OMG help!! Discovered mechanics half @$$ incompetance

D

Dobe99

Member
Until i figure out how to pist pictures i have to at least try to describe this...

A sunny day in Oregon so i thought perfect, ill clean my MAF sensor and throttle body. Upon removed MAF i see three "DENSO JAPAN" black boxes with wires on the trucks starboard (passenger) side engine valve cover. There is also the printing "TOYOTA 90919-02212" on them "12V".

Im not a mechanic i dunno the tech name sorry. Well the one farthest toward the trucks nose is loose as #$!@. And someone put a nut as a washer in attempt to compensate. Upon investigation i see that whoever did this also stripped the bolt attaching the "black box" thing
" to the valve cover.

If someone could tell me what this is, how serious it is being loose, and maybe ballpark ideas on how to fix it? Im nervous to remove the bolt so im not sure if its the bolt thats stripped or the valve cover. My guess is its the valve cover.

Thanks
 
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5A31669A-5924-42D0-AEDB-7CEAEA8602E4_zpsxskfshzc.jpg~original


Is it the thing with a red and white sticker toward the front of the engine bay? If so, that's a coil pack.
 
RPS99SHO, yes that is it the black thing w/ white red sticker toward the front. I was about to post the same exact pic.

That one thing is loose and the bolt holding it on has a nut as a washer and valve cover or bolt is stripped (why its all loose).
 
Dobe99 said:
Until i figure out how to pist pictures i have to at least try to describe this...

A sunny day in Oregon so i thought perfect, ill clean my MAF sensor and throttle body. Upon removed MAF i see three "DENSO JAPAN" black boxes with wires on the trucks starboard (passenger) side engine valve cover. There is also the printing "TOYOTA 90919-02212" on them "12V".

Im not a mechanic i dunno the tech name sorry. Well the one farthest toward the trucks nose is loose as #$!@. And someone put a nut as a washer in attempt to compensate. Upon investigation i see that whoever did this also stripped the bolt attaching the "black box" thing
" to the valve cover.

If someone could tell me what this is, how serious it is being loose, and maybe ballpark ideas on how to fix it? Im nervous to remove the bolt so im not sure if its the bolt thats stripped or the valve cover. My guess is its the valve cover.

Thanks
Click to expand...

That's your coil packs to your spark plugs and the wires leaving the packs go to your driver side spark plugs. I don't think the problem is bad as you think. As long as the coil pack is pushed down far enough so the boot below is making contact with the spark plug, you're ok. Now with the bolt stripped, maybe with some vibration from the engine, the coil pack boot could become loose and no longer contact the spark plug and then you'll have a non-firing cylinder.

You can most likely fix it yourself. Disconnect the wire connection to the coil pack with the damaged bolt and move it out of the way. Take a good bolt from another coil pack to a hardware store or big box store like Home Depot, and get a tap that matches the size bolt and thread pitch. If you don't know what I'm talking about, a store employee will be able to help you, hopefully. Then all you go is run the tap through the female threads on the valve cover cleaning up any damage. You can either find a bolt at the hardware store that will work as a replacement, or get one from your local dealership. Those bolts do not have to be on there very tight. They're just holding the coil pack down and you shouldn't use a ton of force tightening them down.

Hope this helps.
 
Safe to drive? Truck was reading lean code P0171, maybe related? Thats origionally why i was in thwre cleaning MAF sensor.

The thing is i dunno if its serious or not. But the mechanics who did work recently (replacing valve cover gaskets) should have either noticed and told me or fixed it correctly i think.

Hopefully im over reacting?
 
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Dobe99 said:
Safe to drive? Truck was reading lean code P0171, maybe related? Thats origionally why i was in thwre cleaning MAF sensor.

The thing is i dunno if its serious or not. But the mechanics who did work recently (replacing valve cover gaskets) should have either noticed and told me or fixed it correctly i think.

Hopefully im over reacting?
Click to expand...

Yes, safe to drive. But, if you have another vehicle or a friend that can drive you to the hardware store, maybe just leave the air tube off and try to do what I suggested above before putting everything back together.

The code you're throwing is most likely due to a dirty MAF. Remove the MAF sensor from the air tube. Get some of the MAF cleaner from an auto parts store, and spray several times into the area that has the small wires in the tube. The wires build up dirt and then throws off your air/fuel mixture. I had the same code and fixed it by cleaning the MAF.

You may as well replace the air filter while you're at it. I'm guessing it's probably pretty dirty.

If that cylinder wasn't firing, you would know because the engine would be running really rough.

