So here's the story. Bought the 4runner on Easter Sunday of this year, and have loved driving it ever since. Before today, it's had a few minor updates and repairs, including replacing a leaky fuel filter, dealership oil change that ended up spewing oil on my driveway, and replacement of the stock exhaust. Fast forward to this week, we're going to be driving from Michigan to Nashville, picking up a 6x12 uhaul dual-axle filled with furniture and goodies, and hauling it back to Michigan. After reading a few threads regarding towing with the 3.4, I decided that some preventative maint items were in order since I've not hauled anything with it yet, haven't done a road trip more than 3 hours in it, and am not entirely sure of the specific dates of previous maintenance. I've got about 800 miles left on this oil change, and we'll pass that with 200 miles of trailer hauling to go on the return trip. I don't like the idea of towing on the freeway with a less than ideal oil situation.

So the plan was: clean the MAF sensor, throttle body, swap the plugs, change the oil. Easy.

MAF sensor was a snap. Used a 1/4 inch socket with a philips bit to get the screws out in moments. No drama. Booya.

Move on to the plugs, thinking I'd better get them done in the daylight in case something goes south. Ho-leeee hell, I'm glad I had that thought.

Started with the driver's side bank. Life was good, all 3 out/in, snip snap snizzle, bizzle. Get to the passenger side bank. forward-most comes out nicely. Middle one puts up a fight- I decide to move on to the back one, rather than risk doing something stupid like snapping a plug off in the block. Go to work on the back one, twist, snap, sheeeeit.

Check it out:

Notice anything missing? Maybe..... the threads?

Sheared the threaded section clean off (Kind of an old looking plug.... more on that later). So I doused the threads in PB blaster, then made a trip to lowe's, found zero big ez-outs. Made 2nd trip to Advanced Auto Parts. They have big EZ-outs. I buy. I go home, I call my partner in vehicular destruction over to help. We proceed to round off 2 12-point 10mm sockets on the EZ out, and make a sad attempt at it with a 1/2in drive impact wrench pushed by a 5 gallon air compressor. I think I've farted harder than that thing put out. It won't budge. We start to recount "that one time" that I ended up borrowing his stingray for 2 days because we pretty much turned a quick CV boot job into a 2 day broken, rusted, and locked-up, drawn out full axle replacement job on my old car. Then we manage to round off the shaft of the EZ out with a third 10mm socket. This sucks, I'm running out of 10mm sockets, dammit.

We pause for reflection- back out now and admit defeat, or go full-retard? Right-e-oh, retard it is. Semi-Eff'd or super-eff'd, it's gonna be expensive if it has to go the shop anyway, right?

So we smash a 3/8 inch socket onto the rounded off EZ out, get out the 1/2 ratchet with an 18 inch cheater bar, say our prayers, reef the ever living snot out of it, and SNAP!! the sheared off section comes loose. The threads are pristine, and there's no evidence of metal shavings. Booya #2.

Why stop now? we go back to the middle of the bank and try the other stubborn one, fully prepared to snap that bastard off intentionally and deal with the consequences via EZ out, hammer, and cheater bar. Sure as sh#@, I crank the hell out of it, POW!! I thought it snapped, but no- it came loose! Booya #3.

Then I compare the plugs. Look closely.


There's 3 nice, newish dual-prong Densos. 1 Autolite single prong, and 2 ancient NGK dual prongs (the locked up ones). I bought this truck from the original owner, and I'm going to pay his "reliable" shop a visit tomorrow to seek maintenance records. I want to see a) if he paid for only 4 plugs, meaning he knew about the issue- or b) paid for 6 densos and had the wool pulled over his eyes. Someone's buying me 2 new 10mm sockets, paying for the EZ outs, and getting an earful of Irish. Whichever it was, either the shop or the previous owner- one of them's a shady prick in my world, and they're gonna hear about it.

Moving on, the throttle body cleaning goes beautifully:

Before


After


Oil change goes without issue, aside from me kicking over an open, full new quart as I climbed out from under replacing the filter.


Tomorrow's another day. Another day with a hopefully sweeeeeet running, happy 4runner. The job was eventually done in a little over 5 hours, including parts/tools runs.

 

Just wow I give you 5 stars for effort. At least you didn't crack a plug wire to complete the destruction On a more serious note, this proves why you shouldn't let plugs go for years without at least pulling them and hitting then with anti sieze... It's frustrating to see things advertised with long service intervals and know what heat does to metal..

 

The 3.4 came stock with one side denso's and the other side the NGK's



Damnit this reminds me I need to put some antisieze on my plugs I put in a month back

 

wow man, good job getting the plugs out. Sounds like the "shop" wanted to avoid any damage to the heads on thier count, so they "replaced" the plugs. Maybe even gave him a discount with out him knowing. Oh and that auto light plug, thats quality right there! considering the motor calls for dual ground plugs. Oh and make sure the trailer they give you is up to par! the lights work, the brakes, tires are good. Good luck on your haul!

