Part-Time 4WD & Height of Shift Handle

[adoihcj]

Has anyone noticed that the high shift handle gets in your way when trying to engage the PT 4WD system on the fly? Be very careful if you are traveling at a high rate of speed and shift from 4WD Hi to 2WD because it's easy to bump the transmission shifter from drive into neutral.

Some of the more experienced folks on here might not find it to be a problem, but this happened to me without even knowing it and I thought I was having tranny issues because I was actually in neutral.

 

[nighthawk]

Has anyone noticed that the high shift handle gets in your way when trying to engage the PT 4WD system on the fly? Be very careful if you are traveling at a high rate of speed and shift from 4WD Hi to 2WD because it's easy to bump the transmission shifter from drive into neutral.

Some of the more experienced folks on here might not find it to be a problem, but this happened to me without even knowing it and I thought I was having tranny issues because I was actually in neutral.

On a similar note, the 2nd gen ones had the shifter way too close to the passenger. My friend had one and he said quite often while driving, his passengers will accidentally knock the shifter with their knees and he'd be in neutral. However, now that you say that it's hard to reach the PT 4WD lever in it's current configuration, then I can see why Toyota did that with the 2nd gens. The 3rd gens were like that too, but the RHD models had the shifter beside the driver and the 4WD lever on passenger side (ie. when I first saw that, I thought Toyota was being cheap and didn't want to make another center console so they left it as is instead of making a reverse one for the LHD vehicles).

 

[tjnaples]

I have never been at really high speeds when I went into 4x4. The shift handle can be in the way. One certainly has to be intentional when using for sure.