PoconoJack

First off. 4x4 light... It seems to stay on even when not in 4wheel drive. Anyone have any ideas on that.

Second I am pretty sure the head gasket it gone. I called the dealer and they told me that all warrentee items where done for this car. Also in the glove box there is the paper work for a rebuilt engine install about 60,000 miles 8 years ago. Should I go full out rebuild or just try to swap out the HG?

Third. Will a broken ebrake cable cause the brake light to stay on?

Thanks in advance.

82yota

Well if the motor only has 60000 on it I would say just change the headgasket if it ran fine before. And for the Ebrake it could cause the light to stay on if the handle is not pushed in all the way. There is a little pushbutton switch on the back of where the handle pushes in and turns that light on if the brake is pulled. I don't know what to say for 4wd other than ask if it is really in 4wd or if the light is just on.

KevinInSac

Sometimes the truck doesn't like to come out of 4wd. I am going to assume you don't have manual hubs right now. With the ADD, it sometimes take a little fluttering of the throttle to get it to come out. And keep the speeds lower when you're trying to get it out <30.

gabrielthetacoma

1. Kevininsac is right but try going in reverse and then forward but it could just be that the sensor is going out. My fuel light and ebrake light stay on almost all the time.

2. Depending on how much money you bought it for i would return the damn thing especially if it has a rebuilt motor in it. Obviously you dont know what kind of abuse that truck has gone through and if the previous owner did something that bad to it that they had to replace the motor then i can almost gaurantee that youre going to see more problems in the future... bad ones.

3. Are you talking about you dash light or your actual brake light? The ebrake isnt even connected to your brake light, so you might have another problem on your hands. If its your dash light, like i said before its probably a bad sensor, if the cable is broken then the light would never come on.

CJM

If the brake light is on check your fluid, its very picky and needs to be overfull on mine for it to shut off.

ovrrdrive

Unless you're doing the work yourself, if it has blown head gaskets it isn't worth it to just do new gaskets, do a new engine. I've heard stories of HG replacement running close to $2k at a shop, and then you still run the risk of something letting loose in the bottom end. Head gaskets will be a no warranty job, at least if you have a rebuild you'll have some kind of warranty.


I look at it like this, if the hg's let go after 60k, they either didn't build it right or used parts so cheap that it just blew. What do you think the bottom end looks like if the top end did that?

KevinInSac

He may want to have the mechanic do that. It's kind of a technical job...

PoconoJack

Thanks for all of the help guys.

First off the 4WD light. Hubs are unlocked and transfer case is definitely in 2 Wheel high. However the light is still on. I will give it a try with the back and forth trick.

The brake light was a mystery fix. I looked in the reservoir and closed it up without doing anything else and the light went out.

As far as the head gasket goes:

Great point on that. You just scared me out of just HG replacement. Looks like I will be swapping in something else or pulling it for a full rebuild.