Advice Please! - Diff Lock button blinking!

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N

NC2COCruiser

Joined
Nov 17, 2016
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9
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31
Location
North Carolina
So,

Got a 2009 LC a couple weeks ago, and I was playing around with some of the features, and pushed the center diff lock button to see if it would engage, and it started blinking, and will not stop. Ive put it in reverse, neutral, driven forward, etc. and it will not stop blinking. I even turned off, and restarted the car to no avail.

I just want to get it to stop blinking at this point, and will spend some time working on it and making sure it will engage when I am not in the office.

Any help as to how to get this to turn off would be appreciated.

thanks guys.
 
This sounds like the differential lock probably has not been engaged in some time and is stuck between limit switches. I would take it out to a dirt road and do "S" turns until it either locks, or fully disengages.

If the diff never locked up, you could also try pulling to battery cable (pos) off for a few minutes and then reattaching to see if the indication goes away. Just a thought...
 
NC2COCruiser said:
So,

Got a 2009 LC a couple weeks ago, and I was playing around with some of the features, and pushed the center diff lock button to see if it would engage, and it started blinking, and will not stop. Ive put it in reverse, neutral, driven forward, etc. and it will not stop blinking. I even turned off, and restarted the car to no avail.

I just want to get it to stop blinking at this point, and will spend some time working on it and making sure it will engage when I am not in the office.

Any help as to how to get this to turn off would be appreciated.

thanks guys.
Click to expand...

My experience:

My light would flash when cold in the morning. After the transfer case warmed up, shutting the vehicle off and on would clear it. One day after it warmed up I tried to engage 4Lo to see if I could actually get the CDL to lock and unlock. Once I did that it got stuck in 4Lo. Shutting the vehicle off and restarting it eventually let me shift back to 4Hi, at which point the light cleared and hasn't come back. I've since taken it just out to the gravel alley and engaged and disengaged 4Lo and the CDL and it's been working fine since.

Put it in 4Lo, drive forward, try to re-engage it. If it still blinks, shift back to 4Hi. If it won't disengage from 4Lo (which happened to me), shut the vehicle off and turn it back on. When you restart, try 4Hi again. I would also try to disconnect the battery if it won't stop blinking.

Failing all of that, it's either a bad transfer position switch or a bad center diff actuator. The former is relatively cheap and easy; the latter requires opening up the transfer case...
 
Thank you both for your advice! I went out to the car this afternoon and when I started it up, the Diff light was no longer blinking on the dash. Im 99% sure the man who owned it before me never had used it before, so i will be sure to get to some dirt/gravel and use your techniques to make sure i can get it engaged. Much appreciated!
 
Was the owner's manual supplied with the truck? That might be a good place to start. It will provide the steps and their proper sequence for engaging the diff locks...
 
eman375 said:
Was the owner's manual supplied with the truck? That might be a good place to start. It will provide the steps and their proper sequence for engaging the diff locks...
Click to expand...

If you do not have the manual,
I'll shoot some images of it for you,
as it's actually a bit more specific a sequence than one might expect.

Also...be advised that many of us experience the blinking diff lock light gremlin in our fully operational 200's, so don't be too alarmed yet. ;)

Finally... Congrats! You're gonna a love your rig!

Markuson
 
I also have the occasional blinking diff lock light in my '08. Yesterday, I had to do a restart to get it to quit. All seems well now.
 
Rigger said:
I also have the occasional blinking diff lock light in my '08. Yesterday, I had to do a restart to get it to quit. All seems well now.
Click to expand...
I was getting that, and mine seems to have gone away after I engaged 4Lo and locked the center diff.
 
linuxgod said:
I was getting that, and mine seems to have gone away after I engaged 4Lo and locked the center diff.
Click to expand...

My strong impression from both my 100 and my 2008 is that this happens a LOT when they haven't been engaged much from previous owners. When I first bought my 2008 two years ago, it was so perfect that I can't imagine the original owner EVER engaged it, much less took it off road. I saw it twice early on after buying it, but I have not seen it since. I suspect it's because I have used it frequently. Hard to know the degree of causation to attribute there, but there seems to at least be correlation. Exact same experience when I bought my 3 year old 1999 100 series, though that had more to do with the rear e-locker. 100's have a manual Hi-Lo shift lever, where the 200 is an electrical switch only.
 
