Shifting to 4 low

jman11788

jman11788

Member
Ok I have searched for this and find a lot of other people having a problem shifting into 4 low. But can't seem to find one in my exact criteria. I'm pretty sure i'm doing everything correctly, correct me if i'm wrong though. I can shift into 4 high with no problem. But when i try shifting into 4 low it wont work. I'm at a dead stop, shift it to neutral and then shift to 4 low from 4 high and starts making a grinding sound. Then the noise stops and it's in place for 4 low, but i put it back to drive and it goes no where as in it's still in neutral. What's the deal?
 
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So you are not moving at all?

Despite the 4Runner manual saying you can shift 4-HI to 4-LO while moving, you cannot safely do it.

If you put it into 4-LO and nothing happens, perhaps, perhaps ... your 4LO gear is bad.
 
couple of the 3rd gens I recently test drove would only engage in park. But if you are positive you are getting it into 4 low and you are going nowhere then you may have some real issues.
 
Stick Figure said:
couple of the 3rd gens I recently test drove would only engage in park. .
Click to expand...

This is due to the drag on the transmission fluid causing the internals to still spin in neutral. I have seen this on 4runners and other automatic transmission vehicles.

And yes, you need to be completely stopped.

Worst case, you could try to shift into 4Lo with the engine off. Also, engine off, vehicle on a slight hill, transmission in neutral, slightly rolling and shift into 4Lo. (very slightly rolling)
 
Not sure if it's the same for the OP's 2000 but my 96 manual states:

SHIFTING BETWEEN “H4” AND “L4”
To shift between “H4” and “L4”, stop
the vehicle and put the transmission in
“N”. With your foot holding down the brake
pedal, move the front drive control lever.

This is with the lever type and auto trans. So you are definitely supposed to be stopped. If the OP has the lever/button type it might be different.
 
kball said:
Not sure if it's the same for the OP's 2000 but my 96 manual states:

SHIFTING BETWEEN “H4” AND “L4”
To shift between “H4” and “L4”, stop
the vehicle and put the transmission in
“N”. With your foot holding down the brake
pedal, move the front drive control lever.

This is with the lever type and auto trans. So you are definitely supposed to be stopped. If the OP has the lever/button type it might be different.
Click to expand...
^^ This ^^

The manual for my 2000 LTD Auto says the same exact thing. If I am rolling even a little, I get some nasty grinding noises as I move the 4Lo lever.
 
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Just bumping this thread. Im having a simliar issue. Goes into 4 high just fine, but if y32ou try to put the transfer case lever into the 4 low spot it grinds and simpky wont allow the lever to go forward. Doesnt matter if im in park, neutral, drive, e brake doeesnt effect it? Any clue?

Im going to try gerdos suggestions. Will report back
 
in my 02, If i put the transfer case in neutral, then put the truck in drive. all of the gears in the transfer case will be spinning. When i put it back into neutral, the gears are still spinning (momentum) It will grind a bit when go to put it in low but if i push firmly and quickly it goes right in. Maybe this will help, maybe not.
 
Well I tried gerdos suggestion of having the engine off, snd it worked fine. I could drive around and stop snd once in park it would move to high/low freely. Also what seemed to help is to make sure that once I put it into park, if I make sure to release, and then reapply the brakes it wouldnt cause any grinding.

Can anyone explain how why the transmission causes this?
Is this normal?
Any links to the 100% 'by the book' way to shift into 4 low?

I dont have a manual and the transfercase card is very vague.
And the only other 4 wheel drives ive ever used were push button...

Thanks,
 
rebelbowtie said:
Almost every brand of 4x4 recommends letting the vehicle roll when shifting from HI to LO range.
Click to expand...

If you love your truck at all NEVER shift to 4LO/HI when moving.

That grinding sound is your transfer case destroying itself. If you stop all movement it should be fine. Shifting from 2WD to 4HI with the button is not an issue but 4LO/4HI is another story.

If you press on and force it you will F$&K over not only your 4Runner but also your wallet.
 
Any links to the 100% 'by the book' way to shift into 4 low?
Click to expand...

The book says you can do it while moving. When these trucks were new you could. Now 100,000s miles later the tolerances have changed and you can't do it while moving.
 
I'm pretty sure the manual for my 2000 says you can only shift between 4H and 4L if you have a manual transmission and depress the clutch. My 4Runner is an auto so I always stop and shift to neutral, but I used to go between high and low in my old 5 speed Rodeo with the clutch and never had issues.
 
BrianSD_42 said:
The book says you can do it while moving. When these trucks were new you could. Now 100,000s miles later the tolerances have changed and you can't do it while moving.
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BrianSD_42 said:
If you love your truck at all NEVER shift to 4LO/HI when moving.

That grinding sound is your transfer case destroying itself. If you stop all movement it should be fine. Shifting from 2WD to 4HI with the button is not an issue but 4LO/4HI is another story.

If you press on and force it you will F$&K over not only your 4Runner but also your wallet.
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That makes total sense and its why ive never just forced it in. But it seems kind of random as to why its doing it. Gerdo mentioned the transmission fluid causing it?

I dont have any clue how an automatic transmission really works so not sure how that would effect it.

Just kinda clueless here I guess. Soemtimes it shifts just fine. And soemtimes no matter what I do it grinds?
 
Sorry, last post made no sense at all.

I guess what Im trying to figure out is this. The grinding is because something is still spinning while I am trying to shift the tc into the low gear. How can I ensure that whatever is spinning stops, bevause even with the truck stopped, its done it. With it in park the same. In neutral the same? But then soemtimes it works just fine,

So if somebody witb a better knoweledge of the situation could try to explain this to me or give me a link I wiuld really appreciste it.

Cuz I know grinding is bad and transfer cases cant be cheap.
 
Soemtimes it shifts just fine. And soemtimes no matter what I do it grinds?
Click to expand...

Does this " no matter what I do" include when it is completely stopped and trans is in N then you shift LO/HI or HI/LO ?
 
In your first post, you didn't mention that you had shifted the transmission to neutral. what you said was that you just shifted to neutral, which i presume, the transfer case was shifted to neutral.
you have to shift the transmission first to neutral before shifting the transfer case.

first, come to a full stop and shift the transmission to neutral.
second, shift the transfer case to neutral.
third, shift the transfer case to 4L
fourth, shift the transmission to drive.


jman11788 said:
Well this sucks.... I was hoping I was just doing something wrong.
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I was under the impression that on ANY vehicle with 4wd, it's ideal to be stopped completely to shift into 4Lo. Despite what the manual says.
 
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