What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

big sheet of cardboard can be your best friend

 

I’ve been getting the dreaded PO420 code. Not a CEL yet, but showing up as a pending code. Both 02 senors have recently been replaced since thanksgiving with Denso. Still doing some digging and researching.

The odd thing is while driving NYE, I had just left my house, not up to full speed and the truck died. Still had power, all the lights were on, radio looked to have cut off and back on. I tried to shift into neutral and restart the truck while still rolling and got nothing. Pull over, put it in park and cycled the key off and back on, and it started and ran like nothing happened. Hasn’t done this since. Could this be related to the PO420, or just a fluke?

 

...Monte sitting on the edge, any me laying out over it to snap shots down the cliff edge were more than Mike could stomach. "Stop it guys, I can't watch!" he finally said as he headed back to the trucks to wait, letting us know that @mrs.turbodb and @MissBlackdawg would surely not be happy with us....

To see pics of more of our antics, read: F.U.Rain Day 3 - Stop It You Guys, I Can't Watch!

Monte, just hangin' out on the edge.


F.U.Rain Day 3 - Stop It You Guys, I Can't Watch!


--- catch up on the whole story so far ---
[day 1&2] [day 3]​

 

You guys are braver than me. I’d be admiring that view from a good 3 feet or more further back. Amazing pics though.

 

he didn't even go out on the finger. That was truly the best experience of the canyon I've done. Back up against a cliff and nothing around you for 270º on the edge of the 3000' drop. So damn cool.

 

I’ll make it out there one day, beautiful place.

Also, I saw your truck this morning on TW:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/16-in-scs-ray-10s.584515/

 

ha thats an odd place for that to show up. Hope it was helpful for them ha

yeah it was amazing. Incomprehensible really how big it is till you're there..and even then..still hard to believe.

 

Is that when he dropped the camera lens off the cliffside?

 

Ill be joining! still debating the size. 255/80/17, 285/75/17, or 295/70/17

 

This happened to me for about 6 months or more before it become a full fledged P0420 code...turned out to be a bad front cat. Replaced both and the code has been gone for over a year now. I'm betting this is what yours is...assuming you don't have a leak in your exhaust anywhere.

Magnaflow is a solid aftermarket brand to go with if you don't want to go OEM ($$$$). I got both Magnaflows installed for $600 out the door. If you don't live in CA or a similar emissions state then your aftermarket options are even cheaper, although OEM cats will last the longest.

 

Nah, that was in WY

 

I'm a fan of the skinnies...solid 33" tire with less weight than it's wider counterpart. I haven't noticed any issues with them being narrow, but then again I'm coming from a 32" tire as my last set but I haven't felt like the narrow tires have held me back in any way. And they actually weight a few pounds less overall than my 32" K02s did, so I didn't take a big mileage hit by going up a size.

 

I just checked the tracking number and it says my new clutch will arrive today.

Step one, warm up the garage:


While it's warming up I'm going to review a few videos on the procedure. I did it three years ago, so I'm familiar with the job. Just don't want to forget anything. Any last minute tips before I dive in?

 

With 360k miles, it likely could be the cat. Still going to do obvious thing first before diving into that. Was just curious if the engine dying and the code could have any relation.

 

If the cat is going bad and is plugged, it very well could cause both the code and the engine to stall out since it's having breathing issues.

 

If the cat is plugged up badly enough, it can hinder performance and even stall out the engine. Although if it were that bad, I imagine it would be an actual code and not a pending code but maybe it just hasn't logged enough mileage yet to trigger that, I dunno. The emissions cycle on these trucks takes some time to complete so maybe once it does that it'll likely trigger the full code.

I definitely noticed a performance hit with mine when the problem got worse and the code stayed on, although I never had the truck stall on me. But I don't think mine was an issue with it being plugged up, I think mine was the opposite (burnt out) because of the lean issues I was having.

 

I believe the color matched flares on 01-04 are fiberglass. It’s definitely a harder material than the black plastic ones my old truck had.

 

I had the p0420 pop up on me at the start of a 1000 mile trip. I cleared it and it popped up about 400 miles later. Cleared that one and it hasn't popped up since. Logging 2000 miles a month for the last 9-10 months at interstate speeds I'll assume I need to take a peak at the cat. Looked at it months ago when I put a new exhaust manifold/header and it looked like a good honeycomb.

 

yeah that's how my issue started, very similar...code came up pending the first few times, cleared it with my scanner and was good for a month or more early on. Then it started coming up as an actual code, cleared it once and it came back and I knew I couldn't ignore it any longer lol. Especially when I started noticing performance issues.

I had myself convinced early on that it was due to a bad tank of gas because I first got the code after I filled up at a 76 station in a rural town north of the city, I have to run premium and I figured maybe there's was old since they probably don't sell much of it up there. But it was just a coincidence and I relied on that assumption until it got bad enough that I took it in to have a shop confirm it was the cat.

For some reason there are many P0420 threads on TW and a lot of people like to be in denial about their cats being bad, even though the code practically spells it out as being a bad cat converter lol. The exhaust shop that fixed it for me told me that if they see this code and there are no leaks, then the cats are to blame. Bad O2 and a/f sensors will throw separate codes.

 

Good to know, I suppose. I was also leaning towards the bad gas syndrome considering the places I've fueled up at in the last year. I run 87oct and have seen mileage fluctuate +/-4mpg depending on wind and rain, granted these are 1000 mile runs. If it looks shot I may just gut it and space the rear o2.