4 low button pushing to make it work?

04 tundra, access, SR5, 4.7, 4x4, automatic trany, push button shift to 4X.
Truck new to me today.
Looking at it with the seller, attempting to get locked in 4LO. He always only used 4X high to go up skiing, never had it in 4LO. Front drive control button type.
Me, buying it, wanted to know it'd go into 4LO, or get a reduced rate. And the woods I go to, I want to use 4LO if and when I "need" to.
At a stand still, in park, pushed the 4LO button while the truck was both in 2WD and in 4HI. 4LO button orange light would come on temporarily, but nothing we did got it to lock into 4X low. Whether we were starting from it being in 2WD, or 4HI (at least the 4HI indicator light said the truck was in 4HI, I've yet to check it in the dirt).
04 Owners manual says "With the 2WD/4HI button pressed in, push the 4LO button".
This turns on the 4LO button orange light 2-3 seconds, while emitting 3 beeps, then the light goes off when the beeps stop. Have no reason to believe the truck is then in 4LO. ie. I'd expect the indicator light stay on, "if" it indeed is in 4LO.
Please, what the heck am I missing to get the dang truck in 4LO?
Yeah, bought the dang truck regardless whether I made it into 4LO!!! BUt still want to be able to get there.

 

Sounds like Toyota electric gremlins to me.

Make sure you are on flat ground tires straight and in neutral to test and see if it goes into 4Lo.

If that doesn’t work it could be the shift electronic shift mechanism.

A code reader could help see what soft codes the truck is throwing.

 

Drive a few feet forward in 2wd then put into 4hi then drive forward then reverse and make sure 4hi is locked in then stop again and put it in neutral and see if this works. The beeps could mean you aren't meeting the proper conditions to go into 4lo.

 

4hi is on the fly, meaning you can engage it in drive or park or neutral or reverse, in motion or stand still, etc.
4lo requires that you are stopped, already in 4hi and in neutral to engage before going to drive or reverse in 4lo

 

If stuff is old and crotchety, you may have to roll forward and back to get it to engage. Be sure to try neutrals, and play with it a little. I have an 04, mine doesnt beep ever, is that a thing? But every once in a blue moon, instead of switching to low the light will flash. I just roll a little and do over and it hooks up. If the previous owner didn't exercise it, it may be stiff and needing lubrication.

 

This: gotta be in 4hi and neutral, then hit 4lo

 

Sorry folks.
Finally got to the next page in the owner's manual re. the 4LO how to engage. Yeah, the first page doesn't mention "neutral"/brake.
Gist of it "in 'neutral', and foot on brake".

Checking/verifying 4LO still pending. Doing other things, like, title change, registration, and insurance. In the car. Yeah, poor truck sit'n there by its little lonesome!

Thanks for all the quick inputs, including highlight of "neutral". Suspect it'll work just peachy keen.

Dang, I hate having to check the 372 page book for how to do every single step of the way, from lock in 4LO to change the radio station, to ... Dang, dang, dang. I'm old school. No bells and buttons and beeps. "What do you mean I can't even roll my window down? Oh, that button there? Hey, I could get used to this!"
But I do appreciate not having to jump out in the mud to turn my hubs to go a little further. "Nah, don't jump out to turn the hubs. See this button right here..."

 

If it engages w/o issues into 4HI I'll be shocked if it won't engage in 4LO. Be sure to pull back one of the timing covers to check the timing belt health. If the timing belt goes, it's new engine time.

 

Final answer. It (4LO) works. Jumping through manufacturers order of things sometimes does work.
"Simply" put it in "neutral", held foot on brake, have 4HI button pressed, and press 4LO. Voila! Just the way it was designed to work!
No need to have tongue in left cheek, balance on left leg, leaning right, say prayer before and after it engages, etc. (Though me thinks left cheek tongue placement helped. I could be wrong!)
Now all I need is dash lights (for after dark driving) and I'll be ready to go to the woods.
Thanks again for all inputs/replies.

@Shifty,
Thanks for the reminder. Got it when I was researching pre-purchase. Is either side easier than the other for checking the belt? Check the belt is on the "not specifically made yet" to-do list. (Yeah, still only on the back of my mind to-do list, which is ultra-questionable as to its reliability value.)

