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Let me know if it winds up being either the distributor or the VAF. I have a 1 year old distributor and a confirmed good VAF for sale if you need them and don't want to spend a whole bunch.
Let me know if it winds up being either the distributor or the VAF. I have a 1 year old distributor and a confirmed good VAF for sale if you need them and don't want to spend a whole bunch.
Yes...hang onto those parts for me for a few days if you can. Its going to be tomorrow when I get to switch the parts with my friends truck.
Like Joe was saying, does it not take too much bearing play make the distributor bad? Also, is the oil in there a sure sign that the dist. is bad?
Like Joe was saying, does it not take much too bearing play make the distributor bad? Also, is the oil in there a sure sign that the dist. is bad?
I wish I could tell you. I replaced the distributor when I was tracking down a similar problem to yours (turned out to be the VAF) The old distributor actually started squealing and I thought "thank god" finally some sort of sign that something was wrong. It was just the bearing going bad. It turned out to not fix the problem and I later just decided to do the VAF replacement. (I had tried just about everything else) and got lucky.
Then as soon as I got her running 100% a 3.4 swap donor fell into my lap and I wound up pulling the 3.0.
Parts swap is going to happen tomorrow, both of us got too busy today.
I have been paying very close attention to how it runs the past few days. It runs the best when cold, not great but ok.
Once it gets warmed up it starts to really have rough idle issues. Plus I have no power during early acceleration from a full stop. I used to just let out the clutch to get going fom a stop light, now I have to rev to almost 2000 or it will try to die as I release the clutch. Once the revs get up I start to get power and above 2000RPM it will even pull a bit.
When at full temp the idle is the worst. Also when at full temp if I take it out of gear and rev it it has a VERY rough time between 1500 and 1800 RPM, the truck shakes around and it sounds terrible, rev it to 2000 and it smooths right out and sounds great.
Could my EGR be stuck open? My plugs are pictured above, they look like they are running lean to me. My MPG is half of what it used to be. Unlugging the vacuum line from the EGR valve modulator to the EGR does nothing. Rough running in the lower revs and smooth after 2000. Just wondering it thats a possibility for my symptoms.
I did some searching on EGR stuck open and found quite a few threads on the subject. Some of those guys descriptions sound alot like my symptoms. Tomorrow I will try a few of the tests I read about. Apply vacuum to the hose and see if the idle changes. If no change = stuck open, if idle gets rough = probably working. I'll also go ahead and pull it to try the upside down liquid test. It should hold liquid upside down until vacuum applied then it should drain out.
I may have already done these tests years ago. I cannot remember if I did or not but it kinda sounds familiar. But it wont hurt to check.
The more I look at the pics of my spark plugs the more it does look like exhaust soot on them. That sooty looking stuff brushed right off of the plugs.
I wouldn't bother with the liquid test. Just apply vacuum to the actuator when idling and see if it stumbles or stalls. If it does, working, just like you said.
I wouldn't bother with the liquid test. Just apply vacuum to the actuator when idling and see if it stumbles or stalls. If it does, working, just like you said.
I just tried it, engine cold and it stumbled hard when I put a vacuum on it. I'll try it again later after driving it when its warmed up. But so far it looks like its not stuck open, or at least not stuck fully open.
Man...that would have been an easy fix.
Hopefully today I'll get to swap the VAF with my friends truck and see what happens.
I might be mister obvious here but have you checked the compression on all six cylinders, because I guessing that like most Toyota owners and myself are blissfully ignorant of the fact that Toyotas don't use hydraulic lifters and the valve clearance needs to be checked and adjusted every 40k miles.
Without regular clearance checks and adjustments you WILL start getting really poor gas mileage and rough idle and misfires as the exit valves burn from poor thermal contact due to poor adjustment maintenance and develop large crater cracks big enough to stick a wire though. this is only accelerated by the use of K&N type air filters in dusty environments
any cylinders below 120psi engine hot compression will tell the tale usually 70 psi if cracked
Thanks for being mister obvious! I had forgotten about the valve adjustments. I have only had the truck for 10-15,000 miles but I have no idea when or even if the valves have ever been adjusted.
