2012 v6 at DCSB engine knocking @ 1500 rpm

Did you find oil on the threads of #6 plug (driver's side, closest to the firewall)?

Checking valve clearance is getting pretty involved, more so if you pull a head. If I had a spare car, I wouldn't mind doing the same, but this thing has to be my DD for a while yet.

I was looking at USB borescopes the other day. That's going to be my next purchase - I want to document the condition of the pistons and valves and look at the squish 'ring' area to examine carbon buildup.

 

I haven't done anything yet. I have family in town for a week so I'm busy for a bit. I'll start with small stuff and move up. Ill document what I find and take tons of pics

 

I'm in the same boat here in southern Cali...

Mines had the "Knock" since I drove it off the lot and have been back to the dealership 8 times....actually they said it was my tires that were 1/2 inch bigger causing the problem (even after I told them they installed my tires and they were only 1/2" taller than stock...

Well.....I borrowed a stock set of wheels and tires and last Friday corporate had them drive and record the knock....

For the first 3 months they said it was "Normal".....after that I was told to try different gas stations with te same results...


I have a small 800lb boat that I tried towing to the launch ramp, it was knocking so bad I turned around and came home....


My 2012 DCLB has 9500 miles and I wasent plan on selling it for 10 years (I only drive 7k a year) but now I'm having 2nd thoughts.....Warren

 

Well hopefully over the next few weeks s can identify what's making the sounds. I'm going to get specs for valve clearance and such so that when I have a spare moment I can't start measuring stuff. Cuz that sound can't be normal.

 

Also.....I've called a few local tuning places and they want $95 for 3 runs on the dyno...

I'm feelin loss of low end power when I hear the "Knocking"

Would a dyno help my case?

Sorry for the typos I'm on my iPhone and fighting the keyboard and auto correct.....Warren

 

Ask them if they can tune your truck. Maybe the can retard your timing and fatten up the fuel on the low end and thAt will get rid of it. I would say hold off on the dyno stuff till we have scoped and measured other pertinent parts

 

URD sells piggyback-type units that can feed the ECU modified MAF readings and do other things relating to spark advance and fuel delivery. I briefly considered going that route, but with an existing problem, any modifications just give Toyota an iron-clad reason to deny any future warranty claims. I'm already screwed, I may as well not add sand and broken glass to the mix.

I don't know if a dyno run would help your case, though. Sure, it'll tell you wheel HP and wheel torque, but I don't see what useful ammunition that gives you vs. Toyota.

Since the delicate flowers here think it's morally wrong to post the email addresses of Toyota executives, if anyone would like to contact the VP of the Toyota Quality Division for North America, drop me a PM. I managed to ferret out that one this morning, and it works.

Unlike my email to Sweers, I thought this one through a little more and included links to a half dozen multi-page threads about the issue (all of them to this site, I'm still gathering links from other Toyota forums).

FWIW: http://pressroom.toyota.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=2012

One notable thing from the presser:

"Product Quality Field Offices are being established with the mandate to investigate specific field quality issues related to unique regional, geographical or environmental conditions in each area. The New York region office was developed to investigate the performance of Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles in cold weather climates, with an emphasis on corrosion issues. The new San Francisco office will focus on hybrid vehicle systems and durability, capitalizing on the high concentration of these vehicles in the California market. "

That corroborates, in part, what the Service Manager at Piercey Toyota told me - that the local FTS folks are hyper-focused on hybrids in my area and don't really give two dicks about truck stuff. Sounds like the Houston office is the one focused on trucks. They're my next contact.

 

So after the first 3 months of "it's normal", what are they saying now? Anything? Or rather, anything other than the company line "We know, we are working on a fix"?

I was just finishing up my 2nd teardrop trailer (should weigh in about 700lb) last night. The original plan was to take the kid and boondock through Idaho and Montana for 3 weeks next summer and fly fish the hell out of all the blue-ribbon trout rivers. Obviously, I won't dare tow with it (never have yet, probably never will) and I drive the truck as little as possible.

 

I did think about that but this is the first "Brand New" truck I have purchased and probably ever will....

$30k Spent for the luxury of a warranty and not having to deal with any of this....

I'm fighting myself to not get greasy....

I feel as soon as I or anyone other than the dealer touches my truck it will all be void....

