SOLVED! Post 2853 Leaking Injectors, Dealer Techs Rock! Extended Cranking after Engine Swap 3.4L 5vz

That's awesome! Go USPS!!!

 

We're doing it guys. Dealer at 8:20. I'm sure he has thought about us, and yes, I'm scared as hell of what the dealer will say vs. if we had waited for him. I adore that guy. It's been a terrifying decision to make, I pray it's the right one. But I can't wait anymore. It's just been too long (2.5 months!!!), and with the circumstances he's in right now, there's no guarantee when he'd have the time to deal with our truck again. And we can't even drive it with confidence the way it is right now, which is what he wanted us to do to get the computer to relearn all the sensors. And I'm not calling him to check in, with what he's dealing with. Just because we got one code, to me, it seems we may have many more problems than just what that code represents. Gotta do this, in hopes of getting some kind of normal back into our lives ASAP, extra cost or not.

Please send us all of your positive wishes for a safe trip out there (going to attempt to drive it the 20 miles out there), a speedy diagnosis, and a simple issue to fix TW! Thank you for all the support!! Will post results, hoping and praying we'll finally have a diagnosis in a few hours!

 

Best of luck, you should be OK on the drive...

Howard

 

Hey there DP, wanted to let ya know we did try this last night, and thank you for the advice - mostly thanks for reading through those FSM documents - doing that is no picnic, especially when its for someone else's truck! Appreciate it! The idle speed jumped up as it should have when the hose was disconnected, so from what we could tell/assuming we followed the steps correctly, everything checked out as it should.

Koditten, we also did what you suggested, with wiggling the wires to the TPS sensor while watching the TPS value on Scan Gauge while truck was running. No change in TPS value at all, so I assume that means the wire/connection is OK. Thanks for the tip

Husband spent a fair amount of time looking back over the truck slowly and carefully last night as a last ditch effort. The only thing abnormal he found was that the O2 sensor on the tailpipe was missing a bolt (should have 2 per Haynes, but ours only has 1). Guessing that wouldn't explain everything that's been going on.

Although, missing a screw does seem fitting for our situation, doesn't it?

 

Thanks hetkind! Buffalo Trace tonight regardless of outcome, will think of you on my first glass! Toast to our Taco tonight, okay?

 

Let me know how it goes, there is a fresh bottle of buffalo trace in the cabinet

Howard

 

Wow. Finally called engine mechanic yesterday, to ask why our MAF was replaced, in case it provided some helpful clues for the dealer appt this morning. The swapping of the MAF was 100% DENIED. WOW. The conversation turned to discussing all the other "goodies" that have been discovered since the engine swap. Per his request, I emailed him 2 photos of the dented cam sensor (one of the two is on this thread, both might be). His response email is "can you give me a photo of the cam sensor that is in focus?"!!!!!!!!!!! How much more focused does a photo need to be to see that GIANT F'ING DENT???????? In general, his overall response is exactly what I feared/expected - defensive and rude, offering all of ZERO responsibility/apologies for ANYTHING. Even the injectors. Wow. Will share more on this later, but gotta focus on getting prepped for dealer now. WOW.

 

It's sad. Unfortunately, non of those things can be verified, unless you had pics of the engine before it was changed. Might as well write those ass clowns off.

You'll feel good soon when the dealer gives you the cause of the problem.

 

Ah, but we do have photos, and videos of under the hood before the engine swap. Remember? Many of them are posted on this thread. Granted, until I review them, I have no clue how "focused" they are, and apparently he really wants things to be focused.

 

Pics are fine, tell him he needs glasses, big coke bottle shaped, so he can see what the hell he isin't doing.

 

Best of luck, can't wait for the final episode of the season, hopefully not a cliffhanger!

 

Above is a description of the function and action of a dashpot, not found on this auto trans application. We were talking about the "throttle opener" which has a completely different function and action, exactly as I described.

 

And the diagnosis is.............

We have no idea. Sorry, wanted to make it exciting for you guys.

Dropped it off, got face time with our technician, Paul. He was very nice, and seemed to listen closely to our extremely condensed version of a whole lotta information, but he was also very clear that it's likely going to take him much more than a 1 hour diagnosis to determine what's going on. That was not something I wanted to hear, but certainly understandable. They will call us before anything beyond the $110/1 hour diagnosis happens. We asked the service adviser, Kevin, if they could please take photos for us if they find anything damaged. They were super nice about it and said they'd email pics to me if anything like that was found.

