My front wheel green lights used to blink when in 4wd but 4wd was working and one night out on a rocky trail i blew a hole in my rear sidewall, changed it out to my spare and when i got back in and started her up the lights were on solid. Dont ask me how or why cuz I dont know but now all lights come on accordingly with no problems.Guess she didnt like that tire.

 

Perhaps you have an optional EWS (early warning system) for tires on your Montero
It was telling you that you are approaching tire life expectancy

 

You need to check out your own truck. If the steelership isn't busy they always seem to find things to be wrong and over price for the work too. Get a good shop manual and just dig in.

 

Isn't that the mode of operation for any repair shop? "Glad you are here, let me tell you what else COULD be going wrong with your vehicle. And while we have it here, let us throw a ton of parts and labor at things that don't need any attention (just in case)."

We had a place here in town were I live that was totally awful about that. I brought my car there once (long long time ago) due to a check engine light for one thing or another. They fixed that, then give me a three page printout of Things That Need Immediate Attention. There was all kinds of really scary stuff on there. Reading that list you'd think you are driving a time bomb jalopy if you didn't know better. One of the items was "needed" was Complete Brake System Service. This one was marked as URGENT! Big RED Dot next to it with an exclamation point to get your attention.
The fun part of this was that I have replaced rotors and pads on the car less than 1k before that. I see that line and it peeks my interest. I decided to see what they mean by this. First I asked the desk person. They tell me - the mechanic who worked on the car did a 55 point inspection and these are his recommendations. At this point my curiosity was even greater. I asked to talk to the mechanic who did this "inspection". Mechanic comes out from the shop and gives me "it is extremely important that we do all these services" speech. I ask him - did you examine the brakes? Are they really that bad? He says - Yes they need attention. I asked him again did you take the wheels off and look at the pads? are they really worn out? He says - well, we did not take the wheels off, just examined the brakes and they need attention. I say - That's interesting because I had brakes all done about a month ago and last week when I was doing something else on the car the pads were showing no sign of wear (as thick as new). The dude realizes he is in trouble for BSing me starts back paddling really fast. Eventually he admits that apparently all these recommendations are given for every car that comes to the shop regardless of what condition they are in. The only way you do not get that recommendation on your next service printout, is if this shop did the work themselves to "fix" one of those things. If another shop does it - makes no difference, you still need the work done again by this shop and you will get the printout showing that service needs to be done.

Guess how many times I've been back there since?

 

Guys and gals, here is a follow up:
I purchased the replacement sensor for the front prop shaft (OEM was recommended) received it this morning. 30 minutes later it was installed and the 4x4 functions are now as new. I cannot more highly recommend taking the effort to read the transmission codes.

 

Right on man. Diagnostics and repair vs parts swapping and keeping your fingers crossed.

 

I know this is an old post going back several years but was hoping you could walk me through the process you described for the transmission diagnostic test. If I can't figure it out, Im wondering if I can ask a local mechanic to do it for me.

 

Hey Spy Vito just wanted to know are you talking about the pin 1 on the OBD plug under the dash ?? and do you have the flash codes chart handy a picture or Video would be good to see what fashes ?
just a thought

 

There is a youtube video with how to do it. There are links in the video description to the codes and some diagnostics.

CODES ---> https://postimg.cc/GTdWnqvj

 

I recently had a flashing transfer case light on the '02 Montero. Before even pulling the codes, I crawled under the rig to inspect each plug connection. These are exposed to a lot of debris over the years, and although they are weather-proof connections, they can corrode and/or become loose. One at a time, I disconnected each plug and cleaned the contacts. Then plugged them back in with some dielectric grease. That's it! No more flashing transfer case lights.
...hope this helps.
Cheers