DK327
Member
I'm posting for someone on Reddit who can't post on here themselves:
"Hey guys, need some help here. I'm stumped.
So February 2017 I bought a 2002 4runner SR5 4x4. It was a 1 owner car with 120k miles, garage kept. Beeeeeaaautiful specimen of a truck. It appeared to be in almost new condition, so I picked it up. The only thing wrong with it when I bought it was an exhaust leak (exhaust pipe was corroded, common issue so I've seen)
Did some mods, Toytec lift, Tundra brake upgrade, etc. Ignored the exhaust leak because it never seemed to be an issue.
May 2018, the engine dies. Spun a bearing on the highway. I was on cruise control doing 70 mph and as the interstate started going uphill, the cruise control revved up to maintain speed and BAM. Spun a bearing. Watched the shop remove the motor and inspect the crankcase, the entire lower block was corroded, suspect that it was driven too little and idled too much.
Got the shop to replace the motor, the engine came from Toyota and has a warranty, and the shop also provides a warranty on their installation work.
I get the truck finally and start driving it, no power. Wont shift above 2nd gear and its making a VERY aggressive "engine noise" sound under the front passenger seat floor area. Drive it home, then the next morning, it was shifting above 2nd and going through the gears, but the shift points were "off" (not shifting at its normal RPM points). It was also very slow. 25 second 0-60 slow.
Go back to the shop, they reported that I had a bad exhaust leak and that my catalytic converters were going bad. This was true, my exhaust had always been trash since the day I bought the truck. I say okay, and spend most of June and July fixing my exhaust. The leaks were up as far up as the Crossover pipe, and since I'm not made of money I had to rebuild my exhaust in stages.
Exhaust is finally fixed, and you can definitely feel more power behind the engine. It will easily cruise at 85 mph, and it shifts normally for the most part. However, when I'm accelerating, it still does so very sluggishly. I mean SLOW. Tractor trailer slow. It doesn't actually feel like anything is wrong. The truck feels "normal", shifting is smooth, no delays engaging drive or reverse, 4x4 works perfectly. But its just really slow, and there is this insane, aggressive engine noise sound coming directly underneath the front passenger seat floor board. Around the area the catalytic converters are. There are NO exhaust leaks as far as I know at this point, the exhaust shop assures me the leaks are gone and the places it was leaking are sealed (I confirmed).
The truck sounds normal as long as I'm not accelerating in a "highway" acceleration situation. If I'm cruising around town or on backroads with moderate speed limits of 40-50 mph, the truck is fine. When I get on the highway and have to accelerate quicker and maintain 65-75 mph speeds, thats when the engine has to put out extra work. The engine doesnt feel restricted either, and the power output seems fine. However, it just wont accelerate as quickly as it should, and it takes more work to cruise at highway speed. It also has that aggressive, engine noise sound around the transmission when its accelerating. The noise usually kicks in around 2700 RPM. The car will also not want to push itself past certain speeds at times, especially when ascending hills. In fact, going over hills on the interstate is a huge PITA as it just wont maintain speed. Often, when I accelerate with my foot on the throttle, the RPMs will slowly accelerate up to 4000 RPM and it will sit there and will not shift unless I briefly pull my foot off the throttle a bit, at which point it will shift.
Likewise, when I have to hit the throttle to accelerate to the point the transmission needs to downshift, it will downshift into the lowest possible gear at the highest possible RPM range. For example, I'm cruising at 55 mph in 2100 RPM in 3rd and need to accelerate to 70 mph, I'll push the throttle ~2/3rds of the way down, and the engine will either sluggishly wind up in the same gear and sloooooowly accelerate to 70 mph, or the transmission will aggressively downshift to 1st gear at 4500-5000 RPM and just sit there. It wont accelerate in speed either, it will just stay at 55 mph and downshift into 1st doing 4500 RPM, while also making that very loud engine noise sound.
I had an oil change and the transmission fully flushed and serviced. I had already drained the tranny fluid before the engine repair. Since buying the truck, I would drain the transmission and top it off at every oil change, slowly replacing the ATF fluid incrementally. After the motor swap, I have also done the full transmissions service (pumped out all the old fluid, pumped in new fluid). That did help with shifting, acceleration, and perceived power, but not significantly. Noise and slow acceleration still persist.
