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Latest Postings
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Valve lifter mixed up
Hi Ron and a huge thankyou for taking the time to share your experience. I admire your dedication and patience. I'm known here for my OCDness, as you Sir seem to suffer the same affliction as I do. That is something only an OCD guy would undertake and be of the mind to make a spreadsheet too 😃 I'm no good with excel. Tried and failed miserably many times because I hardly use it and any gains I make, I quickly forget when I need to use it again at a later date. Anyway buddy, I'm glad it all worked out for you in the end. -
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Heat/Cold control knob not working
my 2004 KZN165R recently developed an issue with the climate control dial that regulates hot and cold temperature. At first it would only turn about 1/4 of the distance of the dial range (see Dial video). Taking the face penal off it was turning around to the right until it hit the limiter tab on the dial, but when turning back towards left it would also stop but not due to the dial but a clunk sound coming from down at the Temperature control unit under the dash (still haven't been able to locate the right name and part number for this "Black Box"). See end of first video showing the unit making the sound and how the lever is not operating over full range. Steps I've taken. 1. Took the cable off the lever at the bottom of the black box temperature control. Check cable and fine, however the dial still didn't turn the full range of motion. I deduced that i must have forced it previously and it had advanced past the physical limits of the dial. Giving it some force it clicked loudly and advanced slightly more to the left. I did this a fee more times until the near full range of motion of the dial has returned and the cable is sliding freely back and forth (so not a cable or dial issue). 2. Check on the action of the lever that swings some sort of switching gate/flap inside the black box temperature control (Lever Gate video). It was clearly hitting a limiting point which was the source of the clunk sound originally. IT is like the gate or flap is hitting against the wall of the black box. I assume it is meant to do this to some degree but it seems it is limited to a very narrow range of motion and doesn't let the lever swivel its full range of motion without considerable force. Forcing it just seems to make it bend to accommodate the track in the lever it is meant to follow. So my thoughts are what is the physical obstruction of the gate/flap, inside the black box that is limiting the lever from moving across its full range of motion, which then translates back up the cable to limiting the dial being turned its full range of motion. Is it fixable or needs replacements. What is that black box even called and the part number. And does it need a full climate control rebuild to get to it, is it a part that can be removed form the bottom of the whole climate control system. Any thoughts from the brains trust? Dial Sticking Lever not moving.mp4 Lever gate not moving far.mp4 -
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Valve lifter mixed up
With my cylinder head removed I upended it and all the lifters fell out. Oops! What to do? Search the web and see what others do. People have asked this question in many forums all over the web. They asked for advice but in everything I read I didn’t come across a reasonable answer. I worked out my own solution. Here it is for anyone who may be interested. Mine was a 4 cyl 16 valve head with double overhead cams. A 1993 Corolla. One way of fixing this would have been to insert a lifter, bolt up the cam and measure the valve clearance. Then if that lifter was wrong, remove it and repeat the process with the next lifter. I think the maximum possible combinations works out to be 16 x 15 x 14 x 13 x 12 x 11 x 10 x 9 x 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 which is a very large number. My solution was to take some measurements as carefully as I could then use a spreadsheet to help me decide which lifter goes where. Easy-peasy, but time consuming. I was hoping to see some discolouration on the lifters that might have indicated the difference between exhaust and inlet valves. I didn’t see any colour difference. I completed the following work in a spare room of my house using an old table as a bench and a comfortable chair to sit on. I could have done with a micrometer which would have made measuring the shim thicknesses easy and accurate. I had a good quality digital caliper and using that was fiddly and error prone, but it worked for me. A micrometer would have been better. Step 1. I had the lifters stored separately from the head. With an A4 sheet of paper I sketched circles on the paper in the same orientation as to where the lifters would be located on the head. To ensure there was no mistake I wrote the locations of each on the A4 sheet. Decide on a numbering system (eg. A to P; i1a to e4b). Whatever works for you. I didn’t want to remove the shims should it give me problems. Use a micrometer to measure each shim size. Bear in mind that the valve stem will contact the centre of the shim. So, measure it in the centre as carefully as possible, and note the measurement in a notebook against the relevant location. Step 2. Insert the lifters into the relevant positions and bolt down the cam shafts. Keep everything oiled as you go. Ensure there are gaps between cams and lifters. If not, relocate some lifters. You need to ensure there are valve clearances on every one. Step 3. Measure the valve clearances and record the them in the notebook. Spend time getting the measurements as accurate as possible. Step 4*. Create a spreadsheet with your data. The spreadsheet will use a couple of cells to hold measurements and a third cell for a calculated value. So, for each of those groups of three cells, there will be 16 of them in one direction representing valve positions. Then in the other direction representing the 16 lifters. The idea is to display the valve clearance that will result by locating a particular lifter in a particular location. Step 5. You know the valve clearance specs for inlet and exhaust. There will be a max and min spec. Visually look at the spreadsheet at the calculated field and decide whether the gap is within the range of an inlet