Help! I Don't Know How To Use My 4wd!

[red913]

Ok I am interested in going off roading, did some research and finally settled with a used 01 tacoma 4wd with the 4cylinder. manual of course. But i know nothing about my 4WD system. nothing at all. I don't even know how to engage it, it never seems to want to go into gear. what is with the cluth start/stop button as well? Once in 4wd do i use the normal transmission to shift with? PLEASE HELP ME I"M REALLY DUMB WITH THIS!!!

[Tercel GTS]

Stop by any garage and ask them to show you hands on with your truck so you'll know. Reading the owners manual would be a good thing too. I'd find a few others in your class of truck that go off roading together, Alone is a bad thing.

[red913]

don't have the owners manual, didn't come with the truck. I'm very knowlegable about almost all things automotive, excpet this. So i hope you can understand why that would be too embaressing to ask in person. I'd feel like a chic.

[toto]

To get a replacement Owner's Manual or to get a Service Manual, visit your Toyota dealer or call their Material Distribution Center directly at 800-622-2033 between 7:00 AM and 5:00 PM Pacific Time.

Alternatively, you can access it online at the Toyota Technical Information (TIS) Web site. The Web site costs $10 to access for one calendar day (ending at midnight PST), $50 for a month, and so on. However, the site has a ton of info including the Owner's Manual, Repair Manual, and Technical Service Information Bulletins (TSIB's). It's all in PDF format so you can download it. The catch - the manuals are chopped into lots of PDF's that are a couple of pages long. It's real easy to use online, but it's time consuming to download entire books. The Owner's manual is about 25 PDF files, so that's reasonable to download and save the entire thing. The Service Manual is huge, so you'll never get it all. Still, you could come back to the site 10 or 20 times before you've paid for a paper copy of the Service Manual.
The TIS site is http://techinfo.toyota.com.

[Mike-in-WV]

Just go to Ebay and you will have no problem finding a factory owners manual for your truck, Cheap!

[2tacomas]

Check out this thread http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/t58796.html I explained how to use 4wd for another member a while back.

[ElmerFudd]

Doesn't it work any different in the new tacoma vs. the older pickups?

[Rycam]

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/four-wheel-drive.htm

[Rycam]

Geez, I live in stone-age so the major thing I would heed is: NEVER USE THE FOUR WHEEL DRIVE SYSTEM ON HARD PAVEMENT. The reason is that the transfercase does noes NOT "differentiate" the stresses between the front axles and the rear axles.

If you want to start "playing" with the 4x4 parts of your truck...do it on dirt, snow, or slippery terrain. That way, the torque and wheel slip won't bind up the driveline. Since a regular differential in 99.99 percent of vehicles, even your own truck in 2WD allows one wheel to turn the outside wheel to travel faster in a turn, the stresses are relieved inside the differential in a way they aren't in a transfer case*.




*unless the the transfer case is the special Torsen equipped transfer case in the newest FOUR RUNNER.

[Knailgun]

stop by the dealer and have a mech show you have to engage it...I was kinda naive when I got mine too. But hey...I love my locking hubs and push button possi