You know, if the shop didn't say anything, there's a good chance they did the stripping themselves. I would mention it to them and maybe they'll give you some money in compensation. And, I wouldn't bring your 4runner back to that shop because they should have said something.
 
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I forgot to ask, do you know if they replaced your cam plugs, spark plug tube seals and resealed the half-moons on the heads, while doing the valve cover gaskets? The reason why I ask, those are area where oil can leak from too. Not so much the spark plug tube seals, but you can definitely develop a leak at the cam plugs at the rear of the heads and also develop a leak at the half-moons on the front and rear of each head.

If it's not noted on the receipt, I would ask them what they replaced while doing the job for you.
 
mtbtim said:
I forgot to ask, do you know if they replaced your cam plugs, spark plug tube seals and resealed the half-moons on the heads, while doing the valve cover gaskets? The reason why I ask, those are area where oil can leak from too. Not so much the spark plug tube seals, but you can definitely develop a leak at the cam plugs at the rear of the heads and also develop a leak at the half-moons on the front and rear of each head.

If it's not noted on the receipt, I would ask them what they replaced while doing the job for you.
Click to expand...

Receipt is fairly vague. They told me they replaced the spark plugs, VC gaskets, and used black RTP silocone to seal it all up.

When I drop by next week to talk to them about the loose coil pack/stripping - I will ask them if they did replace the cam plugs and reseal the half moons, front and back.

Thank you so much for helping me cover the bases on this. This truck is likely going to be my home soon while I do some exploring and figure out the university im going to go to. So I cannot have have a$$ work on it. And even if it was just a secondary vehicle it is an easy enough engine to work on that it should be done right. Or they should have mentioned something or gone over what they could not do... Luckily we have internet forums with real people who know whats up. Very awesome.
 
[MENTION=102606]infamousRNR[/MENTION] and I did the valve cover gasket job on his 2002 and videotaped the job. If you find that you develop a leak later due to their incompetence, you could use the video we made as a tutorial to do the job yourself. We cover replacing the cam plugs, replacing the spark plug tube seals, resealing the half moons on the heads, cleaning the throttle body, cleaning the MAF sensor, and replacing the plugs. We also show a wiring diagram in case you want to replace your spark plug wires too. Included is all the torque specs out of the Factory Service Manual.

The video can't show every detail because it would be hours long. But, [MENTION=102606]infamousRNR[/MENTION] and I feel most people can tackle this job if they use our video and have the time, patience and a little mechanical aptitude.

Here's the video we made:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N5fAXAuGozI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
So after 3 attempts to change a valve gasket by Steens master lube, and 2 more visits to Steens to ask them about some very questionable findings under the hood of my truck; my truck broke down last week. One of the cillinders stopped working.

I suspected it was related to the coil pack they didnt attach 100% correctly (they admitted to using zip-ties to attach some coil packs and therefore i should be happy with the stripped bolt with a nut as a washer attaching mine), but it turned out to be a much worse mistake on their part..

That stripped bolt with a nut as a washer was all they could creatively come up with, as they dropped/lost the correct origional coil pack bolt down my engine. Yes the fiddlethumbed-bumble-fingered mechanic (Todd) dropped the bolt into the inner workings of my engine and then closed it all up and told me my truck was ready to take home. Steens Master Lube special I think they call it.

So I had just pulled off the freeway, I was going about 10mph about to pull into my driveway from a long day at work and thats when the bolt slipped/vibrated its way into a position inside of the engine (snagged in a valve) that caused the engine to stop turning. Thank goodness I was at low speed. Thank goodness the only real damage was to the valve the bolt was hung up on. Thank goodnes nothing worse happened.

I ended up just taking my runner to the Toyota dealer. Steens master lube said their insurance would pay for Toyota to fix their mistakes and that is exactly what happened...Not after the mechanic from Steens leaned forward over the counter towards my face and yelled "you are dumb!" he backed off a little and continued to say that I switched the heads on my engine to one with a snagged all f'ed up or whatever like im trying to pull some sh**. So the owner eventually sheepishly came forward after the mechanics wife was snapping at her husband to leave the office. (she works there too). So the owner pretty alright guy, quickly wrote a check and got the mechanic out.

Truck seems to be running well (knock on wood) since I picked it up from Toyota. And while they had the whole thing opened up anyways, I payed for a new timing belt and water pump myself of course but saved money due to the engine being torn appart to correct Steens stupid mistakes. Toyota found other shotty mismatched bolts, loose connections etc from Steens. The mechanic who yelled at me was kind of right tho it was "dumb" of me to take my truck to them to begin with.

