Troubleshooting Codes on 2012 Tacoma 4L - P0453, P0748, P0986

I'm troubleshooting some codes my tacoma has. I was driving home and it all of a sudden started stuttering. Traction control and CEL . When I got home and checked the codes. It was throwing P0343, P0453, P0304, P0748. I was due for a spark plug job so I went on and did that today. P0343 and P0304 cleared up afterwards, but then I ended up with a new code, P0986.

The net result I'm addressing is P0453, P0748 and P0986. I tried to clear the codes and they come right back. Vehicle starts no issue and seems to idle without any issue. Drove it down my road and it seems to not lurch or stutter. When I did the spark plug job, I did find signs of mice having been in my engine bay.

Between the three codes, that remain, which code should I chase down first? Thank you in advance.

 

You said you saw evidence of rodents, I'd give the wiring harnesses a good visual inspection for chewed wires.

I'm not seeing anything that would be common among the codes you have but alot of stuff does ground at Ground Point EE on the back of the right cylinder head.

 

Thank you for the diagram. So far, I haven't found any chewed wires. I drove it yesterday for a short trip and it didn't act "off". There were no audible or visible mechanical symptoms. I drove it to see if that might help resolve any false positives as I've read from other tacoma owners posts. The P0986 code did go away. The other codes did remain. When I check the codes, they show on the reader as "stored" and "permanent". What is the difference there?

 

Pending means the fault has happened at least once but hasn't failed enough times in a row to set a check engine light.

Current means the fault happened at least once in the current ignition cycle and/or is currently present.

Stored means the fault has happened at least once since the codes were last cleared but the fault is not currently present.

Permanent is similar to stored except permanent codes can not be cleared with a scan tool or battery disconnect, they will self clear once the monitor for the code(s) runs and passes multiple times in a row.