2012 v6 at DCSB engine knocking @ 1500 rpm

add me to the list. same mileage, same conditions. same hopeful outlook. good to see it being talked about though....subd.

 

Bought my 2013 TRD Double Cab sport Auto brand new and it has been making the noise since day 1 I thought it was normal and figured it was because it was a new engine. Well after reading the stuff on here I am pretty pissed about it now that I have 6k miles on the truck. I have been running 89 but now I'll switch to 91 to see if it works. I sure hope Toyota does a recall because this bullshit will turn customers away. Don't get me wrong I love my truck but I didn't drop 34k into something that runs like it has 200,000 miles on it.

 

Use 91 or 93 octane until you figure out the problem. The reason why it doesn't do it in neutral is because there's no load on the engine.

 

Even at 200K it shouldn't run like that. My 3.4L has 153K and runs like a top. I wonder if urd's Maf calibrator would help with the issue.

 

Mine started doing this over the summer as well. Same conditions.
2010 TRD Off Road
6 speed manual
42,xxx miles
Never been hard on the truck before. Only hear the "pinging" when the a/c is running. I took the truck in to my local dealer for the safety/emissions inspection at the beginning of august and told them about the unsettling noise. They said they would take a look at the noise. As far as I know, the tech drove it around for a couple miles and said it was "normal". I shrugged and walked off. At least they have it documented in their system. I have the platinum warranty so I have a few more years and about 30k left on that.

 

That is correct even the Toyota manual says the 4L is not designed to run B85 or any thing less then 87 so why would you? In the NE you can not buy any fuel with out 10% ethanol.

 

The issues with B85 are corrosion bigger injectors won't help that.

 

I'm assuming this Pinging sound is pretty obvious? There's no way you could overlook this for normal engine noise?

 

With mine it is definitely different than the normal "taco tick". I have had that tick since day 1 and can only hear it at idle for the most part.

The sound I have been getting as of this summer is more like when an engine bogs down it starts to rattle. The problem is, the engine is not bogging down. Highway speeds in 6th gear and just give it a little more gas to maintain speed up a slight incline with the a/c on, there it is. Turn off the a/c the next day and do the exact same thing, no weird noise. I have even tried with the a/c on when the noise starts, downshift to 5th or even 4th and give it some gas. Its still there.

I've owned the truck 4 years now since new and this summer was the first time I had ever heard anything like that. My truck has a lot of noises and farts that are normal and I am used to, and this noise is not one of those (although it has become normal with a/c use).

 

Did a test today. Ran the tank down to about 1/4 (almost 6 gallons left, it turns out) and put in Shell 87. Now it pings under ANY load. Previous to this I had been running 91 for the last 6 tanks (89 once when I was up at 6000 feet). With 91, the ping was less in terms of loudness, but still somewhat present.

I'll let this tank of 87 work its way through and see if the ECM starts to adjust over the next couple hundred miles. I doubt it will. And without a CEL being lit up, arbitrating with, or suing, Toyota isn't going to get you very far. "It's just a noise". How do I know this? Been through arbitration once before on a 2002 Tacoma. I eventually won, but I had to get an independent shop to verify the problem (which the dealerships would not do, of course) as a bad input shaft bearing on the R150 transmission.

I've been down that road - it sucks up time and energy (sometimes lots) and it's not a guarantee of success.

Also I'll be in Nevada (if the truck doesn't shit itself), and trying their gas in a couple of weeks.

This damn piece of junk. Make that "this damn $30k piece of junk". Meanwhile my old man's '98 4Runner has 280k on the odometer and runs like a goddamn Swiss watch.

 

You are correct, but there is little difference, and this doesn't really matter when used in higher-compression engines. One just resists detonation by compression better. In a higher compression engine, as long as you don't have pre-detonation, you'll get more power out of the same amount of fuel.

Think of a couple of balloons, one with a thick skin (93) and one slightly less thick (87). Inflate them until they pop. The 87 one pops sooner, the 93 one pops later -- and is much louder.

Yes, I get it, if the manual says 87 it should run on 87. I think Toyota has some work to do on properly tuning the engine to run better on 87, not denying that.

My point is that the engine produces more power on higher octane, that is a fact. Toyota does not guarantee that the engine will produce the same power with 87 octane that it does with higher octane.

I will continue to use Super in all my vehicles, but I do hope you guys that insist on buying 87 (or 85 in Colorado) get a solution to the pinging.

