Water, not Coolant, in Cylinders 4/6

Good lord man let them try there fix . Then go from there . Is your coolant bottle getting low ?
I think he is giving you the wrong info based on lingo . I’m going to guess coil packs getting water on those cylinders .

 

No coolant loss. I’ll update once I hear back this week.

 

Seems to me that water would evaporate pretty quickly on a hot engine and unless you are running around without a hood, the engine stays dry even in the hardest rain.

 

What plastic cover are they talking about? To my knowledge; there aren’t any “covers” over the left bank coil packs…the intake manifold hangs over them some but there is no official part.

Curious what actual fix they’re going to do.

 

I’ll post a photo once it’s done. But if they don’t do anything else and it runs just fine I’m kissing it goodbye. It’s not worth it to keep fooling with it: I’ll just get another one the day it leaves the shop.

 

So, the repair/dealer told you "Mercury lined up with Venus and sun light reflected off of some swamp gas and caused water to accumulate in Cylinders 4 and 6"?

 

I don’t know there was a Toyota dealer in Sedona.

 

Is this a Coil Pack over the Spark Plug? It could be water leaking by the Coil Pack Seal depending on the location and if there is water making it's way to the engine top. Simple check

 

The dealers diagnosis is entirely plausible. Their description of how it got into there isn't. Playing devils advocate here, plastic cover is missing, water get past the coil and sits above the spark plug, that could easily cause a misfire. Then when the dealer tech goes to check the plug and coil he doesn't bother to look down the sparkplug hole at the few ounces of water sitting on top of the plug. He just takes the plug out. Now all that clean water just got the go ahead to leak into the motor. No other way clean water is getting on top of the piston unless your son needs a snorkel for places he drives. The water on the piston situation didn't occur until the plug was loosened, that's also why there's no evidence of motor damage. There's a fair chance the two coils in question are shot. Once they start misfiring out the side of the coil that new path becomes an alternate spark path and the new (misfire) path can get used randomly.

 

Good Point.

 

I never thought of this possibility. The plug holes are pretty deep and no guarantee he saw any water sitting on top of the plug before they were removed. I just can’t figure the source of water.

Dealer is doing this procedure for free so I’ll get word this week if it runs fine after replacing the coils. One of them was shot.

 

Dollars to Donuts what I described is exactly what happened, luckily it's not serious. I got into a habit from working on dirtbikes, before I remove a spark plug I blow around the plug with air from the compressor so anything that may have settled around the plug hole escapes somewhere besides inside the motor, dealers don't do that and who looks down the hole before taking the plug out? Usally it's dust and possibly debris that settles down there if anything but with the plastic cover off I can easily see water getting past the stick coils. He probably blasted a couple large puddles driving down the road, that cover isn't only for looks.

 

It’s going to end up being something simple. These trucks are pretty tough. Even though people don’t think so.

 

Just to update on this:

The cover was not plastic at all; it was a very thick foam that covered the entire #6 coil pack. It did not cover the #4 coil pack at all, so I still reject the dealer’s explanation. The truck ran fine after I picked it up, but the same thing happened the last time they serviced it for the same reason.

But—it’s their problem now anyway. I was on a work trip over the weekend and came home last night…sold it to them outright today. I leveraged an offer from Carmax and got one from their company HQ (AutoNation) and secured full wholesale + a little bit extra. The truck hasn’t been driven since I picked it up and it felt like it was missing as I drove it to the dealer. Problem solved. Time to find another Tacoma…

 

Why are we even entertaining the idea that water is getting into the engine via the spark plug hole because of a missing cover? The spark plug needs to prevent huge pressures within the cylinder from escaping. A tiny bit of water sitting on the outside has no chance of getting in.

Water gets into a cylinder engine 2 ways: From the water jacket due to crack or bad head gasket or via the intake.

How does this mechanic know there is water in the cylinder. Did he use a scope/camera? If so, how can he determine that it is water?

Nothing is adding up for me.

 

He used a scope and camera.

 

Years ago in my high school days, we were hanging out at the local 7-11. It was midnight or later, and my buddy that ran the store and I were hanging outside enjoying the nice weather. Out of the dark quiet, we hear some awful noise and appears an Oldsmobile Cutlass, or whatever one the hood opened from the windshield to towards the front bumper. Us being wanna-be gear heads offer him help. Turns out, this racket was being caused by a couple of spark plugs ready to drop or shoot out. I think the owner made some comment like "I just changed the plugs,,, must have forgotten to go back and tighten some down"
Point being, there is no earthly way gravity is pushing rain water past this seal and cylinder pressure isn't compromising this same seal from inside out. The tech should be demoted to parking lot cleaner and his supervisor should clean the restrooms.

 

Technically 3...add fuel since these are direct injected, the fuel does not get introduced in the intake manifold. But I still agree the water was sitting on top of the plug until the plug was removed. Otherwise it would be hydrolocked if there was water in the cylinder and the engine was turning over.

 

Is there a disconnected vacuum line on the intake near 4/6? Pretty unlikely, but if there's an open vacuum port near those cylinders and a ready source of water...

 

Here is a video about how to deal with water in the cylinders (and other things). He drove right through my hood on the way home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZYmpLHJ1GU