4WD won’t disengage, VSC OFF light on

Hey all,

last night I was leaving a family gathering and I took a right out of the neighborhood going about 10-15 miles per hour. I heard a loud almost crack type of sound come from the right wheel well.
I got out to take a look and visually nothing seemed wrong, but I did notice that it appears that the CV axle bolt somehow had a small tear in it and that flung grease everywhere. Besides that everything visually seemed fine.
I got back in the truck and I noticed that 4WD had engaged on its own and the VSC OFF light turned on. The truck refuses to switch to 2WD or 4WD low.
Anyone have any idea what could have broke?

 

The loud clunk was probably 4wd engaging. Did someone accidentally engage 4wd thinking they were turning on the heater?

Turn the knob to 4H, put the truck in reverse and back up a bit, stop and shift to 2H then drive forward. If it doesn't disengage put it in reverse and work the steering wheel slightly from right to left as you back up until it lets loose.

If that doesn't work you are going to have to pull the actuator and manually shift it out of 4H.

 

A torn boot isn’t the end of the world.
I’d focus on getting the truck out of 4WD.

It engaged 4WD on its own?
The switch was in 2WD and somehow the truck went into 4WD?
That’s unusual, you might get lucky by w
Switching to 4WD then back to 2WD. Then turn the truck OFF.
This won’t fix what caused the problem. But if you are luck get you back into 2WD.

You really need to see where the problem is
Start here with check the 4WD ECU in 2WD.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/4wd-system-operation-help-thread.742420/

 

That might work. But if the truck is being commander to be in 4WD, it will just go back into 4WD.
A temporary fix would be to do as you said, then leave the actuator unplugged. This would be my “get me home” temporary fix.

 

Yeah, I'm going on the assumption that 4wd was engaged on accident and that's the clunk he heard. I don't recall ever seeing anyone post here about 4H engaging on its own but that doesn't mean it can't happen.

 

Me either, never seen it go in 4WD on its own.

I did switch mine into 4WD by mistake once. Not enough sleep, was fully awake, and switch the wrong dial. Still scares me a bit. Not that I switched it into 4WD, but I could have caused an accident being that tired. Definitely a life lesson learned.

 

It was actually just me in the truck, I didn’t do anything besides put the truck in drive. That’s why I’m very concerned as to why it engaged
and now won’t disengage. I will try this and give an update.