jack up just the front end. If the 4WD is working, you shouldn't be able to turn or rotate the front tires.

 

About a month ago (the day before the "flood" here in Western Washington), we had about 4 inches of snow fall and I had to drive to the Submarine base to work on my 4runner. When I tried to shift into 4wd, I noted that the 4x4 light did not come on either and when I tried to accelerate, the back end tried to catch the front end. Nothing seemed to work and I was able to get what I needed done at the base but called Toyota the next day and they asked me to bring it in ... another story here, but I got to the dealership and they had to do a "diagnostic" to determine the cause. Now before anyone here starts on me for taking it to them, it was under warranty so they are gonna do the job.

Bottom line here, the 4wd selector switch on the transfer case was faulty and needed to be replaced. Part cost less the $100 and the install was less then $100. The diagnostic was $89 so even if you have to pay for it you are looking at less then $300. If you have the time, tools and the books you could be in this for under $100. If the 4wd light doesn't come on, then you are not in 4wd. You can pull the gauge cluster to check if the light is burned out but they don't fail that often.

 

I've tried pushing the button in all sorts of situations.

Rolling down hills 5-25mph and pressing the button
Idling down the street then pressing the button
Placing the tranny in neutral and pressing the button
Placing the t-case in neutral, pressing the button, then pulling it back into High

I remember reading somewhere on this forum about jumping a solenoid or something of the sort of manually engaging it?

Could my 4x4 computer be bad?

The person who owned the car before me installed a car alarm. REALLY BADLY. So there might be some wiring messed up with the 4WD button itself.

 

That could be the cause of the previous owner not excercising the 4WD system on a regular basis (owner's manual dictates that you need to run your 4Runner in 4WD at least once a month for about 10 miles). The problem of the 4WD not engaging could be a lot of different issues.

First, I would push the button in and look under the rig to see if the front drive shaft is turning. If not, put it in park and start revving the engine and turning the steering wheel side to side. The system is based on a vacuum system. Which brings me to the next point--could be a vaccuum leak somewhere. Or could be the actuator is toast (or just corroded).

 

where are these things located?

would the front drive shaft be turning in neutral/when the cars stopped. I dont wanna lie under it and trust someone to not kill me =P

 

I'm going to a place where the guys a lexus certified mechanic, but he works on all yota's so I'll talk to him about it, when I brought my old 4runner there he did good work.

I'll report back with his answer to maybe help anyone else who has this problem.

Anyone know how to fix a broken cruise control? The light does not turn on, and no fuses are blown...

 

I have 4Runner Ltd. 97 that I bought a month ago. Recently I found that when depress 4WD button for 2WD I hear a metal knock underneath the body somewhere. 4WD turns quietly but disengages into 2WD with this knock even I completely stop the vehicle. It started to happen all day today after I tried to disengage 4WD while making a turn at a parking lot. It happened sometimes before but not the whole day like today.

 

though i don't have a button operated 4wd system, whenever i switch from 2wd to 4wd, there is no sound of it happening. but when i shift from 4wd to 2wd, stopped or moving, there is a disengaging sound. like 2 gear teeth knock together moving opposite ways... best i can describe it, anyway.