Exercise your 4H/4L

Good reminder! I try to use mine when going up hills especially in the rain, it feels unfair for the rear wheels to do all the work all the time Hills and rain, we have lots of that here in western WA state.

Do you fly r/c slope gliders? Looks like a sloper in your avatar.

 

Yeah I was using mine on occasion but have her in storage now till spring. I will do when I take it out for sure

 

Yes ,

You can find me on RC groups, same avatar.

 

I just tried the Sequoia again. No go.

If you just select 4H that seems to work. But selecting 4L gets things all jacked up, can’t even turn 4H off without turning car completely off.

One time the 4x4 selector wouldn’t even allow me to rotate it from 4H to 2wd until I turned the car off and back on.

I’m not gonna spend thousands of dollars to fix 4L, that will never get used.

 

I haven’t done a search yet, but I’m curious if this 4H/4L issue is common with the 4Runners too?

 

Going around corners in the wet can loosen things up, no matter how good the tires are. Mine are 6 months old and I can drive 90 in the rain without hydroplaning.....it's just scary when the back end lifts a little.

 

You drive in 4wd in rain? I would expect to lose traction even worse plowing the front tires through turns like that. I have never fishtailed any of my trucks in the rain unless I was trying to.

Snow is a different story. I will use four-wheel drive when it's really bad. I nearly lost it on the freeway on the stock dunlap's and that's why I put tires on mine with only 1300 miles on the odometer.

 

4wd only gives traction to get going. It does nothing for cornering and can actually make you understeer when you turn since the front and rear axles need to turn at different speeds but can't. AWD (full time 4wd) can help when turning and even more so when the vehicle is equipped with torque vectoring or any kind of cornering system.

 

Yeah, a buddy clued me in to this when I bought my 4R.

 

I don't get to the dirt as much as I'd like (we all can't all be as bitchin' as @MountainMan claims to be).

Even when I do get to the dirt, I rarely actually need 4Lo.

But this thread is a good reminder to exercise it even when you don't need it.

Thank you @Slopemaster for the reminder

 

thanks for posting this... this is my first 4wd vehicle so seeing this made me try out 4H and 4L. was not aware i need to shift pretty quickly into 4L as it was grinding at first. figured it out and will be using 4H every now and then when i'm not off roading.

 

I’m glad you guys are getting something out of this thread.

After reading all the Sequoia, Tundra and Tacoma threads regarding 4x4 engagement issues, I have become quite disheartened.

I’ve always been a big Toyota fan boy, regarding Toyota durability and reliability but after watching countless videos and forums, I feel like I should be eating crow.

There are many videos DYI’s are replacing the actuator without disassembling the transfer case, but the procedure looks pretty sketchy with mixed success.

The dealerships actually remove the transfer case disassemble it and install new actuator. This is why they charge upwards of $7000.

Thing is if you just replace the actuator and reuse the pushrod that goes into the gearbox, you risk a repeat failure, if the cause of the bind is in the gearbox.

Street value is just over 20k for a 2012 Sequoia with about 150k miles so it’s not worth repairing IMHO.

4H seems to work but I wouldn’t count on it in a remote situation so I guess the wife now has a 2wd.

 

Maybe keep trying at it. Ive heard of thing loosening up after lots of tries. It kind of sucks, but from what I have seen, real 4wd systems on other makes will seize up too if not used regularly.

7k to repair sounds insane. I’d shop that around. If that thing is worth 20k, it might be worth putting a little money into it. Although if the 4wd wont be used when it’s fixed, maybe not. If 4h works and its all you need…

And just to make sure, you are putting in neutral to engage 4L, correct?

 

To add to this;

Neutral, and stopped.

@Slopemaster , I'm sure you tried everything, but did you try bumping it into gear after selecting 4LO? sometimes mine will flash until I put it into gear.

 

After seeing this, I cycled 4hi, 4lo, and the locker in my driveway yesterday. I just wonder what my neighbors thought I was up to.

 

I believe I did, actually when it wasn’t engaging in 4L, I slowly moved forward but no dice.

I think one important clue here is that terrible beeping sound always comes on when I select 4L along with the flashing 4L light.

My understanding is that the beeping means the logic doesn’t like something, such as not fully engaged in 4H, gear selector not in neutral, and foot not on brake.

I’ve read other posts talking about the neutral safety switch not working right. The clue there is “N” is not displayed on the shift indicator in the instrument panel.
I verified that “N” was displayed on the instrument panel.