Markuson said:
My strong impression from both my 100 and my 2008 is that this happens a LOT when they haven't been engaged much from previous owners. When I first bought my 2008 two years ago, it was so perfect that I can't imagine the original owner EVER engaged it, much less took it off road. I saw it twice early on after buying it, but I have not seen it since. I suspect it's because I have used it frequently. Hard to know the degree of causation to attribute there, but there seems to at least be correlation. Exact same experience when I bought my 3 year old 1999 100 series, though that had more to do with the rear e-locker. 100's have a manual Hi-Lo shift lever, where the 200 is an electrical switch only.
Click to expand...
 
After receiving four inches of snow (that's weatherman measure; my ruler says 1/8") here in Charlotte from the world ending snowstorm of the century, I decided to check out my tires, and , just for laughs, the transfer case.

Center diff indicator blinks, no lock. No measurable difference in Hi/Lo. I suspect the transfer case didn't shift.

Nothing changes the blinker; cycled ignition on/off, drove forwards/backwards, S-turns, nothing worked. (My manual is worthless; I guess they never expected Lexus owners to use half the stuff they put on the cars) I'm going out to an icy parking lot to try some figure skating. More to follow.
 
Malleus said:
After receiving four inches of snow (that's weatherman measure; my ruler says 1/8") here in Charlotte from the world ending snowstorm of the century, I decided to check out my tires, and , just for laughs, the transfer case.

Center diff indicator blinks, no lock. No measurable difference in Hi/Lo. I suspect the transfer case didn't shift.

Nothing changes the blinker; cycled ignition on/off, drove forwards/backwards, S-turns, nothing worked. (My manual is worthless; I guess they never expected Lexus owners to use half the stuff they put on the cars) I'm going out to an icy parking lot to try some figure skating. More to follow.
Click to expand...

You switched to 4Lo while in neutral, right?
 
Markuson said:
You switched to 4Lo while in neutral, right?
Click to expand...
Yep. No joy.

Looks like I have to wait for the undercarriage to dry so I can get under there and check things out.
 
Short update:

Made sure the engine temp was up, drove a couple of miles to warm everything up. No change in xfer case ops.

Disconnected the battery. This resulted in nothing more than a cleaner battery terminal (which wasn't all bad, but didn't help the stated problem).

Did finally get the 4Lo switch to engage/disengage, but not repeatably. Diff lock indicator still only blinks.
 
Many, many thanks to hankinid on ClubLexus forums for this post:

Quote:

Originally Posted by gfcipriani

Reviving an old post. OP, did you find the downloadable manual?
Yet another necro thread...OP on this one posted 3 times here, latest was early last August.

On topic, Toyota stopped publishing service manuals after the 2010 MY year. Any leftovers are available through Helm Inc., the publisher. Website is helminc.com. Helm has the Electrical Wiring Diagram (EWD) book available, $280 and definitely worth it if you've got electrical mods or troubleshooting that need doing.

I would find a copy of the Toyota Information System (what used to be called "Techstream"), install it on a laptop and use the appropriate cable between your truck's OBDII port and the computer. The program itself is along the lines of this... http://moranbahweather.com/toyota/index2.html

I'd check Ebay and Amazon. More info in the 200-series section on ih8mud.com.

Really excellent resource. As soon as the dripping stops from the undercarriage, I'll have to crawl under there with the multimeter and get busy.
 
Quick update:
After the conclusion of the recent ice age, the diff lock and xfer case shifting are as per expectations. I'll mark it down to lack of use. If the cold (it was 28° here yesterday, 20° Sunday) keeps it from shifting properly, I am preparing to be disappointed. I'm replacing the diff gear oil (x3) just for laughs.

May flush and replace again with Amsoil 75W90 when it truly warms up.
 
I've operated mine in cold weather plenty of times, never affected shifting at all. I think yours just needs to be used more:D
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