HI All: i have a 2010 TE which has A/T with part-time 4wd shifting. owner's manual says that A/T should be in Neutral with truck stopped before shifting in/out of L4 . I followed those instructions and find that rough shifting with grinding noises will occur which does not sound good or is good for the gears! Is this a serious error on Toyota's part? At least for my 86 Landcruiser with M/T and part-time 4WD, the M/T is to be in Neutral and stopped before one shifts in/out Low 4wd gear. Bottom line is the use of 4wd low gear with A/T different than with M/T ? TIA for your comments

Should not be different. The first couple of times I want to any of the 4wd modes (I'vethe part time 4wd) it wasn't very smooth.

Either way, to get in L4 you're doing it correctly. Stop. Car in Neutral. Switch to L4, back in Drive.

As with any new car, the first couple times to switch to 4H or 4L it will seem difficult. I know that the first time I switched into 4H and 4L, I thought it was difficult to shift. As I used 4H more and more during the winter and 4L in the summer, the shifting is now flawless.

+1. Same experience here. 3 or 4 times using 4H and it got better.

thx for all the responses guys: was concerned b/c it was more than tight or difficult to shift; i was hearing and could feel like the gears were "grinding" metal to metal. i made a visit to local toy dealer, told lead mechanic of the grinding while in neutral; he told and showed me that it was better to stop the truck and shift into Park instead of Neutral before engaging the 4wd gears which did not result in any difficulty shifting the 4wd gears nor any grinding noises! he said that with A/T, the gears are really not stopped moving/rotating completely which meant that the gears could still be grinding together as a result! ("unlike the M/T where in Neutral, the gears are not engaging") so want to hear from the forum members who have mechanic knowledge/background to verify whether this is true or bs. TIA. toyslug

When you push in a clutch on a manual transmission, you are physically separating the plates so that no power is reaching the driveshaft. In an automatic transmission shifting into neutral, this is done hydraulically. Putting it in park does the same thing, but locks the drive shaft as well.

However, the transfer case is completely mechanical. It's more likely that the gears weren't aligned correctly and rolling forward a bit would have allowed them to mesh better when you try to engage the reduction gears (go from 4H to 4L) in the transfer case. The first few times I tried to shift from 2H to 4H, it took some effort to pull it into gear and the same with going into 4L. It was exactly like speed shifting a truck with no clutch, lots of noise and grinding until the gears meshed. Now it shifts smoothly with no problems, as needed.

Your truck is under warranty. The shop gets paid to do warranty work. If there was something wrong, no service manager worth his salt is going to refuse free money from Toyota to fix your problem. Any mechanic working for money will not turn down billable hours for warranty work; it's all flat rate work and they can make 2-3 times what they make on shop rate work.