2016 TRD OR, Engine clanging, 1 oily spark plug

That was my understanding too. Since I have the TRD OR with the electric powered hydraulic brake booster, I have no vacuum pump.

Tacoma world a great source for information, but man I am too old to be spending so much time on repair stuff.

I do miss the old trucks with engines that last basically forever, no computers, and just about everything DIY if you want. No mechanic required unless it is to rebuild an engine or transmission, which are beyond my skillset.

All new cars and trucks, whether Toyota or whatever brand, just too complex and unfortunately that complexity leaves a lot of room for design flaws.

Despite a garage full of tools collected over 50 years, I still have no wrench that makes it easy to loosen those 2 lower bolts on those brackets on driver side. Those 2 bolts take me longer to loosen up than it takes me to remove and replace the 6 plugs.

What are guys using for that? None of my swivel head wrenches give me the needed angle.

 

I hear you. The engines being DOHC require a lot more steps to fix actual engine issues (most of the time anyways). Electronics can be finicky though they work most of the time. I think the best time in vehicles was in the 90s when they were computerized enough to be way more reliable than carbs, but still so simple that they had very little problems in general. That kept most problems to leaks and bad parts like water pumps, alternators, etc. and when problems did pop up, they were a lot easier to fix.

Unfortunately I have no rec for the left side spark plugs, I haven’t done mine yet. When I checked my spark plugs for looseness, I checked only the right side because when I saw the stuff on the left side I decided I was too lazy to deal with it that day.

 

I replaced mine just before 60K miles, but last time I went thru the wheel well to loosen the rear bracket bottom bolt.

To check that back plug this time, I just removed the top bolt, and them bent back the top of the bracket to get enough slack to slide that large foam insulation piece out. Worked, but not the best solution.

First plug change was almost 3 hours, most of that time on those 2 bottom bolts and trying every wrench.

Took me 10 minutes to change my wifes Rav4 plugs. Same with my plugs on my older pickups from rhe 80s and 90s.

 

So I put in a new PCV a few days ago.

It helped. The old PCV looked fine, lots of rattle too.

Strangely it did improve performance, and the engine runs smoother now. A little surprised by that. More get up and go on steep highway climbs.

It is a bit awkward to get out, like the plugs there is not a lot of working room.

Just hand tightened the new one, and finished with a wrench being careful to not over tighten with it being plastic.

So next step will be the high pressure fuel pump which is being covered by the extended warranty program for the pump. That being done mid November.

Pic is just the old one starting to come out. BTW, once that starts to loosen a little with a hand wrench, then just put a short 22mm socket on it, but no wrench. Just wear some non slip rubber painter/medical/kitchen gloves and grasp the large socket which allows for a better grip than trying to turn the PCV by hand. It will turn easy by hand with the socket on it. Same for putting it back in, then a box wrench to tighten it but only snug. I am not concerned with perfect torque on the PCV. The spark plugs is an area where I do use a torque wrench as those can be fussy.