The Toyota Landcruiser Owners Club

[colineddy]

Hi,

My 2001 LWB 90 Colorado D4-D rear diff light does not get into a steady state - it stays flashing.

Any troubleshooting guides starting with easiest / most common issues first?

Cheers,

Colin
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LWB 2001 3.0 D-4D Auto VX Colorado

[Google]

[diggerdave]

The most common problem is corrosion of the outer casing of the difflock that allows water inside and destroys the internals, so first step is a thorough visual inspection. If it's bad it will be more than obvious (some of them are little more than dust or have big chunks missing from the casing/massive cracks) but it is also possible that the corrosion is in the back plate that is up against the diff housing, in which case it won't be very obvious. Check the wiring too in case that has been damaged off-road.

If the difflock itself is damaged by water ingress/corrosion then there's little alternative than to buy a replacement (£400 new/£200 if you can find a second-hand one from the front diff of an 80-series landcruiser, which are the same although might need electrical plugs swapping over, and which don't seem to suffer the same sort of corrosion.

Another possibility is the plunger-type switch screwed into the top of the diff housing just behind the difflock itself. This is a simple device to tell the ECU whether the lock is engaged or not and they can fail. IIRC they are the same as the plunger-switches used in the transfer box to tell whether low range is engaged and the gearbox to tell if reverse is engaged.

I have read of people removing the difflock and stripping it if the casing is sound but that's a bit beyond my knowledge and it is unlikely that your difflock isn't corroded beyond repair.

If you need to remove the difflock itself you will probably find that everything is horrifically corroded... see posts everywhere about this! The plunger switch itself can also be awkward.

Bob did a post on here about swapping the difflock which is very useful, even without the photos and there's plenty written about it elsewhere.
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1997 KZJ90 3.0d, 2" suspension lift, 235/85/16 Cooper STT Pros. 217k hard miles

[poze]

You will need new rear locker, keep on your mind that one from 120 series is same, so could be easier to get one from 120 from local breaker.