I contacted him and have a kit on the way, but my wife just called and told me that the dash is lit up and the car is in limp mode. What do I need to do now? Is there a way to get the pump to cycle again and close the valves, or will I need to do the block off plates? Will disconnecting the battery close those valves?

OK, so here's what you need to do......if the car is in limp mode let it warm up(obviously wife probably already has it hot by now).
Turn off car. Disconnect battery. Wait 10 minutes.
Turn car back on(engine still warm/hot)......once the ECU sees hot(by hot I mean normal running temp, but not early morning "cool") antifreeze, if will not try to engage the AIP system......and if the valves did close when you turned off the engine you will be able to drive without being in limp mode.
**Edit: You MAY not have to do the disconnect battery thing......you can try turning off car once it is hot and restarting and see if it is still in limp....much quicker to try that first then the whole battery thing) edit over.

AND......if this is the case NOW is when you want to put the kit in.....when you know they are closed.
You might have to do this above sequence a couple times if the first try doesn't work.
Your kit should be there tomorrow.
So if you can get valves closed today when she gets home, either leave it alone til you do the kit.......or if you have to drive it tomorrow, just make sure valves are closed before installing kit. Once they are closed......and kit installed, they will NEVER open again, the pump will NEVER run again, the entire system is tricked into thinking the ambient conditions are such that the system is not needed so ECU does not call for it.

I keep trying to preach to do the bypass NOW for you V8 owners so you don't get stuck in this situation. I don't care what bypass you buy or make your own.....its just better to be done with it and have no worries. If anyone wants one I have a few made up I can get out Monday if interested.
$45 shipped. It's JUST the bypass system(relay based), not the blockoff plates. But if you do this mod before you start having issues(limp mode) you don't ever need the plates(which are a PITA to install anyway).
jeffcolemaps at gmail.com if someone needs help or a kit. I'll be glad to offer what I can.

Thanks for the help. I was thinking that this would be the case. She has driven it a few times today and it has stayed in limp mode, so I will try the battery disconnect tonight. The mail usually comes in the morning, so I'll be watching out for the kit and installing it as soon as I get the valves closed.

I didn't even know that this was an issue on these engines (I don't keep up with the boards much anymore, ran out of money for mod'ing!). I'm glad I found this solution though instead of tearing the engine half apart for some worthless emissions pump.

Well, no luck so far. I restarted the car this weekend and the pump didn't run and I didn't see any codes, so I shut it off. I installed the kit last night and went to start it - no pump, no codes. I got a block down the street on a test drive though and it went back into limp mode. Tried disconnecting and restarting a few times, but no luck. I took the relay kit out last night and started the truck this morning... no pump, but it went back into limp mode.

Any idea why the pump isn't running now (or why it's quiet)? Any other tips on how to get this thing working again, other than installing the block off plates?

OK.....so......need to do a little trouble shooting. I myself was "burned" when I did mine because I didn't get the bare wire leads far enough down and/or make good contact with the Purple relay spades.......so the relay in the kit was not getting power.....thus nothing was working.
If you have a voltmeter you can check this be holding the voltmeter leads on the spades on the KIT relay where the wires hook to it......and have another person crank the car.....you should see 12V for a couple secs and then back to 0. Verify that first.

Other thing you need to know......the blockoff plates will not cause the pump to no longer be in limp mode....they are a safety thing only.....for people whos valves are stuck open. The bypass will make the ECU never look to check if they are open or not.

That is why I think you have an issue with the install of the kit. No power is most common cause. I think I emailed you my cell number the other day, so call or text and we'll walk through it.

I wrapped the wires around the relay spades, so they should be getting sufficient contact, but I'll check when I get home.

I was under the impression that if the valves were stuck open, the car would be in limp mode regardless of whether you had a bypass kit or not. The kit would cause the pump not to run, therefore not opening the valves ever again. If they were stuck open though, the vehicle would stay in limp mode until they closed themselves, or the blockoff plates were installed (thereby tricking the car into thinking that they were closed). Is this not accurate?

I don't suggest wrapping the leads around the spades.
I straighten the bare wire out and slide it into the female spade that is in your fuse box under purple relay......slide one wire in each of the 2 spades closest to engine......color of wires doesn't matter......then press in purple relay and they will be tight and not move.

When the bypass is working, the ECU will not look at, examine, inspect, check, etc ANY of the AIP system(pump or valves). The bypass should instantly "cure" your limp mode.....the plates are required if your system died in the valves stuck open position......you don't want exhaust gas back flowing when its not supposed to....the plates prevent this from happening IF your valves are stuck open.

I think you still have possibility of getting them closed......may take some patience tho.

So how can you tell if the valves are open or not if that doesn't affect the limp mode?

I'll mess around with the wiring when I get home tonight.

once the kit is in place and working you wont be able to tell.
before the kit it functioning you need to get codes cleared and drive around and make sure your NOT in limp mode......then immediately come home and install or put power to kit.

Best way I know to do this is warm up engine....I'm assuming your in limp mode at this point. If not, skip down to "pull in driveway".
Turn off car. Disconnect battery to clear codes or have them cleared w a code reader. Then start up car while engine still hot(pump should not come on regardless of kit or not). Drive around. If ok......pull into your driveway and do bypass mod.

Other way is to get copy of Techstream software off ebay, put it on laptop(last I checked it needed to be XP laptop) and it will show valve position(and a bunch of other cool stuff too).

Ok... I'll have to keep messing with it because it's been in limp mode since Friday. I'll try a couple of hot restarts tonight after clearing the codes. I did that a few times last night to no avail, but I had the kit hooked up. I disconnected it last night and started it cold this morning, but it still went into limp mode. I'll try it hot tonight.

I know this is an old post but you need to fix that link as it doesn't lead to anything since the shortened link posts instead of the correct webpage.

ok. Try clicking on the first link in this post:

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/proble...ml#post1328925

Well, it took a couple of days of messing with it, but I finally got the pump to run again, which closed the valves. I wired the bypass up and so far I haven't had any additional trouble. I need a few more days in order to fully trust it, but so far it seems to be working as designed. Based on other's experiences, I shouldn't have any more troubles. A very quick and easy fix compared to pulling the top half of the motor apart for a worthless emissions pump.

Thanks to slyfox for sending me the fix quickly and walking me through some troubleshooting!

Just got this issue. Plan on using the bypass.

However, I need to drive the truck in the meantime. My truck is driving fine currently with no limp mode. Is there anything I can do in the meantime to disconnect the pump (understandably the codes will continue) until such time as I can install the bypass?

Can I just unplug that relay for example for the time being?

I don't want my issue to worsen and have to use the plates if I can avoid it.

One other question....

I plan on going with the SLYFOX bypass but I did look on ebay and the plug'n play version on there doesn't seem to require a wire running to the starter relay? How does that kit work if it is not connected to the starter relay?

Thanks