tcoldgoat

Before i go to pick up my 98 4runner tomorrow I thought I'd solicit comments on what's happened and the dealer's service

3+ weeks ago after coming hoe from a slippy day on the road - during which the awd on my 98 ltd worked fine I dis-engaged it before I shut down for the night.
Next morning it would not engage.

Instead of diagnosing the thing myself I took it to the local dealer to at least find out what was wrong - mistake 1

2 days later the dealer says that after 5.5 hours work they had it down to a bad dif ecm and says they would cut the labor down by 2-3 hours and install a new ecm

and I said - ok what the heck

several days later i finally get a return call back saying that the ecm was in but the actuator was bad having obviously failed at the same time as the ecm - BUT they had a handle on a used xfer case and an actuator they could install for onlly 6-700 more.

not fine, but in for a penny

then - after they had sourced the wrong damn xfer case and them getting a decent one it. ...... it would not engage

enter their senior tech - and his diagnosis that the new ecm was bad - resulting in them exchanging it for another and finally they report that everything is working.

questions from the north

1. how long should the initial diagnosis have taken - 5.5 hours seems like a lot

2 is there any reason to believe that they needed to replace the xfer and actuator in addition to the ecm?

any thoughts are vastly appreciated

tcoldgoat

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

How many miles ??

Since this is the AWD system depending what part of the world almost 20 years old

In this day if they can`t plug as magic box into the vehicle to tell them what is wrong they can be quite lost.

Possible none but the lead tech have seen this system

Then if this is a Flat rate shop who can say how they bill labor

I run into this type of thing all the time one defective part needs replaced to trouble shoot the rest

As to if the parts were bad only the person doing the trouble shooting can tell.

It would be nice to know just what failed in the case that could not be fixed same with actuator .

Might be the case of age and miles they decided just to replace those parts

Just second guessing

Malcolm99

I would ask for the old t-case and actuators back as they are in perfect working condition from the sounds of it, sounds like a Canadian toyota dealer, I have found toyota canada useless at best on a good day. Not sure why they would change the entire t-case, but it would have been cheaper to buy a used t-case with actuators then a new actuator from toyota, but I would question the Km's on the replacement. It has been extremely cold here this year -31*C today, and I have had my AWD hang up the odd time if I haven't used it in awhile, solution was to actuate AWD, 4x4, 4L and diff lock every month or 2 as per your owners manual, did you try it a few times at different speeds to see if warming up the t-case would help it, could have been frozen condensation in the actuator, especially if your driving habits are short drives. I would be pretty upset if they pulled my t-case to show a co-op student what a 4runner t-case looks like.

KZN185W

iTrader: (1)

I thought AWD in a 4Runner came out in 1999 and later models only?

Jomoka

Sounds like they fired the parts cannon at it.

Replaced part A, still broken. Replace part B, still broken. Replace part C, hey it works. Now charge the customer for all three parts.

fierohink

Now without being there or driving the vehicle myself, I can't say for certain, only from my own experiences and biases. It sounds like you got taken for a ride.

There is a VERY extensive tread on here about the blinking lights of a limiteds 4wd system. I recently troubleshot many layers of malfunction in my own '99 LTD and got everything working. The problem is that Toyota doesn't have a solid troubleshooting flowchart for this particular issue, faulty AWD M/M shifting. There are 4-6 position sensors that can fail, there is a vacuum actuator on the front diff, 2 VSS, an electric actuator on the rear diff if you have the locker option, and an electric actuator on the transfer case for the shift on the fly. If any of the sensors don't give the right answer for the question that the 4wd ECU asks, the whole system stops working.

There have been numerous cases of dealerships changing the transfer case actuator, at $1800 in parts plus labor, only to still have the issue. And most times the issue is resolved by replacing 1 of the $20 position sensors.

Scan thru this thread:
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/4...er-ltd-131201/
if you want. It has A LOT of information about how these things work. I also have the wiring diagrams for the '98 4Runner if you want to PM me with an email address.

I would read up, educate yourself, and then go back to the dealer and raise hell. Plus get ALL of your used parts back.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

how do you take an AWD out of AWD? every AWD i have had was fulltime AWD,
I think you mean to say 4WD
I could be way off though

this sounds right to me
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