Discussion: how to make 4wd more reliable in the 5th gen

And since you have narrowed it down to a fuel cap o-ring I guess pack one of those.. . .again another solution to the problem!

Mock others for their "chosen vehicle", but you are on the vehicle specific forum and own 3 and a youtube channel. I'm confused, did someone force you into these vehicles?


I will wait.
"Stupidity is doing same thing and expecting different results"






Just kidding no I wont. You are a master of the circular rant and avoiding correct answers and problem solving.
im not mocking anyone.
I did choose them. but I don't blindly defend them either. if they have an issue, I will freely admit it.

im seeing a hell of a lot of negativity and condescension towards the OP and his idea. the sad part is he knew to expect it. he knew how shitty a lot of the 5th gen owners are. that's pretty messed up.


I will ignore that last part, you aren't worth the time.
 
So I'm gonna hijack this thread for a sec instead of creating a new one:

Had my 5th gen stuck in 4Lo yesterday. Could not move shift level back to the left side at all. Grinding and shit too. Sounded terrible.

Had to drive it in 4Lo a little, back up a bunch and then finally it was able to swing over to the left side for H4/H2

Anyone else seen this? Only 2200 miles on it and it's never seen off road. I was street testing it all at a stand still
Thanks
 
im not mocking anyone.
I did choose them. but I don't blindly defend them either. if they have an issue, I will freely admit it.

im seeing a hell of a lot of negativity and condescension towards the OP and his idea. the sad part is he knew to expect it. he knew how shitty a lot of the 5th gen owners are. that's pretty messed up.


I will ignore that last part, you aren't worth the time.
Not mocking, your backhanded comment pretty much did just that.

As far as blindly defended also a blanket statement. As has been discussed the likelihood of this occurring and the fact that Toyota hasn't seen this ever before in all of their extensive R&D(let alone no other member on these very active forums) I think further shows the likelihood of this NOT occurring.
The OP presented an issue. Over a dozen individuals have suggested work around, but yet people still want to complain about it and ignore work arounds?

But you didn't ignore. . . keep on keeping on I guess :cheers:
 
So I'm gonna hijack this thread for a sec instead of creating a new one:

Had my 5th gen stuck in 4Lo yesterday. Could not move shift level back to the left side at all. Grinding and shit too. Sounded terrible.

Had to drive it in 4Lo a little, back up a bunch and then finally it was able to swing over to the left side for H4/H2

Anyone else seen this? Only 2200 miles on it and it's never seen off road. I was street testing it all at a stand still
Thanks
Was your check engine light on? LOL! Just kidding!

Now my serious reply....Did you have your transmission in neutral before trying to shift out of 4L? When shifting from 4H to 4L and back the auto trans shifter needs to be in N or you can get grinding.
 
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Hahah good one dude! No check engine light. However...

This symptom seemed mechanical since the 4WD shifter is connected to the transfer case (it wiggles around while engine torques, indicating a direct connection right?)

Main shifter in neutral for sure. Even rechecked owners manual to make sure I was doing it right. It go stuck in 4WD neutral for a little also. Truck wouldn't move in either direction. Then would grind when I was putting it back into 4lo just to move the damn thing. (I'm sure that grinding was due to parts rotating and then getting meshed back together improperly)

Anyway finally after reversing and such it was able to shift ok. Haven't played with it much since. Guessing the gears were just slightly unaligned for the left side of shifter (H4/H2). Shit was frustrating though and the wife was pissed since it's her new car haha
 
im not mocking anyone.
I did choose them. but I don't blindly defend them either. if they have an issue, I will freely admit it.

im seeing a hell of a lot of negativity and condescension towards the OP and his idea. the sad part is he knew to expect it. he knew how shitty a lot of the 5th gen owners are. that's pretty messed up.


I will ignore that last part, you aren't worth the time.
No worries... I know the mentality here. People will take the info (the useful nuggets) and use it to their advantage... then they will argue that it's a pointless discussion and how they are above it all and how dumb and unlikely the scenario is. If you are going to participate on these forums.. you learn not to care and what to ignore.

