Vehicle seized while in motion

I have a 2021 TRD Off Road with KDSS, just under 5900 miles. Had the oil change and service check 3 weeks ago, no issues found. Yesterday while moving at a slow speed preparing to turn in to traffic my truck seemed to seize up and jolted to a stop. The engine did not shut down. Has anyone had any experience with this type of situation? Thanks.

 

When was the last time you had the diff oil replaced? Or at least checked? When did you last ask your mechanic to check the diff breather and ensure it's clear?
How about the transmission fluid? When did you check that last? A quick pull on a dipstick not only will tell you the volume of fluid in the tranny, but also the color, and odor of the transmission fluid. All important information.
When it stopped, did you look under the truck, and see if there's anything visually wrong? Especially with the drive shaft. Are both ends connected still, and no evidence of one end falling off while under way?
When did you open the radiator cap, and ensure the water is a nice red color last? That it doesn't look like a strawberry milkshake? Alternatively, just take a look in the recovery tank, and see how the water in there looks.

Each of those will tell you a story about what may have happened. Each can be checked easily by the driver. Even a mostly disabled driver can look under the truck, even if it takes a mirror to do so properly, or pull out a dipstick. Even opening the radiator cap isn't difficult.

Good luck, and keep us informed on what you may find...
Pat☺

 

Need moar info

 

Were you in 4WD HI?

 

Keep in mind 2021 with less than 6,000 miles

 

If your new rig came to a complete stop for no reason while in motion, I’d be going to the dealer asap and not asking for guesses here.

Sounds like you might just be unaware that your 4Runner is equipped with Toyota Safety Sense, and you were on track to a potential collision and that stopped your vehicle. Pull out the owners manual and read up on the safety systems on your vehicle.

 

That is exactly what it sounds like.

 

The thread title had me thinking this was gonna be a Toyota Connected Services thread, as in; control of the vehicle was siezed from the the owner…. I was getting ready to lambaste “connected vehicles” again.

Then, with the info on the oil change, I figured this was going to be a sad “dealer forgot to replace oil plug”’thread. But apparently the engine itself didn’t seize, so not that. What a roller coaster!

Although there still isn’t enough information for an educated guess after reading the entire post, I’ll agree that emergency braking was possible activated by the TSS system. What’s odd however, @Reiver71, you should have also had a ton of beeping and squawking happening, and a visual alert on the center instrument panel with “BRAKE!” displayed in bold, with big orange triangles with exclamation marks. It should be pretty obvious the vehicle is braking from all those signs, so Im a bit worried none of that was mentioned.

But maybe it applied braking for a short second, and the alerts disappeared before your eyes got to the instrument panel.

If you didnt know your car can stop your vehicle at it’s own discretion, and that your car’s functions are connected to the internet, welcome to this brave new world (that was my attempt to pick another fight with toyota connected services lol)

 

Its nothing mechanically wrong, zero indications on the dash. No low oil, no locked up gears, and the motor stayed running and hes still driving it now. ( Dif breather? Transmission? Zero lights on dash,..Christ sake, its a 2021 toyota) The OP has a car that stops for him in situations and it seems didnt know it.

So glad i have one that has zero of that shit. Keeping it forever.

 

Agreed! My work Chevy has that crap. It has beeped and applied the brakes unnecessarily a few times already. Apparently, the computer can't tell when the vehicle in front of you is about to turn.

 

Where is the transmission dipstick on the 2020+ 4 runners? Wish I could find that

 

Monitor my temps,.. (which actually matters) daily, right on my head unit.
But get exactly what your sayin.

 

Is this a stock head unit?

 

Just an FYI Toyota 4Runners haven't had a transmission dipstick since the 2004/2005 and onward year models, in 2004 for the V8 engine and 2005 for the V6 engine the transmissions have been the sealed 5 speed transmissions. the only way to check the fluid level is via a plug on the transmission pan, there are 2 plugs on the pan, one is the drain plug and the other is the "fluid level" check plug, the transmission has to be at a certain temperature and then you pull the fluid level plug, if the level is correct you will get a slight trickle of fluid coming out, if fluid pours out it's overfilled, if no fluid come out it is low on fluid...BUT as mentioned the temperature of the transmission has to be within a certain range which can only be confirmed either with a Toyota scanner or doing a manual procedure of jumping ODB2 connectors and using the instrument cluster flashing lights to know when the temperature is within range, but you have to know what you're doing and in the correct order for this to work.