or an exhaust valve clearance. Compromises may need to be made. Colour the ones that are most suitable. There may be multiple options that fit the specs. There may not. When all 16 have been allocated a single value you’ll know which lifter should be allocated to which valve. (Don’t assign the same lifter to more than one valve. An easy mistake.) The attachment shows a snippet of the spreadsheet I used. To provide an idea of how to proceed. Step 6. You now know where each lifter should go. Transpose your choice by drawing arrows on the A4 sheet to indicate where the lifers are going to be moved from and to. Do that carefully. Double check the arrows against your spreadsheet. Have cuppa, then check the arrows from and to once more. Then move each lifter into the new valve locations. I removed the lifers and placed them on the paper in the correct locations, then following the arrows relocated them into the head. Job done. * You’ve measured the lifter shim thickness (Shim size). You’ve measured the valve clearance (Actual gap). The sum of those two is the distance between the top of the valve stem and the underside of the cam (Dist (valve to cam)). The correct shim size will be the Dist minus the valve clearance spec and if you measured everything accurately this will be easy. In the spreadsheet, for each of the groups of three cells, one cell shows the Dist between valve and lobe. Another cell shows the shim size. The third cell subtracts one from the other, and that will be the valve clearance, had that particular shim been used in that position. My spreadsheet showed some combinations to be perfect, others less so. Some were badly off. Use colours to narrow your decision making process. When I did this I found that a few clearance figures were badly out of spec. If I had a situation when I was down to the last couple and one clearance was within spec and another badly out of spec, I preferred to choose two that resulted in having them both only mildly wrong and with a similar clearance than having one good and one bad. I never bothered to check the clearances once the head was on the block and camshafts bolted down. I didn’t want to go through the process again. When I started the engine it sounded good even though some of the calculated clearances were worse that I would have liked. -
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Landcruiser 200 (2012) suspension swaying issue
Hi seismic60 curious if you managed to get to the bottom of the kdss issue? I have a 2017 LC200 Sahara with the same issue, very frustrating need to figure it out. Thanks -
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Whine in Transfer Case - 2011 Kluger
My 2009 Kluger has a fairly loud whine in the drive train and getting worse over the last 10,000ks.....has 142000ks all up...been to 2 places to see if they can identify where it is coming from ....,been on the hoist and used a stethoscope ect ,but no definative answer..they say the noise carries so difficult to identify....i feel there must be way to sort this problem so any ideas will be greatly appreciated.... Cheers Ken -
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Advice on new Head Unit for Corolla Levin ZR 2011
Hi there am new to this forum, a bit overwhelmed from an online search - seeking advice on a good Japanese or US made head unit for our 2011 Corolla Levin ZR and also a reputable installer in Melbourne region, Victoria. Many thanks in advance -
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Leather steering wheel peeling
Hi My 2021 Rav 4 has that same problem which has never happened with any of my cars over the past 53 years. It’s only done 65,000 km and I’m hoping I can push some acknowledgment while under warranty and hopefully Toyota can get it repaired. Watch this space.- 1
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GR mods
Hi all, New member here. I just bought a 2025 White Hilux GR Sport. I want to get bigger side steps and keen to see what else people have done to theirs such as fatter tires etc. Mine is white and I will tint the windows. Thank you. -
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2013 atara r. low torque on takeoff
hi ihave same sort of problem but wierd turning left or right under some load speed no go take foot off pedal push down again goes off had fuel filter in tank changed didnt fix it my mechanic disconnected battery for 5 mins conected up again seemed to fix it but 4 weeks on starting to do it again only a bit worse back to mechanics on tues for another go at it. if no joy may have to go to toyota dealer $$$ to get them to check it out interested if you get some rsplies cheers -
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I have a bit of a problem with my new to me 2016 diesel rav4
Hi all, I bought a 2016 diesel rav4 from the damaged car auction, it appears someone went off road and did some damage under the car , the subframe on the passenger side and the 2 brackets that hold it were damaged which was an easy fix but unfortunately they also damaged the oil cooler for the transmission and kept driving it till it stopped , when we took the oil pan off we found metal in the filter so the transmission was toast, we found a replacement trans and fitted it as well as a new oil cooler and after a wheel alignment and a good once over she was registered and good to go. Now the problem i'm having is that I have an information light come up which states " AWD system malfunction ,2WD engaged visit your dealer " and of course it goes into limp mode. We scanned it and it said that the EGR valve was at fault so we checked it out and yes the valve was not great so we replaced it , what the EGR valve has to do with an AWD system malfunction is a bit of a mystery but ok. Then I was driving one evening and braked to do a left hand turn off of the highway , it was moderate braking , not just a touch but not hard either and the same warning came up again, we rescanned it but it was the same fault so was advised to see the dealer. Before I book the car in for any work ( i assume the dealer has better scan tools ) i was wondering if anybody here has any experience with this fault and what it could be ? I was thinking just after i finished writing this , would the transmission need to be programed into the cars computer in the same way as new injectors need to be ? cheers Pete
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