Oil Control Valve Location

The locations are correct for each pic. top is the valves, second/bottom is the filters.

as for the mileage, im sure it could be a problem but not 100% sure. the issues i had with that CEL and code ended up being a spun piston rod bearing that was desentigrating and putting bearing material all over the oil which probably was messing up the function of the OCV. Pretty sure i had a one off issue compared to everyone else in this thread having either a bad OCV or dirty one

 

Piston bearing?

 

Wow. How many miles? I wonder what caused that. The bearing.

Edit, the reason I brought up the mileage is someone told me that the GM service manual on the vehicle he owns says that about the mileage if that system is not working properly.
Now that I've read through all the stuff I could find here, I might have made things worse by not taking care of it right away even though the truck is running fine, albeit @ 11 MPG. I guess this can mess up the O2 sensor and the catalytic converter.

... ya know... this truck has several little things wrong like this at 137K.... my '99.... that damn thing never needed anything but tires, batteries, and brakes. 350K plus... and it was in a salt-water flood up to the steering wheel almost at one point to boot.

 

Rod bearing would be a better description that piston bearing. forgot the Rod in that

 

I knew what u meant lol.

 

probably around 48k miles? i replaced the engine at 49k. pretty sure it was because of my catch can. it was leaking really bad and created a bad vacuum leak and i think that messed with the oil by foaming it up and the pickup couldnt pick up oil for a period and spun the bearing. the damage is all in my build thread around page 22-26. this is all speculation but really the only thing that makes sense to me

 

The VVT system controls cam timing, which affects everything down low and up high. Bad OCV's definitely have a negative impact on MPG.

 

Its got to, there can be no other explanation really. The truck runs fine though.

 

Follow-up on this....

Yesterday I got the passenger side filter out, it was pretty clean so I took off all the stuff on top of the engine and pulled the solenoid valve on the passenger side. (The code, I only had one, was P0011 - bank 1) Tested it, sure enough, it was dead. Paid for one at AZO, $105 last night plus $10 tax and they'll have it by noon ---, a complete ripoff but I wanted it today, Rock has them for anywhere from $30 to $70.
I'll update again and see if it fixes my mileage.

As an aside, these brick and mortar auto part stores, especially O'Reilly and Auto-Zone, there is no way they can maintain these kinds of margin. Tbh, I had no idea they gouge you that much, as I don't buy that many parts, all my vehicles are in pretty decent shape. That's ridiculous. Auto-Zone stock has always been a Wall Street darling. I think its a good short. It trades at $1146 currently, it made an all time high of $1250 back in Dec. If the market starts recovering and this stock gets anywhere near $1200/share, it'll be an excellent short candidate.

Oh one more example. Castrol full-synthetic ATF is $17.99 at Walmart for the 4 quart jug. The exact same thing, EXACT, is $29 at Advanced and Auto-Zone. No way these companies can keep gouging like that. That extra $50 I spent on this solenoid valve, I'll get that back shorting one of these stocks on a strong market up day. That's bs.

 

Recently Every time that I take my truck off-roading the p0022 comes up. And every time that I clear it after going off road, it doesn’t come back and the truck drives perfect. My truck just hit 193k miles. Probably going to replace both solenoids but I don’t know if I should pay the 100$ For original part or 60-70$ for after market (like Dorman, spectra and etc).

 

Check this thread: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/p0012-code.403888/page-3#post-24249984

I would recommend you to stick with OEM based on my experience.​

 

Thanks TW for this helpful thread. I got the P0011 error code today at 170,000 miles. I checked the oil level (4,000 miles on this oil) and noticed it was way dirtier than normal. I added BG44 fuel system cleaner at last fill up, and I think that’s the reason for the abnormally dirty oil. I changed the oil and the code went away for now. If it comes back, I’ll replace the oil control valves.

I did remove the passenger side filter thing, and it looked clean. I cleaned it with brake cleaner and re-installed. It was a sort of difficult to get the bolt off because of the weird angle and even more of a PITA to get back on, but I eventually got it. After that fun experience, I didn’t bother with the driver side since that involves moving the alternator.

 

What did you replace to fix your vacuum leak on your truck. My truck is misfiring and I think that might be the problem. I have 07 tacoma v6

 

I didn’t remove anything to replace these, aside from the bolt holding the timing cover in place directly above the OCV bracket bolt.

was easy to take apart this way, difficult to get the OCV bracket bolt back in place this way.

coated the timing cover bolt with permed oil resistant sealant before screwing it back in.

 

So what was the long-term outcome on this? Did replacing the passenger side OCV fix the problem permanently?

 

Got the P0022 code and decided to clean the filters. Started on passenger and broke off two of the tabs that insert into the bolt. I have two on order but won't be here for a week and none are available local. Will it work reinserting the filter with the broken tabs until the new ones come in? Or will it work temporarily without a filter?

 

Ouch..

if it was all sealed up, it would probably run, but

1. The filters are there for a reason.
2. I don’t know what - if any - the affect on oil pressure without a filter would be on your engine’s timing.
3. I think the increased oil pressure with higher rpm’s advances the timing on our engines, this could be a bad thing to do. Even worse if you’re boosted (not sure if you are).

 

I ended up trimming off the other two tabs and threw it back in there. I think those tabs are just to keep the filter centered in the hole. I started it up and it ran fine but I haven't taken it anywhere. I have a new filter coming in Wednesday and a couple more on the way. I'll probably wait until I get them all in before I swap it back out. Not boosted, just stock 2006 4.0 w/169k.

The passenger side wasn't dirty so I'm assuming the drivers will be the same. I have a couple of actuators on the way as well.

 

Installed a new bank a (bank 1) oil control valve. Took 21 minutes start to finish which surprised me. Thought it would take longer. Fortunately everything went smooth. I bought one of the cheapest ones I could buy on RockAuto because it's easy to get to. We'll see if it fixes the CEL and how long it lasts.

For those wondering - I moved the air filter box out of the way. That gave me easy access to BOTH oil control valves.

 

I just replaced both valves, the engine light immediately went out and there are no codes stored. My truck has 207k and it has never run so smooth. The best part is the shuddering it used to occasionally do while accelerating is GONE!