My friends 4runner wouldn't engage 4x4 when it was desperately needed. I think it's a 2000 or 2001 limited. He has the rear diff lock and pushbutton 4x4. When he engaged 4x4 it seemed to work. When he threw the rig in park the 4wd light went to flashing. It wouldn't reengage and the light just stayed blinking. They were on ice and the rear tire would spin only. They said they tried all configurations to get in into 4wd and the light just blinked. Please explain...

 

did your friend move forward after pushing the button? the car needs to travel forward a bit (varies) in order to engage 4x4. if he is sitting still and pushes the button, it will not engage, and the light will flash.

 

DITTO!

 

He spun the tires with it in 4wd. It never engaged. Only one of the rear tires spun. They drove, tried reverse and no go. The weird thing to me is that is was on solid and when he stopped and put the rig in park the light would start flashing. I think it has to do with the awd and 4wd configuration. Is there an open center diff thing on this year?

 

wait, so he pushed the button and did indeed drive forward (foot off the pedal!) for a little bit (usually for me not more than 5 to 10 feet) and it didnt go on?

the rear tire will spin because... its a rwd vehicle until 4wd is turned on.

 

yes. the light just blinked. They were on ice and only the rear wheel spinned. 4wd light blinked but never went solid and the other wheels wouldn't spin.

 

should blink until (as hes gliding forward -- not pressing the gas), the 4wd engages. if he was indeed moving forward and it doesnt engage, i am lost

 

Adding to what I wrote on the other related thread (having 1 thread would make things much easier), this sounds like it was a technical glitch in the system. Hopefully, the problem won't replicate itself in the future. Once 4WD is engaged, if working normally, it won't ever disengage unless it's manually taken out of it.

I am leaning towards this being a failure in the system as I had something similar happen to me 3 weeks ago. After 100 miles to get to a trailhead for a snow run, I attempted putting it in 4WD and everything blinked and I could not get it to engage. This was after pushing the buttons a few times, backing up a number of times, etc. It was still in 2WD after putting it into low range, when normally it engages right now when doing that. Thought it broke and was about to head home. HOWEVER, I tried one last thing: I shut the engine off in hopes the system would reset itself. I let it sit for 5/10 seconds, and sure enough, it worked as it should have from then on. Much relief. I only hope that if/when it happens again that this will resolve it.

If that situation happens again for your friend, have him shut it down, if he didn't already, otherwise it sounds like he may need to have this looked at. I, too, would have been lost with his problem if the similar situation didn't happen to me. I hadn't heard of this before.

 

That happened to my friend. We just had him drive up and down the wash shifting in and out of 4wheel drive. After about 15minutes it worked. I think he didn't use it for about a year before that.

 

What year and model does he have?

 

I can't remember now. He wrecked the truck about a year ago. 2000?

 

Oh the joys of push-button 4wd.

 

I would suggest tapping the transfer case electric shift motor with a hammer. The pushrod inside the transfer case is probably stuck or jammed. Do you regularly use 4x4?

The reason im saying this is cause we had the same situation in our shop and this fixed the problem.

Mike.

 

How about taking it in under the powertrain warranty?

If he's under 60K he's covered.

 

Ouch.. sounds bad not being able to hit it when needed (i don't have it but luckly don't need it very much). My friend has a kia sportage though and that thing is stuck in 4 wheel drive high speed. Course going down their driveway is like going mud riding.. they have holes big enough to lose a car in.