SOLVED! Post 2853 Leaking Injectors, Dealer Techs Rock! Extended Cranking after Engine Swap 3.4L 5vz

And did I mention I am a member of 6 Toyota forums, and have been actively posting on all of them? I think TW is the only one I've actually mentioned their business name on, but the name will be brought up on the others (as well as the two you guys mentioned) IF it winds up being appropriate when all is said and done.

Just left a message for our mechanic. He'd said he would call yesterday. He was about to check the crank and cam sensors yesterday morning when we spoke, then the MAF if those checked out. Now I'm in that fun mode of wondering whether he's just been too busy to call us, or if he's avoiding calling us because all of those things checked out, so he's trying to decide on the next course of action......

Getting very close to dealer time. I know our mechanic is cutting us a deal on labor big time compared to dealer pricing, and I believe that he is every bit (or more) capable, knowledgeable, skilled, experienced, and properly equipped to solve the issue for us. But I also think he's got lots vehicles to work on for folks in situations similar to ours (looking to save money, by using a friend of a friend type thing), so I'm just not sure if the $ savings is worth it to me anymore for what we could wind up paying in additional time of being without the truck. It's tough, because other than knowing his hourly labor rate, I have no clue how much we owe him so far. So I can't really assess the money savings vs. the time lost without the truck until I know how he's deciding the number of hours of labor he's put in.

 

the poor man just needs rest jen, hell its superbowl day, rip the phone battery out and get drunk like everybody else.

go try my party punch recipe if you need a distraction

seriously, this guy is doing your truck in HIS spare time not "yours" so you cant or shouldn't ride him like this is his full time project.

I know it hurts and you want this over like last year but your putting too much pressure on him and yourself to get this over with.

as hard as it is to do, think of the taco as gone and not usable, whenever you get it back you get it back.

you will give yourself gray hair along with ulcers over this.

 

Try the single barrel Buffalo Trace, it is head and shoulders above the regular stuff...today it is Hunter 90 Rye, I found a case on sale just north of Asheville at $8/fifth

Chicken wings and legs just got parboiled, and take a bake pizza on standby for the game.

Taco got the 60k oil change, the other 60k work was done before snow hit in October, the Wrangler got hood opened, washer fluid refilled, tire pressure checked and that will be get the 80k oil change in six weeks or so. With the new muffler and rear heat shield it runs VERY quiet now. The WRX will be back, with the wife, and that needs the 35k service, but not today. Most likely NEXT weekend.

Next set of projects are a set of new sneakers for the big BMW GS motorcycle, new rocker panels and headlight switch (and 49 cent spark plugs) for the 68 Dodge Utiline, and new belting material for the turn of the century Singer 29-4 sewing machine. I got some machettes from Columbia and need to make some sheaths for them. One will live in the Taco, one in the Wrangler...

Howard

 

I don't think you understand our situation. We do have a choice here, to take it to a dealer and pay higher prices. And sure, there's no guarantee that they'd get it done any faster, but it's likely, because they assign one person to one vehicle at a time, whereas the situation we're in now is one person to like 6 vehicles. When we dropped off our camera and EFI relay yesterday, he had ~5-6 cars in his driveway. And he told us on the phone yesterday that he is basically buried with other cars right now. And it's not just wanting to get this over with because it's stressful - it's creating all sorts of issues for us. I want to start job hunting, to pay for my expensive new engine that I didn't have any idea I'd be needing when I quit my last job, but I'd like to have a vehicle to get to job interviews. I want to be able to drive to the park to take my dog hiking every day like I normally do, but I haven't been able to do that for 2 months. We'd like to go hiking to places that are more than 10 miles from home like we normally do on weekends, but we can't til the truck is fixed because we don't trust our Civic to go any sort of long distance. I'd like to be able to run errands when I need to, but I have to wait until my husband isn't using our Civic to go to work. Sure, these are all problems that we can live with if we have no other choice, and I realize there are much bigger problems in the world than the stuff I'm describing here. But the thing is, we do have a choice - we can keep dealing with these inconveniences to save a few bucks, or we can spend more and likely put an end to these inconveniences quicker.

