I am a fairly new owner of a 91 4runner with an automatic. Since the weather started to get a little colder here in S. Vermont, I have been experiencing a problem that occurs randomly if I don't warm up the car before starting off. The problem is that without touching the 4WD lever, the transfer case is in Low Range right from when I start off. I can tell that the main transmission is doing its thing as I did get it to shift through all 4 gears once to verify the main transmission was working. Of course being in low range, I topped out at 35-50 miles per hour.

The most effective and reliable way that I have found to get the transfer case back into high range (again without touching the 4WD Lever) is to back up a good distance during which, I can feel the Xfer case shift.

I am pretty new to 4runners so I am hoping that someone may be able to give some input on this problem

Thanks in advance!- Jeff

 

On the automatics, the tcase is basically another 2 speed automatic transmission siamesed on the back. It shares the same fluid, etc.

My guess is the transmission fluid has never been changed and is bad. I always change EVERY fluid when buying a used vehicle just to be sure.