Removed charcoal filter. What I found underneath made me sick to my stomach.

I wanted to be cool like all the other guys with 4 bangers. So, I went out today to remove my charcoal filter. After getting the top of my air box disconnected this is what I find...

This is the hose from the air box.



Top of air box.



Top again, you can see all the dirt and crit that fell off of the charcoal filter.



Is the horrible sinking feeling in my stomach warranted? I just bought this truck like 3 weeks ago. It had an air filter in it when I got it. And I changed it last week.

 

Miles?

 

If you bought it from a dealership I might consider bringing it back to show them and possibly trying to work something out (might be in vane, depends on what kind of deal you got). Otherwise, I'd just clean everything out. I'm not familiar with the 4 banger setup but on the V6 I'd clean the air box, tube, throttle body, MAF sensor and as far into the intake as I could without risking dumping crud into the engine. Next, oil change! Lastly, spark plugs but I believe the 4 banger ones are good for quite a while so depending on the mileage, maybe.

 

Hmmm, I did this and didn't have anything like this happen 100 000km on it

 

68,000 miles.

I bought this truck in Washington. Here used car dealers can sell them, "as is". That means that once you sign papers and drive away the truck, and all it's problems, are mine.

So, taking the time this weekend to try and clean out everything is the next step?

 

Yikes, clean that shit out asap, change the oil asap, then change it again after a couple hundred miles... Even if the previous owner never went off gravel, the back side of the intake should not be that dirty.

 

I would clean it pretty good now don't want that in your engine, use the oem paper filters and like said above wait awhile after you clean it out and change the oil.

 

Here are some pictures of the hose from my air box.




Here's the tube going to the box on top of the engine the leads to the throttle body. The couple junks of grit actually came from my fingers.

 

yeah get some CRC MAF cleaner, CRC intake and TB cleaner, and Wash that hose, i would get some Sea Foam pour it in my oil and run it 15 minutes drain all that oil out and put in fresh with a new filter i would also dump a can in my gas tank just for extra measure, but i dont really know of anything else you can do about it. looks like the dude ran without a filter and the dealer threw one in there

 

I know there was one in there when I got it. The old one I took out was dirty, but not super dirty.

 

I'd double check that your filter edges are sealing properly.
If those got boogered...
It can allow some dirt to by-pass.

it's that... or a real crappy filter

I'd take it back to the dealer before you clean it.
and make them do something or at least come up with a reason for it.

 

Use this as mentioned earlier. you'll be alright I've seen worse!!

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/technical-chat/94203-how-throttle-body-cleaning-2005-v6.html

 

Clean clean clean clean clean everything you can from the intake inlet to the motor. Like everyone said drain oil. change plugs if needed, etc.

Might want to look into a motor flush just to be on the safe side.

But that's scary!

 

Yeah, looks like I've got a little project for this weekend. I had my neighbor come over and take a look (he's a fairly competent gear head). He calmed me down a bit (only a bit!). He said the dust looked really really fine, and thought that a lot of it would be suspended in the oil. Either way, oil change time.

 

Any photos of what looks like your Maico?

PK

 

I will make another post in off-topic with some pictures and a description.

UPDATE-

I took my resonator apart today to try and clean out the throttle body. I was able to clean it out a bit. What I found on the other side of the throttle body didn't do much to make me feel any better...



Be sure to click on the picture a few times to make it bigger. That's a lot of shit. Looks like one small project is leading me to another bigger one.

 

Like right now!

 

Yeah I know, I gotta get paid first because I'm broke!

 

I'd buy an intake manifold gasket and pull that thing off. You need to clean EVERYTHING which probably involves spraying out the runners with carb cleaner till they are spotless.

 

Previous owner probably had a K+N filter.
Cleaning the intake etc. won't help at this point, the motor is already dusted.