 

Lol, fuck no. That went bye bye the 2nd week i owned it.

 

What did you put in? And, does it still utilize the side buttons? Thinking about getting rid of my POS head unit eventually.

 

Wonder why so many of us old school guys dont like the nanny and "sophisticated" technology of today? In this scenario, when the truck "locks up", do the brake lights illuminate? Sounds like a wonderful way for a computer to commit an error, lock your rig up and get rear ended by someone else? Ya, hard pass on this new technology that can cause an accident it is "trying" to avoid.

 

these systems have been around for a while now. do you really think the engineers would have have overlooked something so obvious?

 

I’m no fan of these active safety systems. And I’m a “Hell No” on them or any major system being controllable over the internet. But in defense of Toyota, the 4Runner’s active braking seems much better designed than on many other vehicles. Only once in 17k miles did mine activate for no good reason, and then only to briefly flash the “brake” warning on the dash. No actual braking was needed or occurred. A couple other times it’s gone off, it was reasonable for the system to be concerned that the driver needed a warning. And even in those cases it did not actually brake. Just flashed the warning.

I don’t now recall for certain, but there may have been one time it started braking — but that was definitely warranted as the driver (not me) was not paying attention to the rapidly slowing car in front of us at highway speeds. That might actually have prevented an accident.

In contrast, my wife’s Honda Passport is paranoid. It doesn’t seem to understand city driving. The one time I drove it in stop and go traffic it slammed on the brakes and threw me and my stuff toward the dash, simply because a car in front was close and slowing. I was already about to brake for it and this intervention was both completely unnecessary and panic inducing. It was ridiculous. Many people have told me similar stories in a variety of vehicle brands.

Long story short, the system in my 4Runner has so far caused no significant problem and in one case may actually have prevented a bad crash. So on balance I don’t hate it. So long as it’s not controllable over the internet, it might even be a net positive. (See threads on pulling DCM fuse etc to kill the vehicle’s internet connection).

 

OP dropped this bomb and never returned. Real or fake?

 

Their keyboard seized up.

 

Must've had it in the 4R.

 

No, they haven't been around for a while. "A while" is relative. And yes, maybe they have, but maybe they haven't. You didn't answer the question, you just got offended I had a different take on the subject. You drive yours all you want with whatever you want.

I gave a reasonable explanation of one reason I have no desire to drive one until I'm forced to. And do you know why these things exist in the first place? It sure as shit ain't safety. Its insurance lobbyists. Think they would prefer to insure someone with extra safety features that prevent collisions while the demonstrated research shows distracted drivers are dramatically more responsible for the larger percentage of accidents now compared to 30 years ago? Yes, my previous life was Burn and Trauma research in the 2nd largest burn center in the country. I've written and been published about more NHTSA and DOT policy than I care to remember.

 

I have no skin in this argument, but that last sentence definitely came off a bit “better than thou”

 

The intent was "I am better informed than most", so my argument has actual scientific merit, not Bro merit.

 

So, I reread this, I’m stuck on the not for safety part. These things are for safety, as we have more distracted drivers and insurance companies don’t want accidents, so yes they will lobby for things that prevent accidents and save the companies from paying out.

 

I figured as much, things don’t always translate well on the net.

 

But if you eliminate the insurance lobbyist from the equation, doesn't it make sense the manufacturer doesn't necessarily want to go above and beyond if the need isn't there? Again, the manufacturer wouldn't see the need for more R&D if someone wasn't there saying "we need more R&D"?

We are not seeing more lawsuits for faulty R&D, but we are seeing dramatically more lawsuits because insurance companies don't want to pay out because their clients are distracted drivers.

 

I don’t think @Overland WT is trying to impress anyone. Just expressing that anyone who has worked with government bureaucracies knows about the motivations for policies and procedures. Good engineering sometimes is compromised for political and monetary reasons.
If you’re working in a science based job it’s very frustrating when your known best practices are foiled by the bean counters.

 

Perfectly said. Insurance is the biggest and most legal form of gambling around. The only difference is, we as consumers are the House and they are the bettors. But, the odds are not stacked in our favor.