Just out from winter

My 2012 was parked outside all winter at my office. One of our old fashioned winters with tons of snow and a January that went above freezing only 1 or 2 days.

I had to move it twice early a.m. and both days were probably in the teens.

The column mounted shifter was a bear to move but I was able to get it to drive, move it a few feet and put in park. Assumed it didn't like the cold!

So yesterday, a nice 65 degree day I decide to take it home for the first tme since parked in December to haul some stuff....wouldn't start. Jumped, no start. Put in a new battery, nothing.

Turns out the gear shifter was not engaging all the way into park. Very stiff. I finally got it into neutral and it started right up. Let the truck warm up for ten minutes and put her in drive. It was in 2wd but the 4wH and 4wL lights were both flashing. I stopped, put it in 4wd drove around the lot for a bit and put it in 2wd again. Trac light came on..wth???

So I drove it on the highway for about a half an hour, drove and shifted fine but the 4wh/4wl and trac lights were still flashing even after I turned the truck on and off and slipped in and out of 4wd.

Any idea what the issue could be? Could I have bent the linkage? I have to believe it's stouter than to break in the cold.

I bought it last year after retiring my last T-100....never had an issue all last spring/summer/fall.

 

I got all the same lights on my 2012 with 125,000 miles. I just changed the water pump and afterwards started the truck up and the lights came on. It popped the 2nd air injection codes. Truck is still driving like normal but it just has the lights on dash still lit up. Most likely odd timing but your secondary injection system has a failure. Mine is stuck closed so it doesn’t sound like a vacuum cleaner going off when you do a cold start now. Hopefully this info will get you looking in the right direction. Good luck.

 

Well as the proud owner of two British cars I'm used the drama.

I decided to return the battery as it was a misdiagnosis on my part. First I started up the truck with the new battery still in place and yup...lights still on. Then I pulled the brand new battery I had installed Friday, put the old one back on after testing it.....started the truck and it DIED!!

Ok, this sux, I started it again and it stayed running....and all of the lights (including the CIL which I forgot to mention) were off!!

So...It took a few minutes to remove the old battery yesterday as the tie down was pretty corroded and you'd assume the ecu would have reset itself when I installed the new battery.

Who knows....maybe there is a Brit engineer at Toyota!

 

Disconnecting a battery will clear the codes. But I’m sure you already know that. If driving around for a little while and the lights don’t pop back up then you should be good. Glad you got it worked out.

 

Agreed but you'd have thought it would have cleared with the install of the new battery.....although that was the first time it actually fired up.

Oh well, 4 plus hours of back and forth driving and all is well