Exercise your 4H/4L

Hey gang,

I wanted to share my recent experience with the wife’s 2012’ Sequoia 4x4.

No this isn’t a Sequoia thread but rather a heads up on exercising your 4H/4L.

I seldom drive the Sequoia, but last night I was in the driver’s seat so I decided to try 4H/4L knowing that the wife never use’s 4x4.

I was able to get the vehicle in and out of 4H, but 4L didn’t work. Just got a blinking 4L light and audio alarm. I had to actually turn the car off and restart before 4H would disengage and the 4L light would extinguish too.

My point to this story is that we need to exercise the 4H/4L actuator to keep it functioning. This is mainly relevant to those of us with the electrical transfer case actuator (SR5 and Limited).

I remember reading that it’s recommended to engage 4H/4L at least once a month and you won’t have any problems.

Just a heads up for those of us without the lever.

 

Good reminder. Even with the lever, you should still excersise everything. The front driveshafts are connected through a system that needs cycling. Also good to cycle the rear locker

 

Yikes, our Limited rarely use 4H(locked) and 4L. Thanks for sharing and I will remember to run them once in a while.

BTW, today for the second time I almost ran dry pavement in 4H. Good thing I felt it when I reverse from garage to the road with 90 degree turn. I was in 4H when I parked in garage last time because of snow. I think the green 4H sign much closer to the similar green lights for headlights doesn't give me enough attention vs older 4R have the 4H light at the bottom of the speedometer away from other indicators give me enough attention. Last time when it happened I turn off the eco light thinking it might help, but did the same mistake. Just thought of sharing my experience thinking it might help newer 4R owners.

 

Good advice.

I live in a Mid Atlantic state and I know I plan on taking some 4WD drives just engage the vehicle.

 

Glad my posts was a helpful reminder for you all.

Can’t remember when, it’s been awhile obviously, but I took the wife’s Sequoia out and ran through 4H/4L and center transfer lock. Everything behaved normally.

I was looking for information last night and came upon a video that finally explained the modes, specifically the transfer center lock. Apparently when selecting just 4H it acts like a AWD until you select the center transfer case lock, then it acts like our 4x4 with equal power, front and rear axles.

I don’t see spending thousands of dollars to fix the 4L issue when it will never get used.

If I have the opportunity to buy the wife a new car someday, I will try and persuade her to a simple full time AWD vehicle.

Last nights events kinda put me back into the “lever envy” mode.

At least with the lever you only have to worry about the front axle ADD actuator.

21 years and over 260k miles and my Tacoma’s 4x4 system worked as always with zero issues.

 

Not a problem for those of us who actually off-road. Used mine 3 days ago.

Good reminder for the owners of pavement princesses, though.

 

Do you need to be offroad to ‘exercise’ the 4WD modes? I remember reading something about it in the manual. What are the proper steps and how often?

 

I don’t think you need to be officially “off-road”. I off-road but not on a weekly basis so I guess that makes me a princess. I usually engage the 4H for a few blocks while driving straight. I occasionally engage 4L in a parking lot while driving in a straight line.

From what I’ve read, it’s the exercise of the actuator that’s important rather than the actual driving distance.

IMHO, if you can do this monthly, you should be ok.

From what I’ve read, replacing the actuator on the transfer case requires dis assembly aka, big job and $$, replacing the ADD on the front differential isn’t as big a job.

Like I mentioned, I never had an issue with my 97’ Tacoma but it had a manual transfer case. My off roading is sporadic month to month.

 

After reading through many of the Tundra and Sequoia forums, it appears to me that electronic transfer case issues are very common.

In my case, the Sequoia was our primary weekend family hauler until I got the 4Runner a few years ago. So it’s rare that I drive the Sequoia now days. I used to play with all of its functions (4x4). I suspect my neglect led to this condition.

Operators like MountainMan who frequently utilize the 4x4 system will probably never encounter this problem.

 

I fortunately have to use it almost every day.

 

Thanks for the reminder. I’m going to my local Walmart parking lot to exercise everything (rear locker, MTS & Crawl Control) tomorrow.

 

We just got a bunch of snow here in central Wis., so exercising the 4wd wasn't a prob!

 

You can cycle and drive in 4wd on the road, but you need to avoid making turns while doing so.

 

https://youtu.be/-dh0VQxprJA

 

Watch @ 1:04 he explains it !

https://youtu.be/kjJKd9UINQM

 

https://youtu.be/Lhx-RMhWyaM

 

Yeah I always turn mine on once a month regardless.

 

Fully agree with exercising the 4 wheel modes

Just to clarify - when you tried to go to 4lo, did you put the transmission into neutral, then go to 4lo, then back into drive?

 

This one seems to give me some trouble and it's brand new. Hard to get it to engage on dry pavement. Meaning solid light. Seems you need to turn slightly back and forth while going forward and back to line things up so that it locks. Taking multiple attempts before I hear the clunk of engagement. Bit of a pain in the a** to exercise the locker on dry pavement. I know it's meant for off road use. For those who do off road all the time is it easier to engage or is it just as finicky? Any other recommendations to get it to lock on dry pavement consistently for exercise purposes?

 

Always good to do so. Find a straight road and go for it. Use a parking lot or empty industrial road for low and locker use. Most times I just use my driveway and get the locker to the point where it will freely lock and unlock then run it about 10 times. Of course if you have local dirt, it will be easier to exercise the system.

 

Good call. I make sure I engage 4L every oil change in the wife’s 4runner. I do the same with my GX but once a week haha.

 

yeah, the rear locker gave me fits at first, until I was told to roll forward slowly and turn the steering wheel back and forth like you said. Doesnt take much to lock it once you figure out that trick.

 

Nope. I exercise mine (per the owners manual) either once a month for more than 10 miles, or pretty much every time it's either raining or snowing. That pig needs grip to avoid spinning out with RWD only!

My buddy has the same year, but a SR5 with the dial and not like my shifter. He has owned it since new and had NO idea you needed to do this until about 6 months ago.

 

I hate to be that guy but I have to ask. Where you in neutral when you shifted to 4L? The alarm only goes off when you don’t do the correct steps. If you did everything right, it sounds like you have more issues than just the 4L not working.

 

@BgBmBoo I posted some videos on this thread not sure if it helps ! Watch the 4WD explained one.

 

If you need 4wd to keep it from spinning out, you need better tires.

 

It’s ok, yes I was in neutral. Procedure is to first get it in 4H, then stop car, keep foot on brake, put gear selector in neutral, then select 4L.

 

Yes,

I could play with it again, but to be honest, now I’m afraid of getting it stuck in 4L.

 

I fairly confident that the blinking light whether it’s 4H or 4L is normal when it’s transferring to the selected mode.

But when I tried 4L, I got that awful beeping sound too, which means, it saw a configuration it didn’t like, such as not in 4H, not in neutral or foot not on brake.

So maybe it’s a position or configuration switch issue rather than the actual actuator.

There’s quite a bit of discussions online regarding this so it must be a common problem.

 

@Thatbassguy needs a camera on his dash board to show us what lights and beep is normal he drives 4 lo 4 hi when he naps

That 4RNR needs gas sales man !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELw7xhWHNnY