I own a 91 Toyota 4runner and recently I have some weird gear shifting problem. Sometimes when I start the car and shift the Gear to either H2 or H4 the car does not move at all, when I shift the gear to 4 Low, then the car moves in all gear positions (1,2,D and R). Usually, after a while the gear starts to work as usual and I get the normal gear behavior. This strange behavior may occur once a day, and then after few days disappears for some time (week or two) and then comes back. I put the car at the service, they told me that everything just fine, but after I took it back, again I had this situation. If anyone had this problem before, please let me know what to do, I don't know if it is electrical or mechanical problem, I have no error code, so I assume that it has nothing to do with the ECU, but I'm not sure. I think that the gear model is A340H.
sometimes water will get into places and cause problems like this. So if you've been into a lot of water during the summer with off-road driving, it might be that the water is freezing on cold mornings and when the weather is warmer you don't have the problem.. You didn't say if it's only on freezing mornings or where you live.. so this is just a possibility... but think about where / when / temperature etc, when it fails
Thanks for the reply. It happened again twice. It may happen in any hour of the day, but always only when I start the car. Sorry I didn't mention that, but I leave in Israel and it is never get so cold.
I went to an automatic gear service, the person there did not even bother to check the car, the only thing he said: "You have to rebuild the whole gear, it will cost you 9500 Shekels (around 2000 US $)." This is a lot of money for 91 Toyota 4runner. A friend of mind told me to sell the car, but I don't want to cheat and to pass the problem to someone else, so again, any idea?
A lot of transmission shops will just say "Rebuild the whole thing" without checking - does the word "goniff" mean anything to you? ;-) (For all you people out there going "huh?", that's Yiddish for "crook".)
The less-than-honest shop will swap your trans out for a "rebuilt transmission and transfer case", take yours open on the workbench and fix the one or two little problems it had, and stick it on the shelf to use for the next sucker that comes in. Or they'll just fix the little problem in yours and slap it back in.
Sounds to me like something is wrong in your transfer case, or the control linkages or solenoids for shifting the transfer case between ranges. That's the gearbox that handles the Low-range gear reduction and shifts in the front driveshaft. It is bolted to the tail end of the transmission, but it's a separate gearbox.
(Some of the fancier ones I've seen have small electric motors and geartrains, or vacuum cylinders that shift them between ranges "electronically" and if one of those motors or actuator diaphragms packs it in, weirdness will happen.)
The transmission is right behind the engine - and if the trans is having problems engaging in any forward gears, sticking the car's transfer case in 4-LO should have no effect on the transmission.
The transmission should have a lockout to keep it from engaging the Overdrive gear (go to 3rd and stop) until the engine gets about halfway warmed up, but that shouldn't have any affect on anything else. And should work the same regardless of the transfer case gear selected.
Unless one of the Toyota Master Techs on the board says otherwise, the first place to start looking is in the transfer case - find a local mechanic who has experience working on them, and it should cost you a whole lot less than a full transmission rebuild...
Starting with the first step, which is taking the Toyota Factory Service Manual (NOT the Chilton or Haynes) and you (or your mechanic) working your way through the diagnostic tree page for the transmission and transfer case - the answer will be staring you in the face when you get to it. (Like it had a Neon Sign blinking "Problem ---> ") ;-)
The factory manuals are expensive, but the money you will save on diagnosing and fixing the transmission trouble alone will easily pay for a brand new copy of the Factory Service Manual. You'll thank me later.
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