4wd Dash lights

We just picked up a new to us 1998 Limited and noticed that when putting in to 4wd there is no lights on the dash to indicate its in 4wd. I noticed in some videos and pictures there is an indicator in the middle. So either it's different on the limiteds for some reason or the gauge cluster was swapped out with a non-4wd cluster...with some nice low miles.

Thanks for any insight on this.

 

It should look like this:




You could check if you have a short or blown fuse? I'm sure there are clusters available on Ebay/Facebook or even local junk yards. The circuit board on your cluster may just be.....bad.

 

But most likely not 137k miles like was advertised when we bought it. Not too worried since it does drive well but I wish they would have at least put the right cluster in.

 

This guy replaced his instrument lights with LED's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=siofzA7SzbY

 

3rd gens have several different 4wd systems and gauges to display them. The one posted in the first reply is for all 4runners after 2000 and limited from 1999 onwards (I'm saying this off the top of my head, I might be a year off). Yours could have a 4wd light like this:
It is extremely common for these 4wd systems to get stuck, and they wont go into 4wd so the light wont turn on. It has to do with the vacuum actuators, the transferase and jshifter itself are extremely reliable, it's unheard of for them to fail.

If you have the push button 4wd with the lockable center differential, I guess it could be a swapped gauge. Hopefully not.

 

We will do that just to make sure everything is lit up behind the cluster but I don't even see the 4 wheel outline that is under the turn signals so makes me think it was swapped out.

 

I have the push button 4WD but I don't have the locking center diff from what I can tell. No button anywhere for that.

 

Read the owners manual, I'm not familiar with the procedure on limiteds because mine is different. If you have the button you have 4wd, you might have to put the shift lever into a certain position. The electronic actuators and the vacuum actuators are known to get stuck if used infrequently.

So if you still don't see the light you might need to do trouble shooting to diagnose where it's going wrong.