2003 Toxic Tacoma

[Fred]

Just read through the first three pages of this thread out of interest in learning about the auto trans from it. One question: Did you ever pull apart the pretty trans and find out what went wrong?

[ToxicGumbo]

Not yet. Surprisingly, even my wife's interested in that. There was a wild shimmy and metal in the pan, so I'm thinking I had the wrong thickness in a clutch pack or perhaps something was heat warped and I was too lame to recognize it. I actually have the space to do this now...would be interesting to find out!


-Jeff

[Fred]

*subscribed*

[ToxicGumbo]

The Toxic Taco's been out of action this week due to a failed fuel pump. I replaced the stock one just under 3 years ago and might have killed it by running so rich for the past year. A surprisingly short lifespan, but well within the warranty.

Dropped the fuel tank last night while the kid was asleep and wife out of town...



...and will rip out the pump at lunch for replacement and an evening swap. If all goes as planned, I'll get a haircut in the morning and a used 60 gallon, two-stage, air compressor by the afternoon.




-Jeff

[Fred]

Running rich won't harm your pump, only your rings/bores and fuel economy/wallet :-D

Did you replace it with a walbro? If so, 3 years seems like a predictable timeframe as they're pretty crap.

What will kill a fuel pump is running dry. And dirty fuel/bad filter/no filter before pump. I think most factory setups have this:

tank >> strainer >> pump >> filter >> fuel rail >> regulator >> tank

My truck has:

tank >> industrial grade filter >> carter black vane low pressure pump >> surge tank >> bosch 044 >> fuel rail >> regulator >> tank

Bosch pumps are FTW, FWIW. May be hard to retrofit, though.

Hope that's of some generic use :-)

Fred.

[ToxicGumbo]

Fred, thanks, that's extremely useful.

I went with something called "Import Direct", a brand carried by O'Reilly Auto. It has a "limited lifetime" warranty, which means I can drop the tank every few years to replace it at no cost. :-/

Given that, I already swapped it out last night and did what anyone testing a major repair would do: drove the truck out into the most rural and remote place I could think of. Seems fine. When money's not quite as tight, I'll start considering a more robust approach like you've detailed above.


-Jeff

[Fred]

All good, a simple job like a tank drop and refit is quite therapeutic ;-)

If it works, it works, forget about it and work on your tune instead ;-)

Right, off to my own threads with some updates!

Fred.

[ToxicGumbo]

Found out last week that the radiator's weeping around the seams. It pooled up on the ground below, which happened to be a rather healthy incline. Bought a new Denso radiator from Walmart for $75 and will throw that in this weekend.

Got some grief about how much this truck's going to cost in repairs even though in 8 months of marriage, the only two repairs totaled $105. Not a bad sum for any vehicle, let alone a 13-year old.


-Jeff

[Fred]

Found out last week that the radiator's weeping around the seams. It pooled up on the ground below, which happened to be a rather healthy incline. Bought a new Denso radiator from Walmart for $75 and will throw that in this weekend.

Geniune Denso for 75usd? That's cheap as chips! My ute radiator is a jap Koyo and cost me 1000nzd at the time, just for comparison in case anyone in particular is reading this.

Got some grief about how much this truck's going to cost in repairs even though in 8 months of marriage, the only two repairs totaled $105. Not a bad sum for any vehicle, let alone a 13-year old.

Come on Jeff, you need to change the oil and other fluids on that thing! :-p /sarcasm. Reality check for your grief giver: There's nothing expensive to go wrong on it! :-/

[Fred]

Updates please. I want to post large blue thumbs more often.