DIY Blinking 4w hi light - Toyota Tundra Forums : Tundra Solutions Forum

usrauk · #1 (**permalink**) 06-07-2009, 07:42 PM

When I press my 4 wheel high button I can hear the actuator that's attached to the transfer case operate but the green light on the button just blinks and it doesn't go into 4 wheel drive, I checked all the electrical conections and cleaned them with electrical contact cleaner, tried tapping the actuator while some one pressed and depressed button, still no luck, is there another actuator on the front differential that I'm missing? my 2001 Tundra has only 48,000 miles, It's an SR5 regular cab and has never been off road. The only trouble before this was both oxygen sensors going bad which I replaced myself since they just failed right after warranty expired, of course!, any ideas of anything else I could look at? I would think if it was the actuator it would not be making any noise when I pres the button, or am I wrong?........Thanks

Highwaylizard · #2 (**permalink**) 06-07-2009, 10:55 PM

Are you in drive when you do this? My truck will not go into 4 Wheel Hi if it is in Park or Neutral. To go into 4 Wheel Low it has to already be in 4 Wheel Hi and in Neutral.

usrauk · #3 (**permalink**) 06-08-2009, 12:47 PM

I have tried it in PARK, NEUTRAL, DRIVE and shifting on the fly all the way to 40 MPH which my dealer said it is designed to do. It sometimes made a fairly loud clunking noise when engaging or disengaging which I don't hear any more, so maybe it's something in the transfer case?

myardnut · #4 (**permalink**) 06-08-2009, 04:44 PM

Sounds like the problem I had. It was the actuator. There was later a factory TSB for the fix on these. When I found this problem there was not (I was one of the first to have the problem on my '00 about 6 months after I bought the truck). I was off-roading one day, and went into 4W-Low, and came back to pavement and reset it to 4W-Hi, then back to 2WD. The 4WD-Hi light stayed on blinking, endlessly. It was stuck in 2WD and would not go into 4WD.

At any rate, I took it to a Toyota dealer. It took a while to convince them that it was a problem, and Toyota of Sunnyvale, CA sucks! But in the end they fixed it under warantee, their cost. They had to replace the actuator and rebuild the centerbox (transfer case). God only knows what it would cost to fix out of warantee.