Complete loss of power when wheeling in 4H

[05_ltd]

I tried searching and had no luck. I have an 05 limited V8. I've noticed recently when wheeling in Drive and 4H, if I come across an obstacle and there is significant resistance, the vehicle completely shuts off all power. Like I can literally mat it to the floor and it doesn't even rev, but it's still running and everything else is functioning normally. No beeping, no odd lights, nothing... It doesn't happen in any other gear. I've never experienced this in any other 4wd vehicle I've owned.

Any ideas? Is this something I should be concerned about? The truck does excellent offroad and hasn't given me any other problems.

 

[ExCabSwap]

You've found the stall speed of your torque converter and it's at its limit. My suggestion: put it in 4L

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[gm350reratliff]

Are any of your tires slipping when this goes on? My 2008 will do this in slippery obstacles unless I turn off the traction control.

 

[T4RNightHawk]

Sometimes this is also smart stop nannying you.


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[Inv4drZm]

Driving down the short trail to our campsite in Colorado, I never took it out of 4hi or even locked the center diff. Some of the rocks we went over would have dinged the skids on a stock 4th gen. Never experienced any loss of power like you are describing. Anything more gnarly you should just engage 4lo, it'll give you a lot more control.

 

[Drunner97]

Pretty sure it's the stability control or something along those lines. In 4hi with the center diff unlocked I've experienced the same thing, especially after a hard hit or dip. Complete loss of power until I shift to neutral and back to drive. Center diff locked with VSC off, same situations and no power loss.

 

[blackoutt]

Locking center diff offroad kills the dead pedal nanny (vsc?) I learned this when going from paved to offroad and "seeing how far I could go" with out changing anything, ended up on a bouncy climb with no gas pedal and a panic stop backwards. Locked center diff and pulled away no problem. I've had this happen in snow too pulling out of the neighborhood, spinning tire and accelerator cuts out = no go when you're halfway out in traffic with no power. This is why I put a switch in the master cyl wires line, flip that and get pedal back in cases where it's needed or you want to hoon.

 

[m85476585]

Mine did this to me the other day. I was pulling out of a snow bank where I parked in 4HI unlocked. The wheels spun a little, as expected, but after a second of that it completely cut the power and it was just idling. After I locked the center diff it let me use ATRAC as expected, but it couldn't climb the snow from a stop (or I wasn't patient enough to let it work). I tried again in 4Low locked center with a bit of momentum, and it was fine.

 

[05_ltd]

Thanks for the input everyone. I don't wheel gnarly stuff in 4h, only while driving FS roads with easy to mild terrain. So being engaged in 4L isn't really necessary for that.

 

[07V8]

You've found the stall speed of your torque converter and it's at its limit. My suggestion: put it in 4L

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Disagree. It's the traction control.

 

[ExCabSwap]

Disagree. It's the traction control.

Lol this guy's "wheeling" in baby mode?

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[Lolrax]

Yep, its the traction control system. Surprised you haven't activated it that many times before.

 

[05_ltd]

Lol this guy's "wheeling" in baby mode?

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Maybe I should have went into further detail in my OP, not heavy wheeling. I mean cruising fire/forest service roads with light to mild terrain. So 4L isn't needed.

 

[ExCabSwap]

Maybe I should have went into further detail in my OP, not heavy wheeling. I mean cruising fire/forest service roads with light to mild terrain. So 4L isn't needed.

Gotcha lol..

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[parboy]

best thing to do is to keep your foot where it is on the throttle. the ATRAC will begin applying power to wheels and assist you. Give it a shot or google videos on 4runner atrac to see it in action.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

Most likely Traction Control kicking in, I hate it when it kicks in on my 4Runner (I almost rarely need to use 4Lo in my vehicle let alone CDL). I really need to wire up a kill switch for the VSC and TRAC functions...

best thing to do is to keep your foot where it is on the throttle. the ATRAC will begin applying power to wheels and assist you. Give it a shot or google videos on 4runner atrac to see it in action.

Yes and no, it depends on how annoying the system wants to be. For example in the Part-Time 4WD vehicles (V6) it gets progressively more aggressive/lenient the further down the spectrum you go (i.e. theoretically it's supposed to be at it's max aggressiveness in terms of "ATRAC" in 4Lo, CDL On, and in "L") but that's not always true. On my Full-Time 4WD (V8) It's a bit quicker to cut the throttle on me and nanny me in 4Hi, still does it in 4Lo, and somewhat good about "ATRAC" kicking in in 4Lo CDL on; but not always.

 

[ATOWN4R]

I have an '06 4R....was out wheeling last week. I was on a slight rock climb up the powerlines, 4H, no center diff lock, and this happened a few times in a row, pissing me off to no end...simply locked the axles and.she kept on moving...technology is quite annoying sometimes

 

[Drunner97]

Maybe I should have went into further detail in my OP, not heavy wheeling. I mean cruising fire/forest service roads with light to mild terrain. So 4L isn't needed.

I typically either pull the plug on the master cylinder or I run 4hi/center locked to disable VSC when I'm in dirt. Kills the power and the beeping issues when tooling around on easy stuff.

 

[m85476585]

best thing to do is to keep your foot where it is on the throttle. the ATRAC will begin applying power to wheels and assist you. Give it a shot or google videos on 4runner atrac to see it in action.

I tried that, but in 4HI with the center unlocked it just cut the engine to idle power despite me giving it maybe 25% throttle. It works the way you describe in other 4WD modes. It's definitely traction control, but I haven't seen it behave so badly before.