No need to stress you have a S African built H3.

I was trying to determine which TCCM you have by asking the simplest question I could think of, and by your answers (08 I5 no locker) I would now doubt that is your issue.

Check if your truck will smoothly shift from Hi, Hi Lock & drive it a short distance, and Low Lock & drive it a very short distance like 30 meters, then back to high lock? If it will shift into low lock and back to high lock with no glitches your TC actuator is likely not be the problem. The TC actuator is an electric switch motor that shifts the Transfer Case, they do go bad occasionally and can throw the message in the DIC that you have, but like I said, many things can cause your problem.

So if it were me and trying avoid a trip to the dealer, I would start with the easy things first, like adding good quality battery terminals.


You will probably have to take it to an authorized service dealer but we are trying to help.

 

thanks so much for your help so far. i drove it about 30 miles yesterday to the garage again and had the same problem. the mechanic fiddled about a bit but as i speak no turkish and the translator was distracted for most of the conversation it was a bit of a farce. i eventually asked them to remove the ABS module and clean it which they did. getting heavy duty battery terminals in this forgotten part of the world will be enormously difficult but i will perservere. anyway i drove it 30 miles back, stopping twice on the way and arrived home without incident. this morning i made a short journey and again without incident. its particularly frustrating when the problem is intermittent as it always begs the response from a garage "well drive it and if the problem returns then bring it back"!!!
anyway i will give your suggestion a go this afternoon when i go out and get back to you with the result.
thanks a million