By the way, didn't see a specific "respond" button/icon in your reply. So added my reply to you in this one.
Would much rather get some notification direct to the person I'm targeting, rather than have it in another reply with the chance they'll get it.
Still learning the forum.

 

Use the quote button on the bottom right from the person you want to reply to. If you'd like to tag someone in a post use the @ sign followed by their user name.

This should definitely be the first thing you do if you don't know the history. I didn't drive my truck at all till I took a look at the belt after I drove it home from buying. Driver side is easier I think. Pull off a few of the timing cover bolts and pull the cover back a bit. 10mm bolts

Take a look on toyota.com/owners to see if maybe you have any history from a dealership or otherwise in the past. I believe you have to make an account but I'm not certain but its definitely worth a look.

 

Thanks for the input. Ran the vin on google before purchase and "nothing" came up for it, including the one free site that I got a rather lengthy "NMVTS" report with nothing flagged, but did verify WA state based title.
Contrary to some of the rigs I was looking at. One in particular with damaged title. Me curious about it, google came up with some "before the repairs" photos of serious damage all around the whole vehicle. No, didn't even go look at it, even though it was kinda/looked like what I was after.

 

Varies from model to model which side is easier. 10mm ratchet and 2-3 fasteners to pop off. Doesn't matter which side.

That said, this is probably the most important thing to check on a new-to-you vehicle, even if there's a sticker indicating it was changed. It's the single thing on the truck that, if not dealt with, will make the engine instantly ruined.

That said, for background and records lookup.

Visit Toyota's site here, skip the search and click the JOIN NOW button at the bottom: https://www.toyota.com/owners/my-vehicle/vehicle-specification
Register the truck to yourself so you get future recalls and whatnot. You can find dealer service records too.

If you want to do a casual free check on your vehicle, this site sometimes nets some decent results without charging: https://vincheck.info/check/vin-check.php

But really, the Toyota site will have any dealership service records if they took it there. It will also let you know if there's any open recalls, which Toyota will fix for free. Like airbags, front suspension issues and all that.

Oh, and to tag a user directly just put @ at the front of their username. Just know that I'm not Shifty, I'm shifty` with that little special symbol to the left of the #1 on your keyboard, I'm sure the other Shifty whom I've never seen make a post before probably hates my ass.

(Tip: Copy/paste their username if you're ever in question)

 

Appreciate the input. Taking this new to me 04 Tundra a step at a time. Solved the 2 glaring issues, that were simply problems of lacking proper order (simply operational error on my part), which the owners manual set me straight on. Monday, will be in to get title/registration into my name and insurance switched from my (sold) 94 extra cab, 3.0 (gutless), 4X, switched over to the Tundra. Man, what a difference this Tundra is over the "no model name" 94. But there's also 10 years of improvement.

Then, off to the woods to see if there's any chanterelle schrooms left, (and to do a little off road truck test).

ps. As for "Shifty", yeah, sorry shifty', another poster had told me of the @ tied to names so I attempted to edit to draw your attention. Wrong shifty. Sorry.
My utter detail orientation tells me your quote mark follower may still be different than my quote mark, but it basically don't matter since I now know to reply with "quote" and the default puts your handle.

 

Alligator skin here, think nothing about it, brother. I sure wont

Just want to make sure you're getting thru to the person you're looking for.

 

Oh, one other thing. If you just type the @ symbol and the first couple characters of someone's name, it'll pop up an autocomplete list. You can just click the person there and it'll finish the job for your automagically after you hit three characters after the @ sign.

Example:

 

Good to see Sir Mix-A-Lot on that list. He's so S.W.A.S.S. Glad he's on the forum here. Thought he was a Benz guy though.....

 

I wonder how much sirsleepalot actually sleeps, or was he like knighted and that’s how he got the sir

 

Yeah, and with his posse on Broadway, he must feel pretty lonely over here hanging out with us chumps. He could be hanging out with Maharaji and Larry the White Guy.

@Sirfive needs to temporarily change his nickname to SirFivesALot