We got a CEL again for the same code (P0120) when we were not even halfway there. Traffic was HORRIBLE, so unfortunately we weren't able to time it as planned - to arrive 1/2 hour early, shut it off, then they'd be able to duplicate the issue at the start of the appt. Yeah, that was about the most stressful ride of my life. Drive fast to get there ASAP vs. drive slow to minimize whatever damage might be occurring. Good times indeed. Thank goodness we made it, and apparently without any catastrophic damage, or at least none that was obvious yet.....

Husband insisted on renting a car from them, which I was against, as we don't have the cash for such things right now. But rather than have a full blown feud in front of the folks we are COUNTING ON at this point as a first impression of us, I went along with it. So he's driving a brand new Rav 4 today, and I've got our Civic so that I can take Dolly to the park (no dogs in rentals). At least it's not raining, so it will be VERY good for me to get out and get some exercise. Good for her too - she's been so ignored since day one of the piston hole, our lives have revolved around the Taco 24/7 since then.

Which is why, even though I'm terrified of what additional costs they'll call us and ask for consent on, I think we did the right thing. This is just wearing on all of us too much and it's not worth it anymore.

The notable details from talking to the tech were:

1) When I explained everything that's been replaced on our fuel system, I made a general statement like, "we basically have a brand new fuel system," and he said, well, not really. I know what he means - sort of - I realize there's other stuff on the fuel system besides just the injectors, FPR, and pump, I just don't know EXACTLY what else there is, beyond those and the rails. But I've asked all of the involved mechanics more than once if it could be an issue with some other component on the fuel system, such as the rails themselves, or something else. And every time, that question has been answered with essentially a no.

2) The first thing he said when we described all the highlights to him was, "could be a leaky injector." I explained again how we've had them serviced 2x, or at least for certain 1x by someone who's considered an expert in our area, and that the 2 that were considered failing were replaced. The look on his face made it clear he's definitely not ruling out leaky injectors based on that. Which is great, because obviously our priority is fixing the issue, regardless of what it is. But I will not be very happy if injectors that I have paid 2x to have serviced/replaced as needed are found to be the culprit.

The good news as far as the tech and adviser alluding to how it will likely take much more than an hour to diagnose was how they will handle the time/cost issue. We asked, "does the cost clock start at 8:20 even though the issue will not duplicate until 30 min from now, and then if he needs to repeatedly duplicate the issue to identify the cause, will that time between count?" Essentially the answer was no. Not a guaranteed across the board no, but in general it was a no. Thank goodness for that at least.

That poor guy has a hell of a job in front of him. Adorning the passenger seat and passenger floor area, we had a box filled with damaged/old parts that have been replaced, the plugs we pulled out last weekend, the one and only injector report we ever received, the engine break in paperwork, the invoice from the engine work, our donor ECM, and a full page of typed notes of all of the events formatted as a timeline from 11/30 piston hole to present. He looked just a tad bit overwhelmed when he got in the truck and saw all of that. I tried my best to label/organize things to make it as simplified as possible, but let's face it, there is nothing simple about what has happened since 11/30. Nothing. So. Many. Variables. I'm actually quite proud that I managed to get as much info as I did into one page using 12 point font! Margins were non existent, but hey, ya can't win 'em all, right?

Will post updates the second I hear any! Thanks for your continued support and concern guys!

 

I'm in to the end. You got good karma working for you.

 

jen, I just talked to the dealer that has your truck and he had very bad news, your truck fell off the lift and it is completely totaled so to make it up to you they are giving you your choice of any brand new Toyota on the lot for just the cost of sales tax

but then I woke up from my nap

 

Now that is just mean.

 

jen the way labor is charged is based on a chart so each repair has a time attributed to it and that is what they charge you, never less but sometimes more if it takes more time to diagnose, then they throw in time for finding the problem but most times they combine that into the item time. what I mean by that is the book might say a timing belt is 3 hours but in reality it only takes 1 hour, well the other two still get charged for so that makes up for the time to diagnose it and test drive it after to make sure its fixed. as you can see there can be a lot of grey area in there to charge whatever they want to but most places are fair about things like that.

where you can get hurt is the electrical troubleshooting is often done by the actual hourly rates based on time spent on it so that can get very pricey very fast but "most" shops, even dealers, wont kill you with a $1,000 bill for that if it gets very involved but every shop handles this "basic decency in fair pricing issue" differently

yep, im a stinker but its done between friends, just wish I was there to see her laugh or throw something, not sure which happened, hope the dog was safely out the way lol.

 

I just hope I get my cookies and cinnamon rolls after all of this is over! hehehe

 

O K. It sounded to me like he was talking about the part I was thinking about. Do you got a pic of the part? Just curious.

 

I think she might be selling them just to put gas in the truck after all this