So I have no desire to pressure our mechanic, and I'm grateful for the work he's done. I just don't know how much longer it's worth it to me to save money in exchange for being without my truck that much longer. A big part of why dealers charge premium prices is because they typically deliver the fastest turnaround time. One technician per vehicle. And when we start talking about renting a car until the truck is fixed, the savings of continuing with the mechanic that's cutting us a deal but takes longer because he's only one guy with lots of vehicles to work on starts to become a wash.

 

Jen, it seems to me the current mechanic is doing diagnostics on the truck, he certainly cannot be doing that all day, every day.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but your truck does function. If so, ask if you can use the truck during week and drop it off on the weekends for him to continue his examination.

It's one less vehicle off of his property and you still have transportation.

... just a thought.

 

I LOVE THIS IDEA! Just called neighbor to ask if he could try to get our mechanic to call us. I am totally proposing this idea when he calls, why didn't we think of this sooner?!??!? Thank you!! We're so in this tunnel vision mode that we couldn't even think of something like this, which is why these forums absolutely rock! Brilliant suggestion, thanks again!!

 

Still waiting to hear from him, but reviewing this starter stuff again in the meantime....

 

Sorry people, no new info, it's just easier to bring stuff to the "front" of the thread when I'm reviewing a topic.....

 

http://www.yotatech.com/f115/no-injector-pulse-191125/

As usual, no conclusion posted (I will not do that to my faithful cheering committee, or future people reading this and suffering the same issue!), but certainly seems like some of the stuff on this thread could apply to our situation....

 

I remembered someone mentioning the noid light test way way way back when. Too bad we didn't do this test way way way back when. Instead we trusted the people we were paying thousands of dollars to to do it.

 

our mechanic just called. he found the crank sensor to be okay. but the cam sensor was way out of spec, and had visual damage on it. he asked us to bring him a new sensor while he has the timing cover off and the hood up. so we are on our way to schucks to grab a new one and run it over to him. false hope for the day? we will see... stand by TW

 

I've never changed that sensor. Can you ask your mechanic to let you snap a pic of the sensor and physical damage. I just want to know for future reference.

I Hope this could be the missing link.

I've been thinking from the start, and still do that the trouble would be something related to the install. After all it did not have this hot start issue before the new engine was installed.

 

Exactly. He did take a pic, and also said timing belt, water pump, and idlers all looked brand new (phew!). He said the sensor was dented, and it looked like someone took a chisel to it. Hmmm, I wonder who might have done that? His words were, "You need to try to get some money back from those guys!"

Yep. Leaving now, will post when we get back. He's flying to Florida to visit a sick brother tomorrow, so sounds like we're bringing Taco home whether this is the fix or not - that makes me very happy

 

crossing fingers, and toes, knocking on wood, but it sounds like this is going to be your last fix and everything is going to work great now.

 

I think most of us think you need to get some cash, just for you to keep your mouth shut ;-)

 

I think she should get $1 refunded for every single post in this thread, that sounds fair

 

Well, I was thinking a grand would be the bare minimum. That's not even 20percent knocked off.

 

A T.V. show is in order, here.

 

Pics about to be posted of our DENTED CAM SENSOR and FAILING INJECTORS that were "supposedly" just cleaned/tested/replaced as needed.

Our new mechanic is a freaking genius!!! Just found out he teaches an automotive course at our local community college, the same college that I just joked about taking a course on fuel injection systems at the other day! Wonder if that's the class he teaches.

He said we're getting her back tonight, one way or another. Seemed more confident this time than ever before that this is finally it guys!

Said it's obvious this was a deception on their part, and speculated that it was likely some kid who just put it back in dented and hoped it would work, and never fessed up, even after we came back there multiple times to have the new hard warm starts issue THAT WASN'T PRESENT PRIOR TO THE ENGINE SWAP looked at. I'm sure denting it was an honest mistake, but there's NOTHING honest about putting it back in like that, and watching us suffer the consequences of that decision for a full month beyond when we should have received our truck back in 100% tip top condition, in terms of EVERYTHING RELATED TO THE ENGINE. That was a flat out deception, period. No speculation there. And I am not going to be forgiving of that. Honest mistakes are one thing, flat out lies and deceptions are a totally different ballgame.

OK, if we're going with Keakar's theory, everybody start posting at warp speed, ASAP!!!!

 

Did you pay with a CC? Call the CC company and contest the fees you payed these ass clowns.