2002 Tundra 3.4 V6

Just bought 02 Tundra v6 and trying to make it nice. It has 288,000 miles. It was leaking oil so I changed the valve cover gasket and all spark plugs. Just recently it started having starting issues. It only happens when the engine is warmed up. The engine would start up but after long cranking and the driver seat and steering wheel shakes. Anyone know of this issue? Thanks!

 

I'm just going to link back to your other reply, since three forum members have already given you advice on this one. (LINK)

But before we go on, WHERE did you buy your spark plugs? And which exact spark plug brand and part number did you use?

 

I got it it from Advance, just got the regular NGK copper ones. I don’t recall the part number but They had the “R” on the plug.

 

Well, not we know the year, I can give you this, which you should download. It's your key to debugging your truck.

A lot of the stuff I said in the other thread still stands, I'm re-pasting that here:

Clicking on his username, doesn't look very positive he'll respond. We get a lot of fly-by-night folks who don't even bother to say whether we helped fix their problem or not. All that does is make people not want to help.

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On your problem, I'm guessing you have the 3.4L V6 or you wouldn't have replied to this thread. If that's not true, and you have the V8, it'd be super helpful if you gave us any details about your truck, year, engine, cab type, if 2WD/4WD etc. If you have one of those shitty K&N air intakes or use an oiled filter, this would also be really important info, because buildup inside the throttle body from oiled filters happens! And on that note, how's it look inside the throttle body? Shiny and smooth, or do you have a lot of gunk where the throttle plate meets the body?

Another important piece of info: Are you throwing any codes? Like, is the check engine light on? If it is, and you don't have a reader, most chain auto parts stores will scan codes for free and give you a printout.

I guess one thing to realize is "What things heat typically affects". Generally speaking, in electronics, heat will affect anything with a resistor in it. Resistors are used all over the place, but thinking about components related to the engine, some big ones: MAF, ECT, Fuel pump resistor, etc.

Have you tried testing the MAF to confirm operation? (Note: Ambient outside temp will affect resistance)

Have you tried testing the engine coolant temp (ECT) sensor resistance? (If you tell us the year of your truck and engine I can tell you the process)

Have you tried bypassing the fuel resistor, or testing it? (Again, year and engine, I can tell you the process)

I'm picking off a couple of items that would be impacted by heat above, we know the engine will run rough if the ECT is faulty/unplugged per others on here's experience. It may be something stupid, like your ECT is failing, when it gets hot, it starts reading 'off' and the engine is behaving poorly. But there are a couple of other potential things...

Gas pump ... it's entirely possible the pump is fine when it's cold, but when it gets hot after pumping for a while, it may degrade operation. I would expect it to be consisitently bad though...

O2 sensors ... I'd love to see the output, if the upstream is being stupid or failing, you can expect poor fuel/air mixture and poor running.

 

Oh, and I'd also be interested ... at the auto parts store, they have this stuff called "starter fluid" aka "ether".

I would love to isolate whether this is a spark issue, or a fuel issue, or something else.

The easiest way to do that:

• Buy a can of starter fluid
• Get the truck to the state where it normally takes a long crank and runs rough after
• Pop off the air intake tube off the throttle body and shoot some starter fluid into the intake
• Replace the tube, start the truck; does it start instantly?

If so, we can rest assured, this is probably a fuel delivery problem. Which I'd be smelling all over the engine bay: Do you smell raw gas anywhere, like maybe you bumped or unclipped a fuel line while doing the valve cover gasket?

If not, and it still starts rough, I would be focusing more on the coil packs, spark plugs, spark plug wires, etc.

 

Thanks Shifty, I will try some of these items when I can. This is my second car so I don’t use it much. They are fun to drive but the power is not really there!

 

Twin electrodes? Its what is called for on the 5VZ (and yes it is a gutless Wonder of an engine).

 

I cleaned out the MAF and thottle body this weekend and still gets the long cranks. After cleaning, I had to give it gas to get it started. The long cranking is there but idle seems a bit better. No cel codes. Will try the fuel filter next.

 

Did you pull the negative terminal off the battery and leave it sit for a little while to reset everything?

 

So how many times do you think it turns over before a typical start? Mine (5VZ) has always been 3-4 sometimes 5 on cold starts and less on warm/hot starts.

 

@Johnsonman

Yea it cranks about 3-4 times before starting. I just got it looked at and it came back with a code of 1135. Oreillys said it’s spark plug and has a code of 1135. It has a misfire in cylinder 4. No check engine light but we think the light bulb was pulled. It drives very weak now with slow acceleration. It can get up to 60-70mph but with lots of struggle. Also, in reverse and in park at a stop the steering wheel vibrates a good amount. My mechanic thinks it could be a fuel injector clogged. Any suggestions? I did recently used Lucas in the last gas fill. But I have used Lucas before on this truck with no issues.

 

Misfire would cause sluggish acceleration, as would being in limp mode, and certain codes will cause it to exit limp mode (fail-safe running parameters). If clearing the codes causes the sluggishness to go away, then you're setting a code that puts the truck in limp mode.

IIRC, 5VZ-FE uses shared coil packs (1 per 2 cylinders) which have a primary coil (for the cylinder it's mounted on) and a secondary coil (for the cylinder it routes to), plug wires, and uses a specific spark plug. Some more info below taken from a T4R site, along with info on how to test the coil pack. As the coil pack is shared, if the pack was totally bad, I'd expect to see misfires on cylinders 1 & 4 or 3 and 6 or 2 and 5, but I don't know much about the 5VZ, or their coil packs, maybe it is possible for half a coil pack to go bad.