 

For giggles, figured I'd add some hard data. I pulled the plugs on my truck and checked the gap. The gap was within the .039-.043 range specified. Also, the condition of the plugs was excellent (16,000 miles on them) as seen in the attached photo. I was looking for evidence of knock or detonation and could find none. No oil/fuel on the plugs (except a bit on #6 threads, which I read here is typical for the 1GR-FE).

Kinda starting to wonder if it really is spark knock or something else. Found a way to test that, I think. There's a 76 station not far from me that still sells 100 octane pump gas. At $8/gal, I won't be running a full tank, but I'll go half a tank and see what happens.

 

Has anyone thought of the possibility that it might be the timing chain tensioner? The sound is quite similar to my old 95 Nissan 240sx, which always had noise coming from the timing chain tensioner. It was the same gurgling/droning noise that I'm hearing.

I know that doesn't jive with the reports that higher octane fuel quiets the noise, I'm just thinking out loud.

 

While at 13,000 miles my 2.7 has no knocking ticking or pinging symptoms running cheap 87 octane gas exclusively...

...I'm wondering if the issues you are experiencing aren't from carbon building up inside the combustion chambers over time that is raising the compression enough to make your engines knock, beyond the electronic controls' ability to correct for it.

I'd always try the most simple and easy thing to do, and that's to disconnect the negative battery cable for long enough so that the ECU can go completely dumb, and then reconnect it so it can relearn the operating parameters all over again.

Once I had broken off the electrical plug on the VVT camshaft position actuator, didn't notice it, started the engine, and it ticked like crazy. That is a really important part to a properly running engine.

 

Could have something to do with it, really. I don't generally flog the truck. Maybe once or twice a week I put the hammer down to merge or something, but that's it. Usually it's either stop-and-go traffic, city driving or moderate highway travel. I go easy on the gas from stoplights and roll on/off the throttle - like I said I rarely 'stab' it. I also end up with close to 21MPG doing that (since I unexpectedly had to start using this as a commuter truck, that's the approach I took). I know carbon will burn off a bit if you hammer the throttle (the 'Italian tune-up', my FIAT and Alfa buddies call it).

 

BTDT, no difference. Only thing that changes is the ScanGauge II goes from "Ready" on the OBDII tests to "Not Ready" for a few drive cycles, then to "Ready". And that's normal.

 

switch to iridium plugs = no ping

i've owned several supercharged and nitrous fed vehicles so I know all too well about pinging, timing, and octane issues.

my truck started pinging and i let it go for awhile until i swapped in a set of iridiums. 2 years later, it hasn't done it once since then.

i run 87 octane in every tank

 

Update:

Changed the oil today (M1 5w30, OEM filter - the usual thing for me), did some tinkering and took the truck for a drive. Noise is still there.

When the noise showed up (it happened on several hills, but I could only stare at the SGII on one of them):

IGN: 20, advanced to 21 mid-hill. Maintained speed, gear was probably 4th (5AT).
STFT B2: Ranged from -1 to +2
STFT B1: Ranged from -1 to +1
(STFT = Short Term Fuel Trim)
Fuel trim basically did not change much at all. I looked at my Long Term Fuel Trim #'s, B2 was 0, I think, B1 was 2. Again, nothing drastic. All this really says is the O2 sensors are not seeing excessively lean or rich conditions, so the ECU is not compensating for any irregular fuel mixtures.

New thing: At top of hill, let off gas and coasted on the flat. Tap/ping was still there. More faint, but still there.

Feel like I'm chasing the ghost of a chameleon. *sigh*

Alright, so it's another bandaid, like 87 vs 91/93. I'm glad it works for you, and heck I may even try it if I can find a set locally for something less than an arm and a leg.

Until then, I'm going to examine a few more things. Set up the SGII to watch LT and ST fuel trim. Going to see what the computer tells me when the engine starts to shit marbles in the bed.

 

No, because the use of high octane immediately cures the noise. For my truck it generally happens when RPM's dump and the torque converter locks up.

 

Anybody willing to conduct a simple experiment to see if the rattle goes away? Unplug your VVT-i spool valves (one for each head, near the front of the engine, not hard to get at.

I put the Iridiums in last night after the truck cooled down and went for a drive. Zero change. Out 50 bucks, but glad I tried. Unplugged VVT-i spool valves. The truck threw a CEL, but the rattle is gone.

From there, I have more sensors to test (crank position, coolant temp, MAF and the throttle control sensor thingies (in the gas pedal assembly).