On rare occasion while accelerating, while I hear that aggressive engine noise sound, I will also hear a faint high pitched sound that sounds reminiscent of an electric drill. This "electric drill" sound is rare, however, and I have not heard it since fixing the exhaust.
I've put over 4000 miles on the engine and transmission since the new motor was installed. I have had the shop look at the truck a couple of times since then, they assured me the transmission was working perfectly and the acceleration issue and noise was due to the exhaust leak. Clearly thats not the case, however I'm not getting any codes related to drivetrain issues.
I've driven this truck down a couple of Jeep trails in North Carolina in 4x4, driven a couple of 300+ mile road trips as well. It has survived all of these with no problems outside of what I have described above.
Overdrive worked perfectly before the motor install, afterwards, it didnt. In fact, after the install when I would click the O/D button, the truck would actually bog down more. Since fixing the exhaust, O/D stopped doing this. Now pushing the button doesnt seem to do anything.
The ECT Power feature had no affect on the noise, but I used it regularly because it allowed my transmission to stay in gears longer when accelerating on the highway, which helped me maintain momentum to get up to highway speed. Since fixing the exhaust leak and doing the transmission fluid, I have not needed to lean on this feature as much.
Here are some video's I took. The Check Engine Light is for P0240 (new O2 sensors on their way soon).
Video 1: This video will show you the sluggish acceleration and the symptoms I experience as I accelerate from ~20mph to ~75 mph. I tried to simulate the way I have to accelerate when merging onto an interstate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBzmmxY3xW0&feature=youtu.be
Video 2: Trying to show you guys where the noise is coming from.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-yyh4xBRi4&feature=youtu.be
No idea what it is, anyone here have any insight? I am completely baffled. It sounds like an exhaust leak, but its clearly not the exhaust. No idea what it is. I'm worried its the transmission, but the transmission isnt really doing anything out of the ordinary except exhibiting some irregular shifting patterns when the truck is being driven aggressively. Any input?"
"Hey guys, need some help here. I'm stumped.
So February 2017 I bought a 2002 4runner SR5 4x4. It was a 1 owner car with 120k miles, garage kept. Beeeeeaaautiful specimen of a truck. It appeared to be in almost new condition, so I picked it up. The only thing wrong with it when I bought it was an exhaust leak (exhaust pipe was corroded, common issue so I've seen)
Did some mods, Toytec lift, Tundra brake upgrade, etc. Ignored the exhaust leak because it never seemed to be an issue.
May 2018, the engine dies. Spun a bearing on the highway. I was on cruise control doing 70 mph and as the interstate started going uphill, the cruise control revved up to maintain speed and BAM. Spun a bearing. Watched the shop remove the motor and inspect the crankcase, the entire lower block was corroded, suspect that it was driven too little and idled too much.
Got the shop to replace the motor, the engine came from Toyota and has a warranty, and the shop also provides a warranty on their installation work.
I get the truck finally and start driving it, no power. Wont shift above 2nd gear and its making a VERY aggressive "engine noise" sound under the front passenger seat floor area. Drive it home, then the next morning, it was shifting above 2nd and going through the gears, but the shift points were "off" (not shifting at its normal RPM points). It was also very slow. 25 second 0-60 slow.
Go back to the shop, they reported that I had a bad exhaust leak and that my catalytic converters were going bad. This was true, my exhaust had always been trash since the day I bought the truck. I say okay, and spend most of June and July fixing my exhaust. The leaks were up as far up as the Crossover pipe, and since I'm not made of money I had to rebuild my exhaust in stages.
Exhaust is finally fixed, and you can definitely feel more power behind the engine. It will easily cruise at 85 mph, and it shifts normally for the most part. However, when I'm accelerating, it still does so very sluggishly. I mean SLOW. Tractor trailer slow. It doesn't actually feel like anything is wrong. The truck feels "normal", shifting is smooth, no delays engaging drive or reverse, 4x4 works perfectly. But its just really slow, and there is this insane, aggressive engine noise sound coming directly underneath the front passenger seat floor board. Around the area the catalytic converters are. There are NO exhaust leaks as far as I know at this point, the exhaust shop assures me the leaks are gone and the places it was leaking are sealed (I confirmed).
