Brandicus

Howdy, Sorry in advance for the long post

I'm just another car enthusiast hoping he hasn't stepped in it too deeply. I've done quite a bit of googling/reading forums and I'm just looking for more opinions - which are very much appreciated!

Ive got a newly acquired 1995 4Runner 3.0 3VZE auto trans with almost 240k on the clock.
Bought for a little under $1500 with the understanding that it had very little maint history (none recent) and the owner (a farmer) had basically let it sit for 5 years, he did run it regularly but didnt do anything but oil changes... Hes going to need work and smells like a farm!
I checked for the signs of that headgasket issue and was satisfied that this old guy had a couple more years of life left in him. This is not a daily for me, this is my weekend fun car for my wife and her brother to use. If her brother can use it to commute 10-15 miles a day that would be great, in the timeframe of about 2 years I intend to replace the engine with the 3.4 and a manual tranny and keep it forever.

What it came with:

• New Tires
• Newer Heads (not sure of the exact mileage but you can clearly see in the video they are newer
• Newer distributor
• Newer shocks/control arms/LBJs

My observations:

• The idle is solid and does not fluctuate
• Gears shift smoothly and the truck is responsive from a dead stop
• The body is in fantastic shape - same for interior
• when cold the starter seems to take longer to turnover than when warm (see video, fuel problems?)
• It vibrates
  • on startup idle
  • when maintaining speed (very light throttle)
  • when in gear and stopped.
• vibration is alleviated upon
  • higher rpm with acceleration - whether parked, or in gear
  • putting it in neutral also helps

Work I've done so far:

• Complete coolant flush using 10 gallons of distilled water, toyota red 50/50, and yes it was thoroughly burped - old coolant was rusty looking and nasty
  • Got a new thermostat from Oreilly and promptly returned it, did not look close enough to satisfy me, ordered the toyota oem one (old thermo still works so no biggie).
• Oil Change/filter - Mobil 1 synthetic
• New Wix air filter
• New Alternator
• Fuel additive/injector cleaner (the chevron stuff)
• lubed up every key hole and the power antenna

My laundry list of things to do in order of priority

1. Clean Throttle body and IAC valve
2. Replace spark plugs/wires
3. Replace oxygen sensor
4. Timing Belt/Water Pump
5. AC compressor belt (its missing... lol)
6. Transmission fluid change and new filter
7. Differential fluid
8. U Joints
9. Transmission mount
10. Valve adjustment
11. Steering Idler arm bushings (light play in the wheel)
12. Engine coolant temp sensor
13. Intake silencer mod
14. Cat back exhaust to improve back pressure/mpg

I'm an amateur mechanic at best, but i have access to tools and the service manual and am generally pretty good at following instructions. I'd like to do most of this work myself and save a buck and plan for that 3.4 swap.

Im writing you all here now to bounce my laundry list off you fine folks and look for some other suggestions/gotchas I may have missed. While I am new to this truck I do love the heck out of it and would like to keep it forever. Cali truck=no rust.

Video 1 - cold start: some smoke at startup that i would guess is just water, note the extra half second it takes to start
Video 2 - same cold start, just saw what appeared to be water coming from tailpipe, smelled like water and i think i also smell unburnt fuel in general
Video 3 - warm start: turns over more quickly with no smoke - seems to be confirmation that coolant is not getting in there and im just a paranoid guy.
NOTE: I took these videos right after the alternator was replaced, it had a lower idle before and from what ive read this is expected behavior with a fresh alt.

And heres the main reason we picked this up, we both have sedans and its nice to have a puppy transport machine. My wifes brother is fresh out of college and we were going to let him use it to commute short distances to work but id like to kill this vibration and at least get a new timing belt in there before blessing the borrowing.


and if you guys care heres my daily:


and my wifes:


Thanks for reading!

old87yota

Welcome to YotaTech!

Thanks for posting good descriptions and videos! Not many new members do that.

I am not sure if you can make it out in your first or third video, but I can hear a hiccup in the starter sound when it turns over right before it starts. In the first video it is right around the five-second mark.

I have seen in the past that this hiccup sound was caused by low compression in one cylinder because the starter does not have to work as hard to overcome lower compression. A low contributing cylinder could be the cause of the engine shake.

I would start the diagnosis by doing a compression test to verify if all cylinders have good and pretty even compression values. Since you have to remove the spark plugs to do a compression test, I would look at them and see if any stand out as looking different from the rest.

Even though I am not a Chevy person, I thought the Volt was a better idea than most hybrid designs.

Brandicus

Hey old87yota thanks for taking the time to reply! I realize it's a bit of an ask to read the novel I wrote up there.

I FULLY intended to do a compression test this weekend but my hands were cramping from the spark plug job (I have larger hands) and I decided to do it later. those passenger side plugs are hell!

The previous owner only hand tightened the plugs and did not correctly gap half of them either. New plugs+wires and a can of engine restore have virtually eliminated the startup vibration! What little remains im willing to chalk up to it being an almost 25 year old truck. The starter still takes a half second longer than id like so the mystery continues on that one, if its not the contacts maybe he needs new injectors. Im sure those are easy accessible....

Now to tackle the vibration in gear and stopped, from my previous toyotas im willing to bet a good place to start is the transmission mount. Vibration on light throttle is a mystery to me, the forums here seem to suggest U joints to be a good place to start but it hasnt fixed the problem for many members.

I told myself I would never buy an american car, but the Volt is just so damn cheap to operate (about a dollar a day). Ive driven mine 100k now with no issue, I rotate the tires and change the oil every 2 years, thats it. GM really hit a home run with the whole electric car with an onboard generator deal, to bad they told nobody about it!

Thanks again for your thoughts.