Confirmed: 4lo Actuator Stuck - Advice needed (1 Viewer)

[cphibs]

Well… my 2011 lx 570 4lo actuator is stuck in the locked position. My trusted technician did everything he could to try to disengage 4lo with no luck. He is referring me to a transmission specialist to further investigate. What are my options here? Is there an opportunity here to save some money on labor and regear properly for 35”s? Truck only has 110k miles and plan to have it well into the deep 200k but don’t want this issue to arise again - is there any upgrades to beef up the components to help avoid this issue in the future? Thanks

Edit: long story not so short. Turned the truck on one morning to go to work. This morning was after a cold front. When truck turned on CDL was flashing. Everything felt fine so drove truck 4 miles to work. Turned truck off and back on at work. No more CDL flashing light!! My bright ass thought “let’s check everything to make sure it’s functioning.” Put truck in neutral and switched to 4lo and heard it lock up like it has done dozens of times in the past. Once it engaged the CDL started flashing while 4lo light was illuminated. Tried to switch back to 4hi and no luck. Turned truck on and off and went thru the procedures. Got the 4lo light to turn off, but CDL was still flashing, went to put in gear and truck is definitely still stuck in 4lo even tho the light is not illuminated. At this point I tried disconnecting battery and no luck. Wasn’t going to drive it on pavement so called tow truck. Trusted shop who has serviced my family’s LX’s for close to 500k miles over the last 2 decades has confirmed the 4lo actuator is in fact locked in position. Am being told the only fix is to dive into the transfer case to further investigate…

 

[grinchy]

have you tried turning off the truck, switching to 4hi, and restarting the truck?
after that,
try reversing and going forward, and then try again with the starting in 4hi.
after that,
try again, switching to N, the 4 lo, drive a bit. then N and 4 hi. If it stays in lo, power cycle and keep repeating, throw in some forward and back too.
do you hear the relay switching in the glove box area?

 

[cphibs]

have you tried turning off the truck, switching to 4hi, and restarting the truck?
after that,
try reversing and going forward, and then try again with the starting in 4hi.
after that,
try again, switching to N, the 4 lo, drive a bit. then N and 4 hi. If it stays in lo, power cycle and keep repeating, throw in some forward and back too.
do you hear the relay switching in the glove box area?

I unfortunately tried all those before having it towed to my shop. Technician even tried to manually tapping the actuator to see if it would budge. Editing original post to describe what happened.

 

[CSteppe82]

Transfer Case Tuneup and Fix

Transfer case actuator issues are not uncommon on the 200-series. Not much documented solutions other than exercising the mechanisms regularly. Here's my attempt to provide more information on where and what the actuator is, how to service the transfer case actuator motor, and potentially...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[GordJ]

have you tried turning off the truck, switching to 4hi, and restarting the truck?
after that,
try reversing and going forward, and then try again with the starting in 4hi.
after that,
try again, switching to N, the 4 lo, drive a bit. then N and 4 hi. If it stays in lo, power cycle and keep repeating, throw in some forward and back too.
do you hear the relay switching in the glove box area?

I have had success after everything grinchy said by starting in N and not P.

 

[grinchy]

Wasn’t going to drive it on pavement so called tow truck.

You can drive 4lo on pavement, it's just slower. It's the center diff locked that shouldn't be driven on (dry) pavement.

 

[kcjaz]

Not much to add here other than turning the steering left and right while while moving forward has worked for me with the CDL. On my Taco its almost every time I hit the CDL, it won't go in until I go left and right a little bit.

 

[Sandroad]

How about heat? Get an electric heater pointed at the transfer case and get it hot. Let it heat soak for a couple hours to make sure it’s internally hot, then try the antics again (meant in a good way) posted above.

 

[cphibs]

have you tried turning off the truck, switching to 4hi, and restarting the truck?
after that,
try reversing and going forward, and then try again with the starting in 4hi.
after that,
try again, switching to N, the 4 lo, drive a bit. then N and 4 hi. If it stays in lo, power cycle and keep repeating, throw in some forward and back too.
do you hear the relay switching in the glove box area?

Update: I drove out to the shop after hours and played around with the truck myself. I retried all of the above and still was stuck in 4lo and CDL flashing. I then proceeded to let the truck creep forward in drive (without throttle) and then slammed the brakes hard and did the same in reverse. Put the truck neutral and was able to get into 4hi. CDL still won’t engage and light flashing. Drove the truck about 200 yards down the road to confirm 4hi. Turned off and turned back on and was able to lock/ unlock CDL and switch 4lo-4hi multiple times with success. Gonna get out on the trail this weekend and see what happens. Thanks for the input!

 

[PDoyle]

When was the last time you cleaned your battery connections?

 

[cphibs]

When was the last time you cleaned your battery connections?

Battery is relatively new and I just recently installed auxbeam relay and didn’t see any signs of corrosion.

 

[TeCKis300]

Update: I drove out to the shop after hours and played around with the truck myself. I retried all of the above and still was stuck in 4lo and CDL flashing. I then proceeded to let the truck creep forward in drive (without throttle) and then slammed the brakes hard and did the same in reverse. Put the truck neutral and was able to get into 4hi. CDL still won’t engage and light flashing. Drove the truck about 200 yards down the road to confirm 4hi. Turned off and turned back on and was able to lock/ unlock CDL and switch 4lo-4hi multiple times with success. Gonna get out on the trail this weekend and see what happens. Thanks for the input!

Great to hear you got it working! Couldn't imagine how frustrating that was.

Keep exercising the mechanism. At some point, you may decide to dig in and R&R the actuator per the link shared above. It's a common issue with these cruisers. Actually with all the Toyota 4x4s. What good is a 4x4 if it can't use its core off-roading functions with confidence. That was the last straw for me when off-road and having to mess with the actuator several times, stoping and starting the truck, while my wheeling friends were waiting and ribbing to hear of a potential chink in the cruisers armor. Or having to go 15 miles while stuck in low range out in Death Valley, which fortunately was the gear I needed for a particular shelf road.

It's been 2 years now since my fix. Not one flashing CEL over winter morning. Confident switching. Just as important, it's fast switching again. Knowing I won't get caught in a compromising situation and not having these functions at hand is priceless.

 

[cphibs]

Great to hear you got it working! Couldn't imagine how frustrating that was.

Keep exercising the mechanism. At some point, you may decide to dig in and R&R the actuator per the link shared above. It's a common issue with these cruisers. Actually with all the Toyota 4x4s. What good is a 4x4 if it can't use its core off-roading functions with confidence. That was the last straw for me when off-road and having to mess with the actuator several times, stoping and starting the truck, while my wheeling friends were waiting and ribbing to hear of a potential chink in the cruisers armor. Or having to go 15 miles while stuck in low range out in Death Valley, which fortunately was the gear I needed for a particular shelf road.

It's been 2 years now since my fix. Not one flashing CEL over winter morning. Confident switching. Just as important, it's fast switching again. Knowing I won't get caught in a compromising situation and not having these functions at hand is priceless.

1 million percent going to tend to the actuator and give it a little TLC. I actually sifted through that exact post of yours before making this thread. Unfortunately, I am not versed enough (yet) and don’t have all the right tools (yet) to tune and clean up the actuator myself. I need that confidence that it will work when I need it to.