Toyota Commercial Range

There’s a very good chance that your problem concerns the cable or linkage that connects the gearstick in the cabin with the actual gearbox. It’s very common for one cable or linkage to operate half the gears, and a second linkage to operate the rest. If this linkage has fallen off or become detached somehow, there’s no longer a physical link between the gearstick and the transmission selectors for those gears. At which point, it’s impossible to select the affected gears.

A quick check under the gearbox will confirm whether this is the case, and fixing it should also be a simple case of reattaching the linkage or possibly replacing a broken cable.

This hasn’t surfaced as a common problem, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening in some instances. The HiAce rear axle should have seals on the actual differential centre as well as each axle. If these are failing continuously, there are a number of possibilities.

The first is that there’s something bent or damaged that is placing undue force or damaging the seal, causing it to fail prematurely. The second is that the seal (and its replacements) are from a dud batch of seals with either poor manufacturing tolerances or a flaw in the material from which they’re made. The third culprit would be a blocked differential breather which is not allowing the pressure inside the housing escape, and that pressure is causing the oil to be pushed out past the seals.

The first thing to check would be the fuse or relay that protects the power-windows’ electrical circuit. Designed to protect wiring from an electrical spike or short-circuit, these fuses and relays can also fail for no apparent reason apart from old age.

If one window went south on its own, you’d be looking for a problem specific to that door, but since they all went out at the same time, you need to look for a fault a little deeper into the wiring. Which is where a blown fuse or dud relay comes into the reckoning.

The first job is to find the fuse or relay in question. The owner’s manual (which should still be living in the glove-box) will have a chapter that shows the location(s) of the fuse boxes in the vehicle. You might find there’s one under the dashboard near the steering column, and another under the bonnet. The same chapter in the handbook should also identify which fuse and relay does what, but this info should also be printed on the inside of the fuse-box cover.

Once you’ve identified the fuse or relay, you can check the fuse visually, or have an auto electrician check the relay for proper operation. If that component is the problem, a quick, simple and cheap replacement will restore the windows to full health.

If that doesn’t work, then an auto electrician is probably your next stop, as you could be searching for a broken wire or a failed switch-block or some other obscure fault.