The Toyota Landcruiser Owners Club

Jimupahill

Hi all
I'm a newbie to Landcruisers being the proud new owner of a 1999 Prado 3.0TD imported in 2005 to UK and in lovely condition. Despite my best efforts there are two switches in the cabin that I cannot work out what they do (I know, daft isn't it). The owners manual doesn't reveal their function.
The first one may require some knowledge of Japanese!!! It's a small red button immediately to left side of the gear selector with a string of Japanese characters imprinted into the plastic. I press it and nothing shows up on the dash display.
The second one is the black switch at the bottom right of the dash with a small orange indication light in it which comes on when pressed into the standard 'on' position (so it seems to be working) but again no indication on the dashboard display. I can't figure out what it's doing! It is NOT the heated rear window and the seats are not heated so neither of those functions apply.
Over to you guys, any ideas what these switches for !

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RADIOTWO · ****** Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Posts: 816 Location: GLOSSOP

andy · Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2020 20:35 Post subject:

As above, the red one is to enable you to move gear stick when key is out , and the other is rear fog light, as imports don't have fog as standard.
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Aeroelastic · ** Joined: 25 Dec 2017 Posts: 58 Location: Cumbria

Yes the red button means “release”, or in this case unlock when key not on.

I have a 1996 import, mine does not have the central locking button as yours? The one below your mirror adjustment in your second photo. Is your central lock electronic control? my central diff lock is engaged with the shorter stick next to my gearstick.

Jimupahill · Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2020 10:49 Post subject: Switches

Hi all
very many thanks, you got it! The red switch indeed releases the gear lever selector when the ign key is out. The other one switches on a rear fog light fitted into the bumper on the offside. I feel a bit of a chump re the fog light switch, I should have found that! The red switch had me rightly flummoxed. My previous experience (quite some years ago now) was Landrovers in the army (going back to the petrol ones in the 70's then the diesel defenders in the 80/90's) with their hi/lo ratio, diff lock, 2 or 4WD selectable. i'd never come across a device to allow you to move an automatic selector with the key out. Useful I presume when setting up for towing? I imagine there must be a lot of variations across the land cruiser range for the different markets.
Aeroelastic, yes it's an electronic switch to engage the centre diff lock. When engaged the dash indicator is a pic of the system with a flashing light in it's centre, prob the same as your 'lever' dash indication.

Anyway, thanks again folks, excellent forum, really helpful community.
Jim