 

The dealer will tell you whatever they can to make money even if they are wrong they will fight tooth and nail. They will tell you that something you did voided warranty when in fact it didn't. The reason for this is 99.9% of the time they don't get cought. And when they do they kiss your ass to make sure you don't climb the ladder to get them in trouble. So get a hard copy of you warranty if you have questions. Because asking the dealer what voids and what doesn't is about as accurate as a compass with out both poles.

 

They tried to void my warranty on Monday because I changed the rear diff fluid a week ago. I have a weird whine/squeal around 25-35 mph when the truck under light throttle/coasting - sounds like it's from the rear end. I brought an excessive number of metal shards (big enough to slice a finger, not talking about the fine metallic powdery crap) to the attention of the service department, and the service advisor started to *yell* at me, saying I would "warranty void". I laughed.

Gets better - service manager says "That's not normal, let's take a look". Service+Parts *Director* equivocates and says "might be something good, might be something bad. I guess we'll never know until it blows up!" Putting the truck on a lift and not hearing the noise was enough for them to dismiss it. I guess suspension loading and engine/drivetrain load mean nothing.

That's OK -- more fuel to the arbitration fire. I'm sure the arbitrator will enjoy reading about that 2-step.

And yes, I'm so tempted to start trying different parts (I want to try a different MAF, for example) since plugs made no difference. If I could afford to sideline this truck and buy a replacement Frontier outright, I guarantee you the heads would be off next weekend and sitting on my bench.

 

At least you borrowed factory tires/wheels, so you could stuff that in their collective face. Good on you!

Dealers claim they love warranty work. They don't. If the tech can't do the job in book time, some dealers won't pay for the extra time the tech spends. That makes techs unhappy, which makes management unhappy. Plus Toyota has a really stringent set of policies on warranty reimbursement, often wanting parts tagged and returned or held for FTS inspection at the dealer (eats up storage space, time, etc.)

Toyota dicks with dealers, so the dealers let the shit roll downhill on owners, if they must.

 

The dealership said said corporate made the call that the reason my truck had this problem was due to the 1/2" oversize tires....

I tried to make a wager with the service director that it would still be there and was doing it with stock tires and he wouldn't take me up on it so I had to borrow a set so I coul take it back....

 

Jeebnus.

I wish there was an option when buying a vehicle to get a big discount if you opt to not take the dealer warranty. I'm finding they're more trouble than they are worth, dealers seem to often try voiding or avoiding them, and I'd rather put the money aside for use with an independent shop if/when the time came.

 

Could someone with a ScanGauge or equivalent please poll the ECU for the following:

http://www.scangauge.com/support/x-gauge/xgauges-for-cansf-vehicles/

(See Barometric Pressure of CANSF vehicles).

I want to compare readings. Spit out the PSI reading and your actual altitude, along with known atmospheric pressure (local airports are good for this), if you can.

I checked again tonight. ECU is showing (by way of the MAF, I believe) at idle, 14.3 PSI. That suggests I'm something like 1200 feet above sea level, even allowing for actual local barometric observed pressure at the airport.

That doesn't strike me as right, unless the MAF itself is considered a venturi (the flow has to be laminar, but that's all I'm sure of), which would alter pressure readings inside the restriction.

 

Service guy called me this morn with a response from corporate.....

"We received the video of the pinging. We are aware of the problem and working on it but do not currently have a fix, we will call you when we do"

 

Modern American Corp-speak. Let me translate:

"Go away, sucker." People wonder why I posted Sweers' email address. If it wouldn't get me banned outright, I'd post Dino's, and a few others I've managed to dig up the last couple of days.

Go to arbitration, lose (might win, but statistics say you're going to lose), call a lemon law firm, and screw Toyota.

A Frontier looks better every day - just not sure if I want the devil I know or the devil I don't know.

 

On my way to work this morning, my reading was cycling between 142 and 143, mostly 142. Elevation between 650 and 400 feet, barometric pressure 30.03, outside temp 68 and intake air temp 78, humidity around 85-90%.

 

Here is what I have figured out. The tranny is not matched to the engine performance parameters. When I shift manually (automatic tranny), I never get the knock. I wouldnt rule out that it is the engine that is improperly tuned (powerband seems to happen after 1800 rpm depending on gear.