Is your 3.4 V6 not accelerating well? Read this thread for a solution.

I bought my 2002 Tacoma TRD in early December 2011. It had 74K miles and it currently has 134K miles.

Along the way I improved the suspension( Alcan leafs, Toytec Bilstein 5100 coilovers), the tires, the steering rack (the tie rods were seized), the brakes and had the timing belt (along with all the other belts, rollers and water pump).

It almost ride quite nicely, but the acceleration left a lot to be desired. Simply put, the throttle response was just not there, specially anytime the truck was going uphill, which out here is par for the course. I had to manually downshift all the time, for the truck to respond to my acceleration input.

I spoke with friend of mine who is a retired mechanic for the state of Colorado, about my predicament, and he was dumb founded. He explained that what I stated made little sense.

He talked to a mechanic friend of his about my situation, and my friends friend suggested several tune up items (replacing spark plugs, wires, air filter and fuel filter, which I had done previously @ 75K miles) and others I've never done before (clean the MAF and clean the throttle body).

So earlier today, I met Brian at his place and we did the following:

1. Replace air filter, and clean the air filter housing.
2. Replace fuel filter
3. Clean MAF (with MAF cleaner)
4. Clean throttle body (with throttle body cleaner)
5. replace spark plugs
6 replace spark plug wires (NGK)

The tasks were done in that order. Man o man, acceleration is CRISP. I step on it, and it just GOES.

Though the vacuum lines looked "decent", I'll replace them next week. Just passing the knowledge along.

 

Good to hear you got it figured out, just goes to show how much of a difference a little TLC can make with these trucks.

I need to clean my throttle body, what brand did you use? I used Seafoam in the past with another truck, worked well

 

The cheapest spray one @ Orrileys.

 

It seems my truck is just the opposite to much Acceleration loaded with a 1000 pounds

I need to keep my foot out of it as I sometimes forget I have anything in the bed

 

I'm with @Wyoming09 I haven't changed my plugs in 60,000 miles and when I did 60,000 miles ago I only changed the plugs, fuel filter & all three belts. I'm pretty sure the fuel filter was the original one. I could tell because brown watery looking fuel came out of the filter when I took it off. I didn't change the plug wires which were sumitomo wires that were on there, clean the throttle body or anything else. Getting back to @Wyoming09's point, I barely touch the gas pedal and it chirps the tires. I had a tire shop guy take it for a test drive because after I did the Tundra brake upgrade the caliper was hitting the original sticky weight set up they had on my rims and it was making noise. When he got back from the test drive he said damn that thing has some power! What have you done to the engine? I said nothing. So then after that, I knew it wasn't just me. I don't think it depends on intervals of mileage but how the truck is running. I was going to do a tune up but it doesn't seem I need to.

 

Gee, I wonder why the threads tittle was:
"Is your 3.4 V6 not accelerating well? Read this thread for a solution"...

 

I did all of that even pcv valve and synthetic oil, still seems sluggish . May have to do full Trans oil change its an auto and I have about 60k miles

 

I too did the PCV valve, while doing this tune up. Almost forgot, but it was the easiest thing to do. I have used synthetic oil since buying it (Rotella 6), and Mobil 1 diff oils.

 

Just did the vacuum lines.

DAYUUUM!!!

I'll come to on mileage a week or two from now.

Mileage did go up from the previous weeks, but hardly quantifiable.

 

Well, not all of them yet... Some of this vacuum lines are in such a specific shape or diameter, that I had to get them at the dealer. $40 for a rubber hose!

And there are several of those! Oh well!!!

I know my truck is almost 15 years old, but his hoses should be replaced every 10 years or 100K miles, whichever comes first.

 

One man shares 6 Quick tips to improve performance. Mechanics HATE him!

 

Precisely what I was thinking...

 

I'm upset OP did not deliver on MPG