4WD Indicator Light Came On

[AR314]

Hi,
2000 Limited. About a month ago I was driving @ 40-50 MPH on a paved road when my 4WD Indicator Light came on. I pulled over, shut the engine off. Restarted & the light was gone. I was not in 4WD. A month later, same scenario.4WD works fine. Any idea what could be causing this?
Thanks

 

[dogtail]

Could be transfer switch or its wiring. Here's a diagram to show circuit so you can trace it. You can get to switches easily.

 

[AR314]

Thanks. I did have the transfer switch p/n 84222-12010 replaced a while ago. Is this the switch?

 

[phattyduck]

That's the diagram for the j-shift (SR5/base) 4WD system. The Limited multi-mode case is more complicated (has a computer, etc.). It is conceivable that the computer is going bad, though I haven't heard that happening before.

-Charlie

 

[AR314]

What's strange is I haven't been able to find this problem searching the internet. Plenty of blinking lights problems though.

 

[Bad Luck]

Hi,
2000 Limited. About a month ago I was driving @ 40-50 MPH on a paved road when my 4WD Indicator Light came on. I pulled over, shut the engine off. Restarted & the light was gone. I was not in 4WD. A month later, same scenario.4WD works fine. Any idea what could be causing this?
Thanks

When you say the 4wd indicator light came on do you mean the 4 tires and center light came on? Was it solid on, flashing, flash once?

 

[AR314]

4 tires w/ center light. Solid.

 

[watersna]

4 tires w/ center light. Solid.

Do you know if 4WD was actually engaged or just the light? Did you feel any binding or hear it engage or anything?

 

[AR314]

Just the light. Not engaged in 4WD. I don't think it's possible to engage 4WD Lo/Hi w/o moving the 4WD shift lever.

 

[watersna]

Just the light. Not engaged in 4WD. I don't think it's possible to engage 4WD Lo/Hi w/o moving the 4WD shift lever.

It'll depend on the system. I had some really weird issues that included at some points the truck shifting into H4L (center diff locked) with just the Multimode push button engaged.

 

[dogtail]

That's the diagram for the j-shift (SR5/base) 4WD system. The Limited multi-mode case is more complicated (has a computer, etc.). It is conceivable that the computer is going bad, though I haven't heard that happening before.

-Charlie

Whoops, my bad. Yeah I only have the J shift diagram in my files.

 

[Bad Luck]

Just the light. Not engaged in 4WD. I don't think it's possible to engage 4WD Lo/Hi w/o moving the 4WD shift lever.

I had something similar happen to me several months ago. I took all the transfer case switches out and cleaned them with electronics cleaner then put them back in. I managed to do this with the transfer case in the vehicle by removing the crossmember and sagging the transfer case down in order to reach the sensors on the passenger side.

 

[AR314]

What exactly happened? What model/year is your 4Runner?

 

[phattyduck]

Just the light. Not engaged in 4WD. I don't think it's possible to engage 4WD Lo/Hi w/o moving the 4WD shift lever.

The computer has full control over the 2WD/4WD shift and the center diff lock, even if the shift lever hasn't moved, even on the "j-shift" multimode cases. Moving the lever from 2Hi/4Hu to 4HiL just actuates a switch inside the transmission.

Only the High to Low range shifter movement is mechanical on the multimode case.

-Charlie

 

[AR314]

So it's possible to go from 2H to 4H w/o moving the shift lever?

 

[Bad Luck]

What exactly happened? What model/year is your 4Runner?

Sorry. That would probably be helpful, huh?

2000 Limited. All 5 lights came on solid for a few minutes while driving as if it was in 4wd, but the was no bind that I could tell. It went off on it's own the first time in the same trip. A couple weeks later all 5 lights came on solid again and stayed that way for a few trips probably half hour of driving total then went out once I put it into 4Lo, then 4hi locked, then 4hi unlocked, then 2hi.

Like phattyduck stated the j shift multimode shifter doesn't control the 2wd/4wd/center diff lock. It just moves the lever to different sensors which sends a signal to the 4wd ecu to engage the front axle and move the transfer case actuator. However, your j-shift multimode shifter does manually move the high/low shift forks in the transfer case.

 

[AR314]

So if the switch somehow shorted out it could conceivably cause the car to go from 2WD to 4WD. Ever hear of that happening?

 

[Bad Luck]

In theory it could if the switch shorted closed.