Northern Virginia Roll Call

I am thinking he hit (or tried to crawl up) a decorative boulder in the median that rolled under the 4R as it came down off the median area onto the parking lot.

 

I'm headed out to look at it in a few. I'll check. I did put a new battery in about a month ago. Thx.

 

Welcome. Hide your wallet. Enjoy your truck!

 

Follow up to my electical "poltergiest" the other night. I couldn't find any sign of mice. I did find a heavily corroded + battery terminal and that my relay / fuse box wasn't sealed closed. Cleaned and reapplied the battery terminal grease, closed up the relay box. Time will tell if that was the fix.

 

Welcome to the group!

 

Seriously....if he passed the swallow test...that's a great sign. Tell me how I know. My mom had a stroke and it went on like that for over 2 years. A major stroke is no joke. Really glad to hear dude.

 

I had the same issue w my FJ at one time and found that it was the terminal connection at the battery. Had a crack right down the middle and sometimes would disconnect.

 

Glad to hear your dad is getting better every day bro! Love to hear that he almost broke your hand! Wishing for a continued speedy recovery!

Joe

 

Anyone happen to know off the cuff what the charging voltage at idle should be for the 3rd gens?

 

Mines ~13.95 for what it’s worth. You’re welcome for the not super helpful reply since I have a second gen.

 

It varies greatly because of the smart alternator. I want to say I saw mine from around 12.7v to around 14.2v at different times. There is a hack out there adding a resistor that forces it to charge higher at all times.

 

It's a little help. Mine's been charging at 13.5 at idle. It's borderline low, so I don't want to haul off and throw parts at something that may not be the problem. Could possibly be a bad battery or a drain. Everything is borderline so I can't make a determination either way.

You can't force the alternator to charge higher like that on the 3rd gens. Charging voltage is supplied through the ECU on them. Guys have been changing stuff in the ECU to make it happen on the 3rd gens.

 

@velogeek Does this unit allow you to see what the O2 sensor is reading for an input voltage (normally between 0.1 and 0.9)? Would also be nice if it tested the resistivity of the heater but I can do that fairly easily with a multimeter. I don't think my O2 sensor is bad since the truck only has 17k miles, but I'm trying to rule things out, especially since the O2 sensors from Toyota are $175 a pop.

I think the culprit is exhaust leaks since I'm dripping water at the joints downstream of the O2 sensor while it's warming up, but I'm not sure how to get rid of the leaks. Each of the joints in question is essentially a glorified hose clamp setup where one pipe slips inside the other and then you tighten a metal band clamp. I've got them tightened as much as I can, but they still leak water during warmup.

 

Mark. I'm almost positive your O2 sensors are good. The code that leads toward those is P0240 if I remember right. It would also be the same for a leak. I'm not saying a leak won't cause the code you have, but I doubt it. If you want to fix the leaks on those pipes you can try placing the clamp closer to the end of the slip joint and spinning the clamp some. It may or may not work. Another solution is muffler cement. You'd have the pull the joints apart to apply it.

Try unplugging the O2 sensors and cleaning the connections out, applying a little dielectric grease and see if that fixes it.

I'll retract my first comment: you still could have a bad sensor, but it's not a "sensing" issue. If that makes sense. Check Rock Auto for the O2 sensor. Profit.

 

Thanks Dave, good info. The reason I'm suspecting the exhaust leaks is if air is getting into the exhaust, it could essentially create a lean condition the O2 sensor is seeing, which would cause a low voltage input from the O2 sensor (0.9 volts is rich, 0.1 volts is lean). But I'll try playing with the clamps as you suggested. Below are photos of the two joints in question.

 

I haven't been able to definitively figure this out online but does anyone know which side of the engine is Bank 1 and which is Bank 2 for a 3rd gen? From what I've gathered, Bank 1 is on the same side as the #1 cylinder, which I believe is the passenger side, but I'd like to confirm that.

 

A code can definitely pop if you have a bad enough leak. Due to emissions standards becoming stricter it's more and more a thing. But in that case it's going to be something related to cat efficiency. The upstream O2 sensors are measuring what's coming out of the engines. The downstream (post-cat) are measuring what's coming out of the cat to make sure it's doing its job. There's a little more going on, but this problem that's what is happening.

Your clamps look to be in a good location. Rotate them and see what happens. You're getting leaks because the exhaust has been installed previously and a "pinch" has been made in the metal; deforming it. This is more or less normal. But if you don't get it lined up in such a way that those pinches don't line up you can get a very small leak. Rotating the clamps and tightening them "may" flatten out the pipes and cause them to seal better. If not, muffler cement will help. If you go down the cement route, be sure you clean up the mess. Inspectors don't always like the stuff.

Anyway. I just looked on Rock Auto and a replacement sensor is around $60.

When you're cleaning out the plugs check to make sure that one of the wires isn't loose. When we were at Chris' a branch or something may have gotten wedged up there and pulled on one of them. When you put the sensors back into the new pipes did you unplug them completely or use the wire-twisting method?

 

When I initially installed the Y pipe, I took out the O2 sensors from the existing pipe before unplugging them from the harness, which essentially twisted the wire. When I installed them on the Y pipe I "pre-twisted" the wiring before installing the O2 sensors, if that makes sense. On hind sight I should have had them unplugged from the harness when removing/reinstalling the O2 sensors so they didn't twist at all.

I took them both out yesterday and wiped them down and reinstalled them, this time making sure they were unplugged before removing/reinstalling them. The wires all look good and I don't see anything broken. I would still like to verify the wiring is good just to make sure. Once I figure out what color is what, I can test the heater resistivity and hopefully figure out how to get a voltage reading from the signal wire.

In the meantime, I will probably replace the gasket where the Y pipe connects to the header since I've seen one of them leak as well (not nearly as much as the ones downstream of the O2 sensors) and it's upstream of the O2 sensor (and primary cat). I'll also try rotating the clamps, but the one above the transmission skid plate pretty much needs to be up high so it doesn't interfere with the skid plate.

 

Will I be able to pass a VA safety inspection with a check engine light (CEL) on?

 

edit: Nevermind, I’m speaking out of my ass.