One time I tried to select 2wd from 4H and the turn knob was like locked in the 4H position and wouldn’t allow me to turn knob to 2wd until I completely turned off the car and back on. This scared me so I gave up and went home.

That’s all I need to get the car stuck in 4H and hand the keys back to the wife.

 

That’s good, one advantage you have is the manual transfer case selector. All you have to concern yourself with is the front ADD actuator and from what I’ve read, they are easier to replace and you do not have to disable the front diff.

I don’t have any experience with the rear locker, but I believe if you exercise it, you should be fine.

 

The Sequoia’s have two motors and two pushrods that come out of the actuator assembly on the transfer case.

Most videos and forums I read said one is for 4L and one is for 4H. I can’t prove it, but I disagree. I think the second actuator is for the “center diff lock”. That’s what they call it but we’re really talking transfer case. The Tacoma’s and 4Runners have one pushrod. That tells me that one pushrod is used to select 2wd, 4H or 4L.

 

Apparently I triggered the SoyBoy...

 

The first post could come off a bit cocky.

I "actually off-road" as well. But, not much this time of year. I don't always think to exercise things because I use them regularly from May until October or November.

 

After looking at some 4Runner posts regarding issues with the neutral safety switch, I’m thinking maybe I should investigate that.

I confirmed that “N” was displayed on instrument panel but I really don’t know if it is triggered by the switch like our newer 4Runners.

The beeping seems to happen on vehicles with a neutral safety switch issue.

 

@Slopemaster Does your seqouia have a transfer case with center diff (like 4runner Limiteds), or is it just a transfer case like regular old school 4wd (like Sr5 or off-road models)?

 

Only thing I would add is to get the differential and transfer case fluids changes too.

 

It has a transfer case like the limited with the exception you can select 2wd. 4H or 4L for that matter is like a limited AWD with power going wherever? until you engage the center diff lock, then it’s like our 4Runners (non-limited).

 

Yes had gearbox fluids done earlier in the year. We’ve always stuck with the 30k mile recommended interval.

I think it’s probably a worn/defective actuator but who knows. Like I said earlier, I haven’t played with the 4wd in a long time since I’m not the primary driver of it.

 

I do, when it's really bad. Just feels safer, and it works the system.
I really need to use the 4L more, however. I LOVE crawl control!

 

It seems dangerous to me, since we don't have an open Center differential. It seems like you would have a higher potential of losing control in a curve since all of your wheels are trying to turn at the same speed.

Crawl is definitely cool! I will admit, though, that most of the times I have used it have just been to see what it does. I did use it to try to get out of some mud once when I was stuck, but I ended up needing a tug from another vehicle.

 

is there a good source to help understand the differential actions more thoroughly? isn't the rear axle kind of "open" before it gets locked? or more precisely, what is the difference between an open rear differential and an unlocked one?

 

When you turn, each wheel wants to turn at a different speed because they follow a different path. Open diff allows each side to turn at different speeds. This allows for turning without skipping or chirping the tires. A locked diff provides more traction but increases difficulty turning because the wheels are locked together so they cannot turn at different speeds. A center diff is the same when unlocked vs locked.

 

yeah, i've experienced "binding" before when driving a pickup in 4WD on a dry surface (was just testing its 4WD system). but i'm still confused on the difference between open and unlocked. having said that, wiki states this, which helps me understand it a bit better, but not thoroughly.

wiki- When the differential is unlocked (open differential), it allows each wheel to rotate at different speeds (such as when negotiating a turn), thus avoiding tire scuffing. An open (or unlocked) differential always provides the same torque (rotational force) to each of the two wheels on that axle. Therefore, although the wheels can rotate at different speeds, they apply the same rotational force, even if one is entirely stationary, and the other spinning. (Equal torque, unequal rotational speed).

By contrast, a locked differential forces both left and right wheels on the same axle to rotate at the same speed under nearly all circumstances, regardless of the tractional differences at either wheel. Therefore, each wheel can apply as much rotational force as the traction under it will allow, and the torques on each side-shaft will be unequal. (Unequal torque, equal rotational speeds). Exceptions apply to automatic lockers, discussed below.

A locked differential can provide a significant traction advantage over an open differential, but only when the traction under each wheel differs significantly.

All of the above applies to central differentials as well as to those in each axle: full-time four-wheel-drive vehicles have three differentials, one in each axle, and a central one (called a "transfer case") between the front and rear axles.