I just bought my wife a 2010 GX 460 and noticed an issue today with 4 Lo. When sitting with the car on, and in park, I engaged 4 Lo. The 4 Lo light began flashing along with a dinging sound. It didn't stop when I put it in drive or reverse, and just continued. The manual states I need to take it into the dealership because there is a malfunction. Do any of you know what the issue might be? I literally bought it yesterday so I would like to know how big of an issue we are looking at. Thanks so much!

 

If you have less than 70,000 miles on the vehicle no need to ask our opinions, just take it to a dealer. You are still under warranty with less than 70,000 miles.

 

If no one has ever engaged 4Lo, then it could very well be "sticky" due to lack of use. Or you do indeed have a malfunction of some sort, or a corroded or seized connection or acuator. Have you tried the CDL switch to see if you can lock it in 4Hi? If that works Ok then you know that part of the process is working, and you can try engaging 4Lo from that point a few times and see if you can "unstick" the transfer case actuator. Being in Neutral should work, but just make sure you come to a complete stop, shift out of drive to Neutral, and then hit the Lo switch. It could be the actuator is sticking, or it could be that the position switch isn't seeing things, or it could be a failure of one of those parts.

If you are on a dirt road, you can try driving forward for a few seconds and turning the wheels to see if maybe you can get gears to line up as well.

 

Thanks, Matt. I did engage the CDL and it seemed to be operating correctly in high, but I wasn't on a surface to adequately test it. But in low the 4 Lo light continues to blink and chime. I will attempt to run a more extensive test to see if it's just not properly engaging or something is sticking. Thank you.

And it currently has 74,445 miles on it.

 

Has your GX always lived in Texas? The actuator motors can get corroded and freeze up, but it's more common in cold weather climates where road salts and snow come into play. You could crawl up under it and take a look at the transfer case and the actuator motor (or connectors) and see if it looks dirty/corroded or otherwise out of sorts. The motor is usually a black plastic box stuck on the back of the transfer case.

It may just be that it hasn't been used and the gears are kind of bound up or stuck. Sometimes repeatedly engaging 4Lo will unfreeze it, but sometimes it needs a more serious intervention.

 

Matt, thanks for your help. I guess the extra fiddling with it fixed the problem, because it started working properly. Thanks again.

 

i say try and take to a local Lexus dealer.... Hopefully you have been in before (not your first Lexus) and they can probably help you out...

 

You have to be in N not P.

 

I would hope that, regardless of mileage, Lexus will look at/fix the problem since you just bought it...free of charge.

 

Thanks for the topic, I tested mine tonight and learned that it needed to be in N

 

+1 yeah when i tried to put L4 while in P, the L 4 is flash, and when i put the gear in N and push L4 is engaged, if you want to set L4 you must put in N position to able to engage L4