Drive by wire or not? Which would you choose?

I know this has most likely been covered, but if you could choose between 2002 4wd (non ETCS-i ) or 2003 2wd Prerunner ETCS-i which would you choose and why?

 

'02 4wd, cause it's 4wd

also easier maintenance?

 

what part is easier maintenance? seems like it would be harder with all the extra cables, tranny kickdown, etc.

 

cables rarely fail. non ETCS you can pull out and clean, replace gaskets, separate IAC

ETCS, well, there is a link in my sig. new TB if one part goes bad. it's basically a motor inside the TB. APPS and TPS sensor (APPS is front, TPS is rear)

 

It's not a true drive by wire anyways.

 

The 02 because the 03/04 TPS can't be replaced, have to replace the whole throttle body. Also wires rarely fail, sensors fail a lot more often.

 

There’s more to break with ETCS-I. Plus Toyota doesn’t sell the TPS by itself.

 

As far as I know, neither system is especially unreliable, so if you are trying to decide between 2 vehicles for that reason, there are about 1000 other things to look at besides what tps it has.

 

When was drive by wire introduced, i have a 04 5vzfeb and its still the old school cable

 

there is still a cable attached. it turns the APPS (Accelerator Pedal Position Sensor, front of TB), which tells the ECM how much the motor (under the TB) should turn the butterfly, and the TPS (rear of TB) reads how much the butterfly valve opens and verifies it's correct.

The cable is able to open the butterfly valve about 40% by itself (Limp Mode) to get you off the road if any of those sensors fail or the ECM doesn't get the correct response.

That's why there is a quick lag when pressing the pedal and throttle response. If you listen you can actually hear a bit of air if you blip the pedal.

 

I can trace my cable through the fire wall... it’s not fly by wire, I actually had to pull some slack out the cable not to long ago because there was alot of play in my gas pedal. There is no delay between pushing the gas and accelerating

 

So my response in short... pick the 4wd...

 

As I said, there is still a cable attached. Also, it's not fly-by-wire or drive-by-wire, people seem to think generic terms apply. It is however under the same concept, the sensor tells the computer how much to open the butterfly valve in the TB. Unless only the 4wd got ETCS (unlikely, but never know) you should see the same as this:

yes

 

Yeah my truck looks the same, except i have another wire for cruise control. So that wire that comes off your throttle goes strait to the pedal. But a computer still controls it, very interesting

 

Just saying if you get the PreRunner and ever want to convert it to 4WD you’re gonna have a hard time because you can only use 03/04 transmissions since all the other transmissions have the kickdown cable.

Get the 4x4.

 

4x4 and don't worry about it.

 

Another easy way to tell if it has the electrical wire/actuator.......
If your throttle cable connects to black plastic on the front of the throttle body, then it's the electrical wire/actuator design.


Pic from Frizzman's engine.

 

This is good advice, thanks for all the replies guys!

 

Again, it's NOT a drive-by-wire system.

Drive by wire means there is no cable coming from the gas pedal, only electrical wires and an actuator. Basically, no physical connection between the pedal and the engine. My parents have an 08 Sequoia with drive-by wire, but pretty sure my '17 4Runner has a cable, though I admit I never cared enough to really look that closely.

As I said earlier, this shouldn't really be the determining factor in choosing which truck to get. 4x4 and prerunner are two completely different trucks since one has a transfer case and the other doesn't.

But to answer the OP's question more directly, I'd choose the 4x4. Hell, I'd choose an 86 4x4 over the '03 prerunner because I want a 4x4.

But for now I'll just stick with my '04 4x4...

 

85 down is better, you get a solid front axel...