Some people.....I do appreciate all those on here who helped me. If you live near Newport OR, I would stay away from Steens Master Lube for your sanity and SAFETY.

P.S. Steens owner seemed honest good as far as i can tell based off how he eventually handled it all. And that is greatly appreciated. It was the run-around nonesense and bs mainly from the the mechanic that was so frusterating. Me consistentantly telling them "okay, take an extra day if you need so you arent crunched on time, I understand. ", and me being extremely understanding when they forgot to call me each time the vehicle was done....and nothing but weeks of being without a vehicle and finding problems on my ride from their imporformance.. So yeah, I got the coil pack bolt fixed :)
 
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Dobe99 said:
So after 3 attempts to change a valve gasket by Steens master lube, and 2 more visits to Steens to ask them about some very questionable findings under the hood of my truck; my truck broke down last week. One of the cillinders stopped working.

I suspected it was related to the coil pack they didnt attach 100% correctly (they admitted to using zip-ties to attach some coil packs and therefore i should be happy with the stripped bolt with a nut as a washer attaching mine), but it turned out to be a much worse mistake on their part..

That stripped bolt with a nut as a washer was all they could creatively come up with, as they dropped/lost the correct origional coil pack bolt down my engine. Yes the fiddlethumbed-bumble-fingered mechanic (Todd) dropped the bolt into the inner workings of my engine and then closed it all up and told me my truck was ready to take home. Steens Master Lube special I think they call it.

So I had just pulled off the freeway, I was going about 10mph about to pull into my driveway from a long day at work and thats when the bolt slipped/vibrated its way into a position inside of the engine (snagged in a valve) that caused the engine to stop turning. Thank goodness I was at low speed. Thank goodness the only real damage was to the valve the bolt was hung up on. Thank goodnes nothing worse happened.

I ended up just taking my runner to the Toyota dealer. Steens master lube said their insurance would pay for Toyota to fix their mistakes and that is exactly what happened...Not after the mechanic from Steens leaned forward over the counter towards my face and yelled "you are dumb!" he backed off a little and continued to say that I switched the heads on my engine to one with a snagged all f'ed up or whatever like im trying to pull some sh**. So the owner eventually sheepishly came forward after the mechanics wife was snapping at her husband to leave the office. (she works there too). So the owner pretty alright guy, quickly wrote a check and got the mechanic out.

Truck seems to be running well (knock on wood) since I picked it up from Toyota. And while they had the whole thing opened up anyways, I payed for a new timing belt and water pump myself of course but saved money due to the engine being torn appart to correct Steens stupid mistakes. Toyota found other shotty mismatched bolts, loose connections etc from Steens. The mechanic who yelled at me was kind of right tho it was "dumb" of me to take my truck to them to begin with.

Some people.....I do appreciate all those on here who helped me. If you live near Newport OR, I would stay away from Steens Master Lube for your sanity and SAFETY.

P.S. Steens owner seemed honest good as far as i can tell based off how he eventually handled it all. And that is greatly appreciated. It was the run-around nonesense and bs mainly from the the mechanic that was so frusterating. Me consistentantly telling them "okay, take an extra day if you need so you arent crunched on time, I understand. ", and me being extremely understanding when they forgot to call me each time the vehicle was done....and nothing but weeks of being without a vehicle and finding problems on my ride from their imporformance.. So yeah, I got the coil pack bolt fixed :)
Click to expand...
OK! :tea:
 
that sucks for you and the owner, that mechanic is the cause of all of this. that being said this is why i do all my own repair, I know what needs to be fixed and what can wait, but more importantly I know not to panic about a stripped bolt. I really dont believe that the stripped bolt was the cause of the problems, it was probably one of those loose connections. the bolt simply supports the coil pack, on the other side the rubber boots simply slide down into the engine to connect the spark plugs.

once I found that my air intake was cracked and had a bunch of electrical tape holding the bits together. it was the doing of my dads old mechanic. he also charged the same as the dealer but didnt use oem parts.
 
Dobe99 said:
Not after the mechanic from Steens leaned forward over the counter towards my face and yelled "you are dumb!"
Click to expand...

I think I would have pulled him the rest of the way across the counter and had a two fisted chat with him you have way more self restraint than i do :boxer:
 
It's a pain in the @$$ sometimes, but this is why I do my own work. I'm no master mechanic but even I wouldn't do something that stupid.

Glad it worked out for you and the shop owner made it right. That could have easily gone a different direction and you'd have to sue him for it.
 
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