Ask the Toyota mechanic!

Any particular coolant I should get? Ill get that topped off and see what happens

i don’t have a pressure tester but my buddy might. I’ll check

I think I’ve still got a version of ts that’ll work from the taco tuning days. Any guidance where I need to go in there to find anything useful? All I ever did with it was ecu updates.

I just watched that video this afternoon

I’ve never changed mine

 

Buy a gallon of Toyota Super Long life coolant and do a drain a fill from the rad. Only do the coolant drain if your sure you don’t have a coolant leak into the cylinder. Pressure test and after a couple of hours start it up to see if you have a misfire. When you open Techsteam and look at the codes you will see a little snowflake (what I call it), click it and it will give you a snapshot of what was going on when the code was set.

 

I'm trying to hardwire a Viofo A229 Pro three channel dash cam in my '19 Limited DC. The kit includes a wire harness that starts at the camera, goes through a voltage cutoff box, then has three wires: ground, ACC, and battery. I tried connecting the battery to the Hazard fuse and the ACC to the Door R/L fuse in the box under the dash by the drivers door. No matter the setting on the voltage cutoff box (12v cutoff), my battery drains overnight. The idea is that the daashcam operates while parked in case of someone hitting the truck or trying to break in. Note that the kit has two fuses on each of the Battery and ACC leads one for the truck, and one for the camera:



None of the fuses are blown. I thought the voltage cutoff box might be bad so I got another one through warranty, but have the same problem. Are there better circuits to use for the Battery and ACC leads? Thx!

 

I’m not sure what you mean by voltage cut off box? Are you referring to the voltage step down transformer from 12v to 5v to operate the camera?

The two circuits you selected, the hazard circuit would have power all the time to keep the camera operating. Does the door r/l circuit only have power with the ignition on? On the dash camera I installed it also has the one wire for ground, one wire for constant 12v and one wire for 12v with ignition on. The camera will operate as soon as the vehicle is started but when the vehicle is shut off the camera powers down and will only operate when there is an event when someone tires to break in or someone was to hit the truck. It has a shock sensor. Did you wire the camera wrong and mix up the circuits so the camera is constantly ON?

 

The voltage cutoff box might be a device that disconnects the battery completely if the battery's voltage drops below a certain value. Just a guess though.

 

If that’s the case it’s not working properly.

 

Here's a picture:


Correct. It's supposed to shut off the camera if the battery voltage drops below the set voltage, in my case, I have it set to 12.4V. I'll check to see if I wired it backwards. I believe the Hazards is always on and the Door R/L is powered with the ignition on. Thx!

 

Well that’s the mystery. Why doesn’t the cut off shut down the camera before it completely drains it? Is there anything else that might be draining the battery?

 

I had a drawdown test performed at the local dealer to see if I missed anything else, and the only draw they found was with the camera. I haven't done any other electrical mods to the truck, so it's still stock otherwise. I'm going to look through the camera settings too - maybe there's something in there I missed.

 

Did you ever figure out the issue? I'm currently in the process of hardwiring my 2 channel dashcam and trying to decide on the fuses to tap into. I'm looking at tapping Battery into the RADIO fuse and ACC into the P/OUTLET NO2. Would anybody suggest not to use those?

I'm hesitant to tap into HAZ because it looks like steering lock, turn signals, and wireless door lock control are tied into HAZ.

 

Wh

When I installed my dash camera I just took power from the roof console map light circuit. My truck can sit for weeks and I’ve never had an issue but it all comes down to the camera you have.

 

No, I just unplugged it till I have more time to dig into it. Your idea of not using the Hazard looks legit to me. I only used those two locations based on an installation video I found on the 'Tube from a guy with my camera and a Tundra. Viofo doesn't recommend any particular fuses. Thx for the tip on tapping into the roof console light. I may end up doing that rather than using the fuse box.

 

Last week I traded in my 2020 tundra crewmax TRD pro. I purchased a 2025 tundra crewmax platinum TRD off-road. I’ve driven the truck just over a hundred miles. I’ve noticed 3 or 4 times that the steering is jerky. It feels like the tires get caught in grooves in the road. Is this normal for the truck with the 20 inch wild peaks? My 2020 did not do this. It had 18 in tires. I wanted to ask you before checking with my dealer. Thank you.

 

You will have to give a better description of what you mean by “jerky”. Have you disabled the lane keep assist to see if the truck is actually controlling the steering?

