Low idle, rough idle, CEL

small world!


If anyone's also curious...here's the going rates. I was charged 298 for 2hrs diagnostics not included in this quote car rental was only 36.36

 

If you have a warranty do NOT run seafoam through it. It WILL NOT fix your issue, if anything, it will potentially void your warranty. Seafoam is more or a preventative (if you can call it that) not a fix. In fact, the seafoam will not even touch the valves if the engine is running in direct injection mode. The “self-cleaning” mode is not new to cars; it just runs in a standard fuel injection mode vs direct during certain driving conditions. This sprays the valves down with fuel to prevent carbon build up.

step 1: figure out your warranty situation. If you have one, let Toyota deal with it. If not, have a mechanic take a look. Additives are not the solution. Sorry about your situation OP

 

From where I sit, that is a pretty crappy diag from an OEM trained tech. They have the ability to put a camera in the cylinder to CONFIRM carbon build up. In addition, if you have carbon build up in just one cylinder, then there are other issues to look at (fuel injectors, valve stem seals, etc.)

 

hmmm...never heard of seafoam voiding a warranty, it's the same thing they do. When I worked there we did a cleaner for the intake plenum through the vacuum line plus connected to the fuel rail to directly clean out the injectors...smoked like a snoop dog concert. This warranty isn't dependent on them doing maintenance on the truck, I made sure to ask that when I bought it.

BUT since the truck only has 56k it really shouldn't need it so I decided to just change the plugs...once it stops raining...plus I don't wanna be the guinea pig on "what voids a warranty" XD

I'm hoping it really is just the plugs...though I just don't get how they're THAT bad at 56k, guess it's possible, I'll know more once I change the plugs. Course I wouldn't notice a mpg change if the plugs were bad, it's going to dump fuel based on air intake and it just wouldn't burn is all and the codes were all fuel mix related so could make sense...not much black soot on the side though. When I've had too rich conditions on cars in the past I ended up with a BIG black spot over the muffler. I checked when I got the truck back and there is a TINY bit but I haven't washed the truck since I bought it 10k ago either (for shame!). Too rich always caused loss of power and soot...butt dynos aren't too accurate on gauging slow power loss over time though.

I too questioned the "carbon buildup". I agree with everyone else, if it really was carbon buildup on such low miles something else is up and not normal at all. Figured that was just the tech trying to not look dumb and make an excuse (and upsale) to the customer for having kept their vehicle all day. When I worked as a tech upsaleing was a big thing and on a truck ALMOST due for a 60k it's not too surprising to upsale it as a preventative thing...but to pass it off as a fix got under my skin a bit...plus they wanted 1200!?!? shit almost 300 just for the plugs...dealerships really could get more work if they competed...I only go to the dealership for recalls and warranty...I figured being so low mileage this wasn't going to be something as simple as plugs...hell might not be...again...we'll see...damn rain

 

My guess is bad fuel clogged some injectors.

 

Plugs don’t foul at that mileage unless something’s gone awry that made it so. And those plugs cost too much to be replacing again.

I would try clean them if they’re full of carbon, find the root cause and then replace them with new ones.

 

My bad, I'm still used to the Ecoboost forums, where the turbos prevent you from using a vacuum line.

My thoughts on SeaFoam:
1. Any fuel purchased from virtually any gas station has MORE than enough detergents and additives to clean carbon deposits if the system is working correctly.
2. Seafoam works similarly to "misting" water into the intake (I honestly think water works better), in that its a bit expensive for the task.
3. If you have some OTHER issue that is causing carbon build-up (such as fuel not reaching the valves), the seafoam can knock the carbon deposits loose (carbon is a HARD substance).
4. 99.99% of the smoke you see is the Seafoam burning; it's a petroleum product.
5. Seafoam is GOOD at cleaning the crankcase; the engine not so much IMO.
6. I have tested seafoam with smaller lawnmower engines, and the results were minimal from my experience, compared to good gas.

That said, I like to use it as a preventive measure in outboard motors as well as in the crankcase, and it seems to work alright for breaking down sludge on the lifters, camshaft, etc.

IMO if you are having carbon issues or CELs from a dirty engine on a 2017 engine, there's not much good this can do. Most car manufacturers do not use petroleum products (not saying you're wrong!), most walnut blast the engine to clean out deposits (e.g., BMW direct-injected engines) and this gets pricey. This is why newer direct-injected engines usually have a secondary fuel injection system to clean the valves (Toyota, new ford engines, etc.).

Also, 2 hours of labor for sparkplugs seems ridiculous. At $600, I hope they used a walnut blaster to clean out those deposits! Pictures of the old plugs would help a lot.

With the rich condition; I have no idea how these newer engines operate but I've had similar issues with my Miata. The cause was a bad upstream O2 sensor (downstream in the Miata is only for emissions). The car would think it was running lean and would adjust the fuel trims to run rich (not throwing a code, as +/-12% trims didn't throw one). I would assume that the Tacoma would pick up on a bad TPS, O2 sensor, MAF, etc; so I dunno. You could always use techstream to check things like the fuel trims and diagnose yourself. Apparently, Techstream can show a TON of variables.

 

So I'm lazy and didn't replace the plugs yet, but I'm halfway through a new tank of gas, and this happened the day I topped off at a station I've never used...it was shell station and I'm filing a complaint so we'll see...but the code isn't coming back on and the truck is running better. Geez would have expected this from a no name station but figured I was good at a name brand. I only got $12 worth too, glad I didn't totally fill up probably the only reason I'm still running.

 

With my older rigs, Shell is the only fuel I've used that caused really bad pre ignition detonation. I'll never run Shell again.

Costco and Chevron is what I like. in a pinch I'll run FlyingJ with no issues.