2001 Toyota 4 runner, bought used, only issue the vsc and service engine lights occasionally come on
No indications of impending doom. Driving to work this morning, ( like every morning) Cruise control (71 mph) accelerated to move around a slower vehicle, high pitch whine and loss of forward propulsion, it quickly stopped proceeded on another 1/10 the of a mile, this time not in acceleration, high pitched whine, loss of drive, coasted to a rest stop. Started trouble shooting. The the entire gear shift range high pitch kind of grindy sound and no propulsion. Maybe an axle? Tried 4wd and ah ha! Movement reverse, but when I shifted to drive heard a full thunkh and the back to the "noise" and nothing. Continued to work with it, if I put the trans in N, and ground the transfer case shifter into high, the shifted the transmission into either R or D, it would move. I didn't attempt to drive it over distance.i did find with the truck on a slight incline, wether in 2or 4 WD truck would roll. So my question tranny or transfer?

 

Did you ever have codes scanned to figure out what the computer thought was going on?

did you puke fluids? If so, what color were they?

have you checked the fluids? Do they show any signs of contamination? Metal shavings? Pink milkshake?

its tough to give diagnostics on just a sound.

 

Fluids good just had it towed home, fixin to go out and like around some more