 

I thought I did. But maybe I didn’t do it correctly. Maybe that’s what I’m feeling. I’ll check. Thank you.

 

I found the problem! I thought hitting the button turned the lane assist off! Because that’s what the brake engine shutoff button does. I’ve never had either one before. lol sorry to waste your time!

 

Not a waste of time. You actually demonstrated that the lane keep assist can become annoying and most actually will turn it off.

 

Any issue with cutting and replacing the code wire on the ignition harness to the immobilizer... I think I have a broken wire and I set the steering wheel telescoping closer to the dash and it appears to have done the trick for now. A couple of days ago the immobilizer recognized the key, then unrecognized it back and forth several times as the light would come on and off that stutter back on and off. It locked out the ignition, so I couldn't turn the ignition. I did pull the key and turned it 180 degrees several times, but it wouldn't recognize it, until it did and I was able to start it. It usually recognizes the key in less than 2 seconds. Valet keys takes about 10 seconds. Or should I replace the entire harness?

 

Started my 2010 5.7 6 spd RCSB. Engine light, 4Lo flashing and beeping, yellow light with skid marks. shut it off, turned it back on.
4Lo beeping went away. Shifted into 4Hi, then 4Lo while in park. shifted to N. back to P. turned the truck off and then back on. So
now I have continuous engine light, yellow skid mark light and 4Lo light. Plugged the Autel and ran code search.
Knock sensor 2 circuit high bank 2
Knock sensor 4 circuit high bank 2

Drove to the dump and back as the reason for going today. Transmission will shift normally 1-2-3-4 with appropriate rpm drops.
But it stayed high until I pulled on to the highway but normal since it's not far. Wouldn't shift above 4th. I accelerate slowly most
of the time, so it again sequenced 1-4 but once I hit 80k / 50 mph it didn't shift up. 100k / 65 mph tach sits at 2800 rpm.
Pulled the lever to manual shift. indicates 4th gear no change to rpm. toggled up to 5th and 6th no change to tach, 2800 rpm.
couple of stop lights, manual shifted holding rpms and again sequenced 1 - 4th, all normal. Won't shift above 4th gear now.

No obvious wiring damage, don't think a rat did this. but haven't actually gotten all muddy crawling underneath.

 

Can anyone tell me where the physical knock sensor is located?

 

There are four, and they're located on top of the engine block under the intake manifold.

 

Is that a big deal to remove? Being told this issue could be wiring only as a whole raft of things at once. Is the wiring for the 5th-6th gear shift solenoid located in the same area?

 

Not really, depending upon you're comfort and skill level. The shift solenoids are going to be in the transmission.

 

Drop pan and filter area from what I understand now. Not sure if I’ll do it or have a buddy help.

 

I'm just spitballing here, but with the issue of the knock sensors apparently not being acknowledged by the ECU, the ECU may have engine protective programming to limit the transmission to 1-4 gears to avoid a high load/low rpm scenario which would be created in 5-6 gear due to them being overdrive ratios and potential engine knock and damage. Personally, I would be inclined to remove the intake plenum to examine the wires and sensors. I think that all the sensors are interchangeable, so you could move them around to see if the codes follow a possible bad sensor. This would also enable you to check for evidence of rodent damage to the wiring.

 

Your intuition thoughts are very clear. I’ll run this by my friend here. He will be helping and is a real mechanic. Thanks again for helping. Most important is to think about complete issues not just remove pieces and replace parts.

 

What do you think might cause the 4Lo light? My friend has suggested fuses might be an issue? I used 4Hi yesterday but not 4Lo

 

It has been said that Toyota likes to turn on some extra dash lights and disable some functions, like 4lo, beyond just the Check Engine Light, because people tend to just ignore it and it tends to make owners seek out a dealer for resolution for their "dash like a Christmas Tree" sooner rather than later.

 

Toyota has succeeded in creating a complete lack of confidence in their product now.

 

Ok, here is the reason for all this I think.

I failed to come to a full stop when I pushed the 'Auto LSD' button. I was just slowly heading up a rough back road
and didn't want spin as it had started doing the auto brake banging away in the back end.
When I drove up the light was red. I stopped at the top, shutdown. When i came back down the mountain
there were no lights on. I was curious about the LSD so I pushed the button another time. Nothing happened.
I think this has resulted in it going all nuts when I got home and turned everything off for the night.
Understand I didn't get any issues initially when I came home. I switched to 2Hi and drove home.

All the lights and BS came on the next morning as soon as I started the truck.