Sotovo
New member
Recently, as some of you may have read, I've been having some issues with my 3rd Gen - MPGs low, Rough Start, Idle RPMs not consistent, Engine dying after WOT (wide open throttle)
So I started trouble-shooting and doing the basic stuff I saw that may help, did an all around seafoam treatment, gas tank, crank case, and seafoamed directly into the throttle body. Immediately it drove better, lower RPMs at idle, and gas mileage seemed to go up a bit.
So brought it to my local Toyota guy, he did an oil change, cleaned the throttle body again, (got more stuff out than I could) and tested my electrical components and all came back clear, after I picked it up, it drove even better. Smoothest it has felt since I bought it last year.
But, it still wasn't starting smoothly and the idle was rough with inconsistent RPMs. Nothing drastic but not as smooth as it should be.
I knew I had one thing left to do. Clean the MAF sensor. So I bought a can of MAF sensor cleaner, grabbed the socket set and grabbed that sucker out of my truck. I have a 98, so it has the old style sensors that you can barely see, so I shined the light down the hole and lo and behold, I had some pretty dirty sensors, they werent completely black, but I did know from other pictures they should be a shiny metallic silver. So for a bout 15 minutes I sprayed the cleaner on the 2 little sensors, let it sit for a second to work it's magic, then with canned Air I would spray it and dry it. I repeated about 15 times, until it looked brand-new.
I reinstalled the air box and sensors, went around to the drivers seat and started it up, and BOOM. The best sounding start of the 4Runner I had ever heard. Sounded strong and confident. Not like the sneeze of a dying cat. I couldnt resist, I had to take it for a drive, and holy crap, It was like a totally different vehicle. Big power gain and the engine felt super strong. I cant speak for the MPG's yet because I havent driven it too much but I will update on those as soon as I can, I've been getting about 16-18 mixed driving with the dirty sensor. So Im excited to see how it is clean.
I know I wrote a book, but I just wanted to tell of my experience, it is ABSOLUTELY worth the $7.85 for the cleaner and the 30 minutes to pop out the sensor and reinstall !!
So I started trouble-shooting and doing the basic stuff I saw that may help, did an all around seafoam treatment, gas tank, crank case, and seafoamed directly into the throttle body. Immediately it drove better, lower RPMs at idle, and gas mileage seemed to go up a bit.
So brought it to my local Toyota guy, he did an oil change, cleaned the throttle body again, (got more stuff out than I could) and tested my electrical components and all came back clear, after I picked it up, it drove even better. Smoothest it has felt since I bought it last year.
But, it still wasn't starting smoothly and the idle was rough with inconsistent RPMs. Nothing drastic but not as smooth as it should be.
I knew I had one thing left to do. Clean the MAF sensor. So I bought a can of MAF sensor cleaner, grabbed the socket set and grabbed that sucker out of my truck. I have a 98, so it has the old style sensors that you can barely see, so I shined the light down the hole and lo and behold, I had some pretty dirty sensors, they werent completely black, but I did know from other pictures they should be a shiny metallic silver. So for a bout 15 minutes I sprayed the cleaner on the 2 little sensors, let it sit for a second to work it's magic, then with canned Air I would spray it and dry it. I repeated about 15 times, until it looked brand-new.
I reinstalled the air box and sensors, went around to the drivers seat and started it up, and BOOM. The best sounding start of the 4Runner I had ever heard. Sounded strong and confident. Not like the sneeze of a dying cat. I couldnt resist, I had to take it for a drive, and holy crap, It was like a totally different vehicle. Big power gain and the engine felt super strong. I cant speak for the MPG's yet because I havent driven it too much but I will update on those as soon as I can, I've been getting about 16-18 mixed driving with the dirty sensor. So Im excited to see how it is clean.
I know I wrote a book, but I just wanted to tell of my experience, it is ABSOLUTELY worth the $7.85 for the cleaner and the 30 minutes to pop out the sensor and reinstall !!
