Stuck in 4lo, center diff light flashing

[TroutRunner]

Hello,

Got a similar problem as in this thread: https://forum.ih8mud.com/200-series-cruisers/303134-my-lc-200-stuck-4lo.html

Had a dead factory original battery this week, replaced it with Toyota one this afternoon. Car fired up, drove great. Went out to eat and came home.

Was showing my wife how it has a center diff lock and hit the button in 4hi. It just flashed and I wondered if it needed to be in low. Stopped on my gravel drive, N, then turned to 4lo. It switched to 4lo and the diff light quit blinking. Drove forward a bit more turned off center diff, it flashed and never quit flashing. Went to neutral, shifted to 4hi, 4lo light went out but truck stayed in low.

Read manual about water temp being cold? Tried manual operation to get to true neutral but didn't work with diff lock light flashing.

Pulled battery terminals multiple times to reset everything, no change. Pulled fuses related to vsc, 4wd etc. Drove in reverse, circles, backwards, forwards...i don't think the center is locked just flashing.

Summary: stuck in 4lo with the dash light for 4lo off. Center diff light flashing and button causes no change. 4lo to 4h causes nothing, no beep, nada, zip...

Any ideas? I'll hope for afternoon warm weather tomorrow.

TR

 

[Billfish]

Try rolling forward (downhill) gently in neutral and try selecting 4Hi. Centre diff lock seems to only disengage once in neutral and braked/stopped. Can be a PITA I know. Good luck.

 

[TroutRunner]

Well...let it sit over night. Turned it on this am in 9 degree F weather and the center diff flashing was gone and off. 4lo was lit, backed it out and put it in 4hi. All is good with the world again.

Crazy.

 

[amitbh234]

Having this exact issue. Not sure what to do unfortunately. Tried to cycle forward and backward multiple restarts and battery terminal removal and reinstallion. CDF still blinking and car won’t go back to 4HI. 4LO light is not on but I can feel the car is on low gear. Do think the diff is engaged because I feel no binding during turns and since the light is still blinking.

Hoping I get lucky like you by letting the car sit overnight. Otherwise contemplating driving to my transmission shop tomorrow night on 4LO and having them take a look.

Been reading the forum and sounds like some folks have had luck by heating up the transfer case and plastic actuator housing and hitting it with a mallet. Other’s have replaced the actuator motor assembly without taking down the whole transfer case. Either way I’m very nervous and not sure what to do.

Any feedback or guidance appreciated.

 

[TTO5]

You won't feel binding when turning with the transfer case unlocked. That's the beauty of our cars. You can put it in low range and turn as tight as you want on asphalt and not bind anything. Very helpful for me as I have to go up a curb with my boat trailer when backing it up to put in my side yard. Hope that helps you.

 

[amitbh234]

Tried starting up this morning and the CSD is still flashing and car is still truck in 4LO. Not sure what to do. Should I take it to a transmission shop that flushed my trans fluid recently or try to mess with the actuator subassembly running the risk of messing up the internal components and timing.

Saw a great thread from @TeCKis300 about taking the sub components of the actuator assembly off and cleaning but am not confident because I haven’t worked on 4WD systems before. I’m pretty handy and try to do most jobs like oil changes and brake jobs myself but this would be new territory.

There was another person that said putting a heat lamp to soften up internal grease and hitting the actuator with a rubber mallet helped but per the thread the diff actuator is on top and nestled between the trans so I doubt a heat lamp would heat it up sufficiently.

 

[TeCKis300]

Seem like it's in an error state it can't switch out of. This may take some finagling.

I would drive the car just a little bit to warm things up. Pull the battery for a few minutes. Make sure the transfer case is switched to 4hi. Put the battery on and restart.

 

[amitbh234]

How can I switch to 4HI after disconnecting the battery? I thought since the ac is electronic the car would need to be on and in neutral gear to initiate a change to 4HI. Honestly I’d love to just be able to take the car to 4HI even if the cdf is flashing.

 

[TeCKis300]

How can I switch to 4HI after disconnecting the battery? I thought since the ac is electronic the car would need to be on and in neutral gear to initiate a change to 4HI. Honestly I’d love to just be able to take the car to 4HI even if the cdf is flashing.

That's the point. Right now it's in an error state and won't/can't switch back to 4Hi. By pulling the battery and switching it, the next time the system comes on, it'll have to re-initialize differently and possibly get you back into 4Hi.

 

[amitbh234]

I was able to fix my issue but I don’t think I fixed it permanently. I’m afraid to engage the diff again. Any feedback on whether I should try to engage it again after transfer case is sufficiently warm or if I should do R&R/tune up the actuator is welcome. For now I’m assuming my diff actuator is not going to work. Can anyone confirm the part number of the actuator assembly for a 2008 Land Cruiser Petrol V8? I tried to find some the actuator sub-assembly but there are a few part numbers that popped up.


For future reference in case this helps anyone else out I was able to fix it by doing the following:

1. Take off the heat shield from the transfer case skid plate that protects the actuator assembly. Could have taken the whole skid plate off but I was doing work without jacking up the car so heat shield removal was enough.
2. Point a space heater at the actuator assembly for ~2 hours
3. Take a heat gun and heat up the differential actuator assembly which is the top part.
4. Gently banged the actuator assembly with a rubber mallet.
5. Turn the car on.

CDC blinking went away and car recognized that it was on 4LO. I then drove out of the garage and turned it back to 4HI and let the engine warm up for a few.

Upon reading the forums extensively (no joke I was probably on this forum for 5 hrs combined) I found out that my issue was most likely because of some actuator test that the ECU runs that was not completing. Most people who have fast flashing CDF light goes away after the car is very warm. Since I was stuck on 4LO it was tough for me to warm up the transfer case sufficiently even though I tried. I tried to recreate warming up the actuator assembly to loosen up caked on grease and shock the system to get connections that were otherwise not happening due to corrosion or lack of enough current.

 

[TeCKis300]

I was able to fix my issue but I don’t think I fixed it permanently. I’m afraid to engage the diff again. Any feedback on whether I should try to engage it again after transfer case is sufficiently warm or if I should do R&R/tune up the actuator is welcome. For now I’m assuming my diff actuator is not going to work. Can anyone confirm the part number of the actuator assembly for a 2008 Land Cruiser Petrol V8? I tried to find some the actuator sub-assembly but there are a few part numbers that popped up.


For future reference in case this helps anyone else out I was able to fix it by doing the following:

1. Take off the heat shield from the transfer case skid plate that protects the actuator assembly. Could have taken the whole skid plate off but I was doing work without jacking up the car so heat shield removal was enough.
2. Point a space heater at the actuator assembly for ~2 hours
3. Take a heat gun and heat up the differential actuator assembly which is the top part.
4. Gently banged the actuator assembly with a rubber mallet.
5. Turn the car on.

CDC blinking went away and car recognized that it was on 4LO. I then drove out of the garage and turned it back to 4HI and let the engine warm up for a few.

Upon reading the forums extensively (no joke I was probably on this forum for 5 hrs combined) I found out that my issue was most likely because of some actuator test that the ECU runs that was not completing. Most people who have fast flashing CDF light goes away after the car is very warm. Since I was stuck on 4LO it was tough for me to warm up the transfer case sufficiently even though I tried. I tried to recreate warming up the actuator assembly to loosen up caked on grease and shock the system to get connections that were otherwise not happening due to corrosion or lack of enough current.

The risk is not zero, but it is a use it or lose it situation. I'd encourage you to work through it and it should get better with each actuation.