Cedar

I'll get to it as soon as I can. It's just that it's my daily driver, life's busy, and I need to locate a socket wrench with spark plug depth sockets. I'll get to it as soon as I can.

Congrats on 10k club

Also, I don't know if this is important to the diagnosis, but my fuel milage is ~19mpg, which seems a lot lower than normal for such a small engine and truck.

Cedar

What do you think the noise is then?

myyota

I didn`t hear anything unusual in your video, and I didn`t hear any pinging at all. How many miles on your truck ?. To help your gas mileage I would recommend a complete tune up, including the fuel filter, remove the throttle body and give it a good cleaning and replace the throttle body gasket, and also replace the 02 sensor if it original or has over 60 thousand miles on it. The 02 sensor will have a big effect on your gas mileage if its not working properly. It may not be bad, but when they get old they can get weak and not work as they should.

Dirt Driver

Those are two very different things, though.

That is a good five to six MPG lower than you should be getting depending on driving. The easiest first step in diagnosing running problems is to check for codes. You can either let the monkeys at a chain parts store try it or do it yourself with a paper clip and a few minutes time.

Cedar

About 182,xxx miles on the truck. Like I said, top end rebuilt at 100,000. I would imagine it could use a good cleaning, and would bet the oxygen sensor is original. Where would be the best place to find an O2 sensor? Actually, where do I find all these things to replace, and what do I clean throttle body with?

This is pretty much the first time I've ever seriously attempted work on a car. I've fixed a few small engines( gas hedge trimmer, mantis tiller) and I understand some amount of the basics as to how an engine works. I also have significant mechanical ability paired with an ability to learn quickly. However, I'm sort of new as to where small stuff is, what it does, how to clean it, where to get a replacement piece, etc. I'm ready to listen to whatever you guys will teach me.

Dirt Driver

The O2 sensor is in the exhaust in front of the cat converter. It needs to be a Denso or NTK brand and I recommend getting an direct-fit sensor so there is no wire splicing. IMO, cleaning the TB isn't necessary nor going to do much unless it's really scuzzy and I doubt it is even at 180k. As proposed earlier, having a look at the spark plugs would be a good ideas too.

Before you do any of that, check for codes and get your Google on and find a service manual to look at. It describes all kinds of diagnostic procedures, including how to diagnose a slow O2 sensor that may not be tripping a CEL or code.

Cedar

Figured out how to do diagnostics, and got code 42 vehicle speed sensor signal. What does that mean?
If there is more than one code, will it flash with other codes, or must the current code be fixed if another code is to flash?

Dirt Driver

Both of your questions are answered in the service manual...

myyota

You can get a replacement 02 sensor here www.densoproducts.com , the 02 sensor is about $40. dollars. What ever you do, don`t buy a Bosch 02 sensor, they don`t work in toyotas.

myyota

If you knew anything about toyotas at all you would know the the exhaust gases from the EGR come into the intake manifold right behind the throttle body, that causes the throttle body to get very dirty over a period of time.

The throttle body may look clean if your looking into it from the front, but remove the throttle body from the intake and look at the back of it and you will see how dirty it is.

Dirt Driver

I do know that. Did you read my post and understand it? Particularly this part:

My entire statement was qualified as an opinion and even provided conditions where I agree with what you said. What I did not say is that my opinion is based on personal observation.

People are going to disagree with you once in a while. Get over it and check your attitude at the door.

myyota

I don`t care if people disagree with me or not, so why don`t you get over your self and check your dumb ass remarks at the door.

Dirt Driver

Case in point.

Cedar

I'm really thankful for your help guys and I don't want to sound condescending or above it all with my comments. Both of you guys are awesome and have helped me get much closer to a solution than I could possibly have gone by myself.

The anonymity of the Internet allows for anybody to say anything they want without major consequence. However, I have noticed a difference in Yotatech from most any other site with all the flaming and trolling that goes on in YouTube, Facebook, etc. I know it's not really my place to get involved in a conflict between two people who clearly know much more than I do about cars but I think that a little kindness and patience with mistakes or differences of opinion would help to retain that constructive atmosphere that I first saw in this site. Beg your pardon if I am being rude or stepping out of place.

Sincerely,

Cedar

Dirt Driver

You are nowhere near out-of-line, Cedar.

Everyone has a bad day some time. I'm thinking that may be the case here.

Cedar

Both you guys doing alright?

Dirt Driver

No problem on my end.

myyota

No problems here.

Cedar

Okay, cool. Now, I'm not much good at conflict resolution and don't want to be childish or anything, but I find that apologies can heal relationships very well.

On another note, checked out the Denso O2 sensors, and they're about $50 per sensor, and I need two, as I found out there's an upstream and downstream sensor, one before, one after the catalytic converter. I think $100 should be a worthy investment if my milage increases something significant. I calculated at least $300 fuel savings in a year if I get even a 5 mpg increase.

I have no problems at least checking out the throttle body to see if it needs cleaning. I looked it up on YouTube, and it seems like carburetor cleaner is good for cleaning the throttle body. I have some carb cleaner left over from something else, so I think I'll use it up. Honestly, after reading this site, I think it may be dirty.
http://www.autotrucktoys.com/car-acc...ttle-body.aspx
It says something about the gas pedal being stiff can suggest a dirty throttle body and my pedal is stiff, so I'm going to go check it out.

Many thanks,

Cedar

Cedar

So, changed plugs with Homelite copper core plugs, running as before (haven't tested gas mileage, yet, though). Took pictures of plugs, but figured the technical difficulties of getting the pictures on here is unnecessary, because I looked at them, and they look healthy (according to a Google search I did).

Cleaned throttle body, which had about 1/8th inch of crap on the EFI side, but not much on the air filter side. I looked inside of the space that says EFI on it because I took the throttle body off to clean it (had a bit of coolant spray when I took off a hose , but I refilled coolant, and it's ok), and there was the same 1/8th inch of crap everywhere. I didn't look closely, didn't have a flashlight with me, so it may not have been as bad as I thought. Don't think I'm confident enough to remove that many hoses and unscrew that much stuff to clean it out (and put it back accurately ) and don't really think that it's necessary to clean it.

I think that cleaning the throttle body lessened the sticking that my pedal was doing, so that's cool.

Ordering oxygen sensor from Denso tonight. I'll update as soon as I get them on my truck. The Denso website has them for about $50 each (might have said this already). I need two: one upstream, one downstream, for a total of about $100. Haven't checked shipping costs, etc. though.

I checked at a Toyota dealer for a price comparison, and they wanted something like $200 for one and a bit less door the other. Crazy, I know. Checked at the local O'Reilly Auto parts, and got $90 for one and similar for the other. And they're Bosch, which somebody warned against. So I'll order tonight from Denso.