If someone can't see how asinine the design is... Well then there is no point in further discussion, because logic has been thrown out the door. There is also no point in *****ing about it since there is no possibility of a revision from Toyota.... Just come up with ways around it. All brands have strengths and weaknesses.... Toyota is pretty good overall, but they have their flaws just like everything else. I was at a big Toyota offroad event this weekend and saw much carnage. When these trucks are pushed hard (just like anything else).. they fall apart (especially when you don't understand the weak points).

Oh and to the genius who pointed out the irony that you would already be in 4wd on an epic off-road adventure.... Really? You stay in 4wd on an entire trip 1500 miles from home. WTF, 95% of most camping/offroading in the US (I won't call it overlanding) trips are done in 2wd. I usually switch in out maybe 100 times on a typical trip. If you count up the number of failure points in that transition.. (based on the CEL implementation...) I think you would be shocked. Having a way to clear the code and eliminate unrelated systems... makes things much better.

Back to the scenario that originally brought up this discussion:
My buddy is not that experienced when it comes to being a mechanic... He is learning though and readily admits he is pretty clueless (which is nothing to be ashamed of and shows solid character vs trying to BS everyone). He meets the profile of most 5th gen owners. He actually got the code cleared at points.. by disconnecting the battery, but was afraid to use that technique to put it in 4wd because he was concerned it might get stuck in that mode. He decided to stick with 2wd and use his winch when necessary and change up the trip plans to avoid the more challenging areas...( he diverted and never hit Moab...). His trip was not a total bust, since the truck could still do all the basics in 2wd. Just could have been so much better if he would have had a bit more knowledge about how the system works. In the end.. he had a tiny air leak where the cross over pipe connects one of the cats. Probably developed from the skid coming up and hitting on it. His trip would have been way more fun if he would have read this thread beforehand (if it would have existed)
 
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So I'm gonna hijack this thread for a sec instead of creating a new one:

Had my 5th gen stuck in 4Lo yesterday. Could not move shift level back to the left side at all. Grinding and shit too. Sounded terrible.

Had to drive it in 4Lo a little, back up a bunch and then finally it was able to swing over to the left side for H4/H2

Anyone else seen this? Only 2200 miles on it and it's never seen off road. I was street testing it all at a stand still
Thanks

Most likely just a little bound up. Keep wheels straight... shift transmission to N while still rolling forward in a straight line. Once stopped, shift it to 4H.

You really can't hurt it.. mine is smooth and never makes any noise, but I think they do feel a bit tight at first.
 
Ok cool thanks. I figured it was operator error/new parts rather than a defective unit. Seems a few others have had similar results and also said when moving between 4H-4L to NOT stop in the N position of transfer shifter, and to just go for it.

I'll play with it some more when I don't have a frenzied wife in the car to get a better feel.

...and now back to our regularly scheduled debate and troll session for the forum. We apologize for the interruption....
 
Oh and to the genius who pointed out the irony that you would already be in 4wd on an epic off-road adventure.... Really? You stay in 4wd on an entire trip 1500 miles from home. WTF, 95% of most camping/offroading in the US (I won't call it overlanding) trips are done in 2wd. I usually switch in out maybe 100 times on a typical trip. If you count up the number of failure points in that transition.. (based on the CEL implementation...) I think you would be shocked. Having a way to clear the code and eliminate unrelated systems... makes things much better.

I'm a genius?! :rockon:
Well judging by the scenario you predicated this on
-in the dessert
-in the middle of nowhere
-thousands of miles from home, yeah I would probably be in 4wd as a precaution as to not being familiar with the area(and also only in 4wd can I do the center diff lock which also bypasses the ABS). But you are correct in that I wouldn't obviously always be in 4wd on a trip, because that would be just stupid.

So we have thus concluded that the disconnect the battery DOES in fact work as well as having a code reader as a back up. Seems like this thread is solved.......(about 9 pages ago.)
 

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