2012 Tacoma pings with reg unleaded

I used less than 1 cup of seafoam thru the vacuum line and hats it. You can call people names all you want, its a good indicator of your real age

Once again: seafoam will contribute to your car burning oil. Use at your own risk.

 

OK your absolutely sure of this and can prove it. Some how I don't think Toyota would build a truck that would ping and say 87's fine to use. So another question why does it have a knock sensor that can detect a ping better then a human can?

 

I get a little knocking in the morning if I don't let it warm up little before I drive. Not for too long and it's if I get on it a little. I have been running 91 octane for a while now.

 

I've used sea foam thru the vacuum line on my last car and it caused NO problems. Not to sure if it made the car run better but it certainly didnt make it worse...

 

In an effort to return the thread to the o.p.'s subject. My 2012 V6 pings only when the engine is warm and when accelerating slowly from a stop between 1st and second gear or up to about 1500 rpm. It does not do it all the time and I've reported it to the dealership twice when getting an oil change but they say they can't hear it. The Tacoma has about 20000 miles on it now and I did not notice any pings until it had about 5000 miles on it. I do use 87 oct. gas, and before reading this thread I thought maybe I was just hearing things. I think now I will try a few tanks of premium gas and see if it makes a difference and if it does not at least when I go back to the dealership this thread gives me some ammunition to say I am not imagining the pinging.

 

Well at least on my truck the pinging stopped when I changed my plugs at 30,000miles. But I did not put the 6 cylinder oem copper plugs in. I went with the denso iridium long life plugs and no more pinging. Before even if I was running premium and it was hot out it would still ping alittle bit. But not anymore since I changed the plugs. Sounds like the plugs might have been a little on the hot side.

 

I bought a can of Seafoam, but never used it.

Here's a good read on the product....
http://mechdb.com/index.php/Seafoam

 

Before retiring from the. Auto business I worked in and was a dealership owner for 35 years. In my experience most aftermarket additives are ineffective. I certainly would not use them in any vehicle that is still under factory warranty.

 

Then how come these "pinging" engines last hundreds of thousands of miles?

 

Yep ^ X2 snake oil.

 

I am going say if you think you hear a "ping" it's not spark knock. Toyota says 87 or greater for the Tacoma but guess what so does the manual for my wife's little Scion Xb or any other car/ truck out there baring super charged/turbo charged engines. Frankly I don't care either but saying any one is going to trash there engine burning 87 is nuts.

 

Those before/after pictures of the pistons are from soaking and scrubbing the pistons, not from running the seafoam thru a vacuum line. You can clearly see the scrub marks on top of the clean piston:



I tore my engine down after a seafoam treatment and the pistons were black as can be



In short, IMO, Seafoam doesn't do much in terms of cleaning, but many have experienced loss of compression and oil burning after using it. Use at your own risk!

 

Thanks for the response "Fshn Lkn"


I had the exact same thing happen.....my "Ride along" from the dealer said he couldn't hear it....

 

Mine did too, so I use mid grade. My V6 Camry loves regular gas though.

 

Such a bummer.....

The reason I bought a new truck is for better mileage and to be able to run cheaper gas....

I had to use super in my pos jeep....


I'm getting neither of these with my Tacoma.....14.6mpg with low rpm ping sucks....

 

My truck will ping if I hit the go peddle at around 50 on the freeway to pass. I am running 87 also.

 

If you learn to keep your foot off the skinny pedal the MPG's will improve. I am right around 18-19 city and 20-21 on the freeway, not great but the fun factor of driving my truck makes it worthwhile. If you can't live with 18-20 mph should probably look for something else. My son went from a Tc to a 2008 Sport, lasted for about 9 months, high MPG sports car guy not a truck guy.

 

I averaged ~18.6 mpg on my last two tanks of ethanol free 91(same pump handle used). Truck runs smoothest on it so that's what i run. I've never noticed pinging with any octane, i am at 5500 feet, may have something to do with it.

 

Well......I'm at the end of a tank of "76" 89 octane (mix) and haven't heard any ping...

I was running 87 from the same pump before...

I'm going to find out what my mpg is in a few days when I fill up...

Pretty bummed....is there a way to tune it to run 87?

 

Now on my third tank of 93 octane so far no pinging. Last tank averaged 19.8 mpg combination city/hwy. I'm not sure mpg's offset 30 cents more per gallon for 93 octane vs 87 but does seem to have a little more power.