The truck sounds normal as long as I'm not accelerating in a "highway" acceleration situation. If I'm cruising around town or on backroads with moderate speed limits of 40-50 mph, the truck is fine. When I get on the highway and have to accelerate quicker and maintain 65-75 mph speeds, thats when the engine has to put out extra work. The engine doesnt feel restricted either, and the power output seems fine. However, it just wont accelerate as quickly as it should, and it takes more work to cruise at highway speed. It also has that aggressive, engine noise sound around the transmission when its accelerating. The noise usually kicks in around 2700 RPM. The car will also not want to push itself past certain speeds at times, especially when ascending hills. In fact, going over hills on the interstate is a huge PITA as it just wont maintain speed. Often, when I accelerate with my foot on the throttle, the RPMs will slowly accelerate up to 4000 RPM and it will sit there and will not shift unless I briefly pull my foot off the throttle a bit, at which point it will shift.
Likewise, when I have to hit the throttle to accelerate to the point the transmission needs to downshift, it will downshift into the lowest possible gear at the highest possible RPM range. For example, I'm cruising at 55 mph in 2100 RPM in 3rd and need to accelerate to 70 mph, I'll push the throttle ~2/3rds of the way down, and the engine will either sluggishly wind up in the same gear and sloooooowly accelerate to 70 mph, or the transmission will aggressively downshift to 1st gear at 4500-5000 RPM and just sit there. It wont accelerate in speed either, it will just stay at 55 mph and downshift into 1st doing 4500 RPM, while also making that very loud engine noise sound.
I had an oil change and the transmission fully flushed and serviced. I had already drained the tranny fluid before the engine repair. Since buying the truck, I would drain the transmission and top it off at every oil change, slowly replacing the ATF fluid incrementally. After the motor swap, I have also done the full transmissions service (pumped out all the old fluid, pumped in new fluid). That did help with shifting, acceleration, and perceived power, but not significantly. Noise and slow acceleration still persist.
On rare occasion while accelerating, while I hear that aggressive engine noise sound, I will also hear a faint high pitched sound that sounds reminiscent of an electric drill. This "electric drill" sound is rare, however, and I have not heard it since fixing the exhaust.
I've put over 4000 miles on the engine and transmission since the new motor was installed. I have had the shop look at the truck a couple of times since then, they assured me the transmission was working perfectly and the acceleration issue and noise was due to the exhaust leak. Clearly thats not the case, however I'm not getting any codes related to drivetrain issues.
I've driven this truck down a couple of Jeep trails in North Carolina in 4x4, driven a couple of 300+ mile road trips as well. It has survived all of these with no problems outside of what I have described above.
Overdrive worked perfectly before the motor install, afterwards, it didnt. In fact, after the install when I would click the O/D button, the truck would actually bog down more. Since fixing the exhaust, O/D stopped doing this. Now pushing the button doesnt seem to do anything.
The ECT Power feature had no affect on the noise, but I used it regularly because it allowed my transmission to stay in gears longer when accelerating on the highway, which helped me maintain momentum to get up to highway speed. Since fixing the exhaust leak and doing the transmission fluid, I have not needed to lean on this feature as much.
Here are some video's I took. The Check Engine Light is for P0240 (new O2 sensors on their way soon).
Video 1: This video will show you the sluggish acceleration and the symptoms I experience as I accelerate from ~20mph to ~75 mph. I tried to simulate the way I have to accelerate when merging onto an interstate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBzmmxY3xW0&feature=youtu.be
Video 2: Trying to show you guys where the noise is coming from.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-yyh4xBRi4&feature=youtu.be
No idea what it is, anyone here have any insight? I am completely baffled. It sounds like an exhaust leak, but its clearly not the exhaust. No idea what it is. I'm worried its the transmission, but the transmission isnt really doing anything out of the ordinary except exhibiting some irregular shifting patterns when the truck is being driven aggressively. Any input?"