If the VAF/distributor swap doesnt fix it then I will do a compression check.
So what was the outcome?
I am having a similar but far less severe issue with my 88 3.0 auto. I took it by a friends shop and he thinks I have a clogged/bad injector. He put some cleaner in the tank and if it is not running right by the time this tank is empty, I will be changing an injector. I dont know if it is related but I am getting an intermittent check engine light. Does not effect how it runs but seems to come on after I go 50-55 for 5-10 minutes then get on a slower road when speed limit drops to 30, then the light comes on!
Thanks for being mister obvious! I had forgotten about the valve adjustments. I have only had the truck for 10-15,000 miles but I have no idea when or even if the valves have ever been adjusted.
If the VAF/distributor swap doesnt fix it then I will do a compression check.
I just searched and read all the links provided and this whole topic, does anyone know where this temperature sending unit thing is? And does anyone have pictures? Basically this little unit is keeping me from shifting into od because it thinks my 4runner is running too cold and I just need to find the dang thing and I can't seem to tell what is what and don't want to pull the wrong one today driving 100+ miles at 4grand isn't gunna work.
I have a 1994 Toyota 4runner 3.0 a/t. So far all I found was where someone sad a green wire, and somewhere else said a brown wire, unfortunately the previous owner covered most wires in shrink wrap stuff so in order to tell what color wire they are I have to cut them all apart/open and I'd rather just know there it's at before I start.
Thanks in Advance
Welcome to YotaTech.
Your temperature sensors do depend on your configuration. This photo is for my '94 with ATM and 4wd:
More importantly, there are a lot of reasons to not have OverDrive, that have nothing to do with the temperature sensor (not the least of which is the little switch on the shifter!). You could save yourself a lot of time and money by doing the basic diagnosis first: http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-b...34electron.pdf
Welcome to YotaTech.
Your temperature sensors do depend on your configuration. This photo is for my '94 with ATM and 4wd:
More importantly, there are a lot of reasons to not have OverDrive, that have nothing to do with the temperature sensor (not the least of which is the little switch on the shifter!). You could save yourself a lot of time and money by doing the basic diagnosis first: http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-b...34electron.pdf
Good luck!
thank you so much! Went out and located it imme with use of your photo, totally made my day!
Basically my headgasket started leaking above the thermostat housing so I had the brilliant idea to dump some fiberlock headgasket stuff in (after replacing the thermostat and housing twice thinking it was leaking) and almost instantly the headgasket sealed up but then my temper gauge wouldn't get upto operating temp (got about half way) well I went to take my 4runner out on a longer drive thinking I had some air but I couldn't get above 50 and was at 4000 rpm, pulled over checked what I could check with the engine running and everything looked ok, pulled back onto the road temp was perfect, shifted right into overdrive and after a few minutes it downshifted out of overdrive, rpms went thru the roof and the temp dropped. I'd sit there temp would come up and I could drive normally again.I also noticed my heater was just luke warm. I pulled the heater hose line and it was not pushing much water thru it so bled the air out of the heater line by blowing into the radiator while the heater hose was loose enough to let the air excape... surprisingly wasn't plugged. I blew thru each of the waterlines in each direction and all flowed well but for some reason it still thinks it's running cold. The only other thing I can think of is the temp sending unit you showed me the location to or possibly the mixerbox it screws into may be gunked up. Last night in frustration I went to this small partshouse and bought radiator flush and some gunk came out but nothing changed. I am hoping that the gunk covered the sending unit but it don't explain the lack of flow. So if u have a better idea I would absolutely love to hear it. I've parked with the nose of the 4r so far in the air the back bumper drug in the dirt to flush the air out. So it's either that sending unit or it's plugged somewhere.
thanks again for the picture
03-29-2011, 12:24 PM
