Strange 4lo Message

[Jetboy]

Not sure what to make of this, but I found it kinda odd.

I made a "creative" parking spot at the ski hill yesterday. Getting out took a little bit of finesse - meaning I needed 4lo - locked rear diff - and everything short of winch or airing down to work my way back out of the deep snow. Not really a big deal, but exiting the parking lot I stopped and shifted back to 4hi with the trans. in neutral.

Then I got the following warnings on my dash depending on whether I was in 4lo 4hi or N:

No amount of shifting around the transfer case lever solved it. I was able to drive normally without any noise or adverse effects I could feel. I pulled off the road and turned off and restarted and then got the ABS/VSC and MTS lights lit up with flashing 4x4 light. Then within a mile or so it all went back to normal. 4x4 always seemed to work normally.

It's all back to normal now. My only guess is the ADD actuator - but I don't know why that would ask to put back in 4lo. Or something internal not correctly registering the transfer case lever location.

This is on a TEP - so the transfer case is manual shift lever. Nothing seemed amiss with the shift lever. I really have no idea what could be the issue other than a sensor thinking 4lo was still engaged?

 

[adam2562]

ive had something similar happen once in the past.. i'm at 96k i wouldnt worry. i think i turned the truck off and back on and the problem was gone.

also.. when you're stuck in snow. using the locker might do more harm than good. the atrac only is best used there with 4LO

 

[nb rob]

just spitballing here---

If you still have multi-terrain select on when you shift to 4hi, it will prompt you to shift back to 4lo. One setting on MTS (all the way to the left I believe) will still work in 4hi below a certain speed.... so it does not immediately cancel MTS when you shift to 4hi, however if you are in one of the 3 other settings, it will tell you to switch back to 4lo.

If you ignore it, it will stop, and the MTS light will go away.

This is what I deduced anyway. I've had the same thing; the dash telling me to change the Tcase position. I've never had any issues.

I might have misunderstood your particular situation though.....

 

[Jetboy]

Ah. Maybe it was MTS. I though it automatically canceled once you shift out of lo range.

I was wishing I had a front locker. It's the only traction device I would really like to have in my 4runner that it didn't come with. I figured MTS in "Rock" was as close as I could get to getting all 4 tires locked up. I thought for a second I might have to get the winch out. But a little back and forth and I was able to get out.

My main concern was whether I had a sensor issue or something. Typically Toyota uses high quality electronics, good sensors, good connectors, good quality wires, etc. so they don't go bad often. I'm pretty hard on stuff - deep water crossings with ice sheets, driving through brush, high centering on downed trees, stuff like that where you could get an errant branch that would damage a wire somewhere.

FWIW Toyo AT2s are just *okay* in snow for me. They're not great. Not terrible. Gets me where I need to go.

 

[BobsTrail]

I'm sure were busy trying to get unstuck, but you really should have gotten out, walked in the mess and taken a photo to post here. My son grumbles when I ask him to do that.

 

[(none)]

Ah. Maybe it was MTS. I though it automatically canceled once you shift out of lo range.

I was wishing I had a front locker. It's the only traction device I would really like to have in my 4runner that it didn't come with. I figured MTS in "Rock" was as close as I could get to getting all 4 tires locked up. I thought for a second I might have to get the winch out. But a little back and forth and I was able to get out.

My main concern was whether I had a sensor issue or something. Typically Toyota uses high quality electronics, good sensors, good connectors, good quality wires, etc. so they don't go bad often. I'm pretty hard on stuff - deep water crossings with ice sheets, driving through brush, high centering on downed trees, stuff like that where you could get an errant branch that would damage a wire somewhere.

FWIW Toyo AT2s are just *okay* in snow for me. They're not great. Not terrible. Gets me where I need to go.

Don't see that your rear diff was locked (maybe just athe time of the pic). Next time, just lock the rear diff, hit the a-trac button and be done with it. The MTS is essentially just adjusting the levels of sensitivity of the a-trac system. The new taomas don't even have the a-trac button any more, only mts.

 

[Jetboy]

Don't see that your rear diff was locked (maybe just athe time of the pic). Next time, just lock the rear diff, hit the a-trac button and be done with it. The MTS is essentially just adjusting the levels of sensitivity of the a-trac system. The new taomas don't even have the a-trac button any more, only mts.

The pic was after I had gotten out and driven a little while. I pulled off to reset it. I like MTS adjustment to tighten up the front traction control. I find it helps in rock crawling and snow to have it set as aggressive as possible. I'm not sure it needs a range of options though. I think it's like most things - you want it all the way on or all the way off.

 

[Jetboy]

I'm sure were busy trying to get unstuck, but you really should have gotten out, walked in the mess and taken a photo to post here. My son grumbles when I ask him to do that.

I'm not sure it was anything worth taking a picture of. It was just the edge of a parking lot on a hill and I had to pull far enough off that I was a couple feet over the curb with the front tires - so they were down the hill. With a foot or so of snow it didn't want to climb back up over the curb. And it was about 20 degrees, so the snow was extra slippery (snow is the slipperyest <- is that word? closest to melting point. cold snow has a lot more friction than warm snow).

The 5th gen is surprisingly hard to get really stuck anywhere it will go without doing a bunch of body damage.

 

[tristero]

[MENTION=118321]Jetboy[/MENTION]

Had a similar issue today. 4WD and 4LO lights were blinking and didn't engage. No issues with the transfer case shifting just like you stated. I tried 4Hi, pulled over shifted to N and tried 4LO, no dice. I pulled over turned it off and back on and it engaged with no issue, like it never happened, like [MENTION=45721]adam2562[/MENTION] stated. Transferring back to 2WD there was a small jolt. Ran 4HI again and back to 2WD no more jolt. Just kind of strange.