 

Well I've never seen or heard of a plug breaking at the threads before, that's NUTS! I've seen them break on the porcelain, stupid headers on my old 350 in the way and me knowing I shouldn't but tried anyways. I always put anti-seize on any bolt I remove, this just backs up the thought. Glad it worked out in the end bro!

 

And ya know, I pulled a plug when I brought the 4Runner home from purchase, just to see if I could "read" any issues on it. Of course, it was from the driver's side bank and it was one of the Densos that came out beautifully yesterday. Makes me wonder how different life would have been yesterday had I tried pulling one of the seized ones that day.

So there's a chance that these may be original to the motor? I know he had the engine replaced somewhere around 70-100k ago. I'd love to let my self believe that his "reliable" shop was so diligent that they put in plugs that matched stock spec, but this is the same shop that couldn't find a mysterious fuel smell under the truck in over a year of multiple visits (it was the fuel filter, directly under the driver's side door, and it was dripping- it left a puddle on the ground. How do you NOT find that? I found it when I wasn't even trying).


Thanks man. I'm not gonna lie, I crapped a brick when that first plug broke off. I must have said something loud and insightful, because my wife came out from the house and asked if I had hurt myself. I'll double check all the trailer details, thanks for the reminder. I also did a brake job on the runner the day before all this went down, so she's got chompy stoppers now- new rotors and ceramic pads. What a difference!

Funny thing is, I had a feeling it was going to happen to me yesterday. I was walking out to start working on it and had a fleeting thought, something along the lines of "I've never broken a plug before- that would suck. I bet it happens". My buddy brought some antiseize over. I need to hit the other 4 plugs with it before I forget.

 

The engine was replaced? Hmm, that's odd that somebody wouldn't either recommend new plugs or maybe he was hosed on the deal. Just curious, how many miles are currently on the body, not the engine? I had a replacement engine put in my 96 Limited, at that time the body had around $215K on it. I paid $500 for it at that time and used Advanced Engine Exchange in Louisville, KY. I was happy with their work until recently but that's a different story. You should ask the PO if he had the water pump, timing belt and any other tune up type parts installed at the time of the engine swap. You definitely have the right to be pissed though, I sure as hell would be!

 

About 155k on the body. Motor is about 50k less.

I'm going to go into the shop and pose as the new and uninformed buyer of the 4runner. The guy I bought it from told me that he had all work done by them from the motor swap to current, and he certainly wasn't a do-it-yourselfer. He lives in a very "pay someone else to do it" type-neighborhood. I'm sure the shop will think I'm going to use them based on previous owners suggestion, and I'll let them think that right up until I get my hands on the service history as part of my "new ownership research". I'll look up the last tune-up, searching specifically for a parts cost on how many plugs he last replaced and the date. If I see that he claims to have put 6 in there (especially if it says what kind), I'll show him the old plugs (I saved them) and the EZ out, then maybe ask him if the previous owner knew he was shady, since he still goes to him for his Tahoe and his Jeep. He's fitting to lose some business over this if he doesn't come clean. But he might gain a free sparkplug up the nose.

 

Up the nose or up the ARSE!!!! If you get proof he lied then you should definitely inform the PO and I'd encourage him to also contact the BBB on this place. Sounds like potential fraud to me, total BS. So hard to find a good, honest mechanic and tards like this don't help. GL

 

Got a hold of the previous owner. He knew about it. "oooohhh yeah, I remember he mentioned that. He told me it would get expensive if we snapped one off and had to drill it out, so we didn't do anything about it. He said it was running beautifully and that I should just leave it be until I see a drop in gas mileage- why risk it, right?"

couldn't get too angry with him, though. I got it for a great price, even if I do have to deal with dumb little crap like this. I'm still ahead a couple grand. Cooler heads prevail, I let him know I didn't appreciate having to deal with the consequences of his decision, but other than that, I let it go.

 

PRO - great price
CON - stupid crap we deal with from the PO at times

Glad to hear he wasn't a jerk about it, plus you have extra $ for them frosty barley pops plus the piece of mind in doing the job right yourself and knowing what you're driving.

 

Well, we're 50% done with the trip and so far, I've seen fair MPG improvement. Previously the best I had seen on the highway was 18.5, and I've gotten 20-21.5 over the last three tanks. My wife thinks I'm weird for getting so excited about a 3mpg jump, but it's just like anything else. You invest time and effort, you see a result, it makes you happy.

Now to see how it does on the return trip with the loaded trailer. I downsized the uhaul from a 6x12 to a 5x8, which knocks 900lbs off the trailer weight right off the bat, and we're only taking about 60% of the expected items, so it should be a considerably lighter load to tow.