This first image below shows the setup of the engine - coil packs mounted on cylinders 1,3,5, and a wire off the pack's secondary coil over to cylinders 2,4,6.

Given this info, I would take the following action:

• Get your own code reader if you don't have one already; you're gonna need it. If you have a multimeter that reads resistance/ohms that will help too.
• Use info below to test coil pack 1, on the secondary coil, which is what feeds spark to cylinder 4
• [[[[[OR]]]]]
• if you have no multimeter, swap coil pack 1 with coil pack 3; if the misfire code changes to coil pack 6, you have a bad coil pack; replace ONLY with Denso brand from a legitimate source (DO NOT buy on scAmazon or fleaBay).
• If the misfire remains on coil 4, at 277k you are probably overdue for plug wires; I'd try replacing the wires with a quality brand name (again, NOT purchased from the two stores I mentioned) BUT I would definitely pull the plug in cylinder 4 to make sure it's not burnt up.
• If you don't know the history of the engine maintenance, now would be the time to change plugs to the correct plug type, your owners manual has the correct number, ONLY buy Denso or NGK brand plugs!

 

Thank you for the great info. My mechanic looked at it again and found the cylinder 4 spark plug boot had a little rip in it. I ordered the NGK 4412 plug wires for it. Do you think that’s good or should I get the OEM wires?

 

Toyota lists NGK and Denso as acceptable brands for plugs, I'm assuming they'll also accept NGK for plug wires.

Just make sure you buy from a legit source. And yeah, it doesn't surprise me on the plug wires. I believe your mechanic may've been telling you the truth. It just sucks if he charged you, because you coulda had new plug wires and probably new plugs and coil packs for the amount of $$ he may otherwise charge you

 

No, he’s a good guy. No charges yet. I will pay him after he put in the new wires. The truck does have high miles but hoping to get more out of it.

 

We have at least one guy on here that's got up around 800k on his 1st gen Tundra. It's possible. His is V8, and so are a couple of the other guys with over 600k miles, but ... as long as the frame doesn't rust out, and you keep the timing belt/tensioner/pulleys/water pump changed (if applicable), and you NEVER use aftermarket lower ball joints, you can really make these things last hundreds of thousands of miles.

 

Why would they tell you it’s a spark plug based on a code of 1135, which is O2 sensor related (bank 1 sensor 1)? Cylinder 4 spark plug would be a P0304 code. That code would show up when scanned regardless of the bulb condition.

 

Not sure, I went to Oreillys to get a second opinion and they told me that code. My mechanic didn’t get that code.

 

Shit I totally forgot about the P1135. I meant to mention: That code doesn't exist anywhere in any of the FSM for our trucks, with any engine (v6 nor V8). Something is fucky about them telling you that was the code. I'd personally want to get re-scanned on that. If it is actually a P1135, there's something really frigging weird going on...

 

Shifty isn’t P1135 an O2 sensor heat circuit code?

 

If you search it in Google, sure.

But as far as the FSM for our trucks is concerned, no. P1126 is the only code prefixed "P11**" I could find in the FSM for the 5VZ. And the O2 circuit OBDII codes offered for heater circuit are below.

I know they hire rocket scientists at O'reillys and all, having a job there is a prestigious thing, especially considering what a shitty source for auto parts they are (I'll never shop there, fuck those guys). Maybe the technician was so preocuppied with calculating re-entry of the next Space-X rocket they forgot to clear the last code out of the reader. Or maybe they fat-fingered it in. Or maybe Toyota completely forgot to add that code into their FSM, which is universally used by Toyota technicians around the world, it'd be weird, but I see @oscardog86 and a couple other people reported it here and replaced their upstream/afr senso and it resolved the issue.

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Oh, and there is technically a circuit malfunction code for 5VZ, which is what I believe P1135 is, but it's not P1135. At least not in the 2003 FSM. And they only have one for downstream, strangely.

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I believe that is because 2003 FSM is the one we all refer to because no one yet has found 2000-2002 FSM online. However, someone (won't say who) has downloaded 2000-2006 actual Diagnostic Code list pages from TIS. The P1135 was only applicable for 5VZ but in California only Manufactured Controlled. Starting in 2001 it was dropped.

I also feel Oreilly's is full of crap for telling OP what they told him given he has a 2002 and not a 2000.....

"I just got it looked at and it came back with a code of 1135. Oreillys said it’s spark plug and has a code of 1135."


From 2000 Tundra FSM Diagnostic codes.....note (Only for Calif.)

 

Too funny, had one of my new customers call just as I found something on a 4Runner forum saying the same. I was typing "Oh, and one more thing: I did find somewhere online saying that P1135 may be a California-spec-only..." then had to run out the door on a service call.

Good call!

 

Just got it all fixed. It needed new plug wires and there was a check engine light on for an upstream o2 sensor.

 

Cool, as long as you didn't use a generic (splice-in) sensor, and went with a direct-fit, genuine Denso (or potentially Bosch) replacement AFR/O2 sensor, you should be good to go.

 

Yeah I went with a Denso. The code went off but just yesterday got another check engine light with code p0420. Hope I don’t have to replace the cat. Was thinking to try Heet cleaner first. Any suggestions?

 

Did you do upstream and downstream both? One compares itself to the other. Good to replace in pairs.

 

Yes, I only did the one. I think it was the upstream. My mechanic checked and said the voltage readings showed the downstream was still good. I’ll look into the upstream one too. It’s so pricey :/

 

Miss fire on cyl 4 would be P304 code