Long drive with ping?

Over the past fees days my 2012 4.0 V6 has developed a metallic ping. I believe it is the ping the TSB 0044-14 fixes. It sounds metallic and only happens under load, 1k-3k rpm about. TSB 0044-14 info - https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/t-sb-0044-14-feedback-engine-ecm-reprogram-pinging.337705/page-2

it started after I pulled a trailer for a long distance of about 500 miles. It seems to drive fine and I haven’t taken a hit on mpg. Now I have that 500 mile drive gone again and I can’t get it into a dealership until after. Just wondering if it’s okay to run it for an extended time like this with that small ping.

 

How many miles on the plugs?

 

Have you tried disconnecting the battery and leaving it removed for an hour then reconnecting?

It may have developed some sort of weird timing expectation with the computer due to towing a heavy load and you may have to reset it in order for the timing computer to relearn.

 

Not sure. Truck has 140k. Bought it at 130.

 

I haven’t tried that. Good idea though. I’ll give it a shot this morning!

 

Let’s start with new plugs

 

How much weight did you pull?

 

I would start with a battery reset, that's free, if that doesn't work then plugs is a good idea.

After that I might start looking into the fuel pressure. On these trucks the pump, pump sock, and fuel filter are all part of one singular integrated unit that's rather small and can plug up pretty quickly over time, URD has a pretty good solution to this I'm running one of their kits with a Deatchworks 255 lph pump and Napa Gold remote filter.

 

No more than the capacity. Probably not even close to it. Maybe about 2000 lb.

 

Right on. The battery is sitting disconnected as we speak. I’ll take it for a test a little later. Thanks for fuel pressure suggestions, although hopefully I won’t have to dive into that

 

It's not particularly difficult, it a lot easier to pull the bed than to drop the tank and you can make a fuel pump ring removal tool with a belt a 2x4 and some lags.

 

Went for a drive. Seems like the reset did the trick! Even feels a little smoother… but maybe that’s just my butt dyno. But the ping is definitely gone. We’ll see how it does on the long drive, fingers crossed! Thanks all

 

Clean the maf and she’ll really come alive! If you’re feeling ambitious you could switch out the rear diff oil. Good luck

 

Oh wait...this isn't a golf post?

 

Update!
It came back… same thing. Started hearing it when I went for a second drive. So where to now? Fuel pressure, TSB, etc. The main thing is I have a 500 mile drive home tomorrow afternoon. It seems to drive fine and cruise on the highway fine, but I just don’t like little noises like this. Any input on taking it on the long drive?

 

I’ll do the maf. Rear diff oil? the ping is forsure the front..

 

If you can see the plugs good enough to see that you have ngk on one side, and denso on the other side, that’s how it came from the factory so probably never been changed.

If you’re lucky, the drive home is primarily downhill. If it’s more uphill it’ll be challenging. If you can make the drive during the cooler part of the day, very early or late as the sun is going down, that should help. I don’t want to say go for it, you have to decide yourself. A slight ping, I would feel ok. If it turns to a louder rattle, ease up on the throttle or even abort the attempt.

Then again you could try topping the tank off with some good quality premium gas. Heck, maybe you just got a bad batch.

 

Well I replaced the plug this morning and it seems to run smoother. Slight ping at first and then went away. Old plugs didn’t look terrible and were not original (thankfully). Also found the gap on all 6 to be too large, about 0.08. Gapped the new ones to 0.04 and seems to be smooth. On the drive we go!

 

Welp. It is back. After new plugs and a maf clean.

 

I think you’re gonna need to read through that super long list of posts about the tsb, get to how it affected power, mpg, any changes to maintenance, etc. it might say something stupid like now it takes these spark plugs that need regapping every 1000 miles.

Once you find that info, then decide if you want to do it.

Then again the dealership may find some other cause. I’ve heard of a cracked brick in the cat causing pinging.