Sort of stranded, code 304, HELP!

[Riad]

Welp, was driving with AC on at full. Came to a stop n go traffic and idle started becoming rough then CEL started to blink and stayed on. Plugged in my OBII right away and got 304. Cylinder 4 misfire. Some how made it to the parking lot and truck wants to stall. No over heating but sort of blue/black smoke was coming out. Any temporary fix so I could drive 40 miles to home or I am completely stranded

Thanks

 

[corsair23]

I'll start off in hopes of helping, maybe.

These are just wild guesses but:

First one is to check the wire bundle passing through the firewall (sorry can't remember which side it is on but I think PS) and see if it has dropped down onto the exhaust manifold area (would go with my PS theory ) and started melting. Some chafe at the hole and some melt on the exhaust - Recent threads speak to a bracket or some such that breaks and allows the bundle to fall down. If so find something to tie it up and check for damaged wires.

Second, chaffed fuel injector wire going to #4 cylinder.

As for making it home...Maybe some electrical tape if one of the above is the problem would get you home...Otherwise AAA

 

[KliersLC]

Check your plug wires to make sure they are hooked up, and if you have the tools, pull that plug and see what it looks like.......

When was it tuned up last?

 

[Riad]

Well, now I've got misfire on cylinder 4 and 5. Got white smoke and it smells like raw gas. Inside the truck smells like gas too. Tune up was few months ago. Usually I keep a moderate size tool box in the truck but now I'm in the middle of moving and left that tool box in the garage in the new house. Talk about Murphy's law. Don't see any wires hanging any where. I'm gonna go and check the plug wires. They are about 1.5 years old with new plugs.

 

[KliersLC]

Ok

Look here: https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=122621&highlight=misfire

I did some searching for you and your problem is exactly what others have described......

 

[corsair23]

Lots of good stuff in that thread above

 

[Riad]

Thanks a lot for finding that thread. I was going to hack in there tonight but I am just exhausted. I decided to drive home with the ill condition but interestingly the problem went away for a little while but came back after about 20 miles. I will hack into the EGR wiring harness and start there in the morning.

Thanks a lot for the help . Hope I didn't cause any major damage by driving the truck.

 

[Riad]

Hacked in there early this morning. Removed the hood, the TB and got the following pix. I don't see any thing out of ordinary. All the wires look fine to me. I am thinking of going to radio shack and get a voltage meter and see if I can get any voltage on #4 and #5 fuel injectors.

Link to the whole photo album, in case the pics don't show up

http://picasaweb.google.com/riad.gaffar/Stuff

 

[KliersLC]

Also check the area behind the glove compartment. There is another problem spot right where the harness comes through the firewall and makes a quick 90 degree turn.

Go ahead and check the voltage, but there isn't really anything that could cause an intermittent misfire like this, that is common to both cylinders unless your cap and rotor are bad....

DO a search for misfire. Lots of folks have had your problem and almost all of them traced it to the harness....

 

[Riad]

Thanks!

Inspected the harness under the TB and traced the wires for all the connectors for the injectors. Cleaned the connectors with air. Voltage seems to be fine for all of them. un and re plugged all plug wires. Button her back up and it simply started back up without any hesitation. lde was little high at the beginning (as usual) but it settled down after few minutes. No CEL came on. Went to the gas station, filled'er up and came back home (10 miles). It runs smooth. I did check behind the glove box. Any thing particular I am looking for because all the wires there look brand new to me. My conclusion to this is pretty confusing. Since I don't know clearly what caused this I am expecting this to happen again.

Man, remvong the hood is a PIA, especially when you have to do it on your own. But without the hood removed, I don't think I could get in there.

Thanks again

 

[Riad]

OK, I am back to this thread again. I thought instead of starting a new thread I'd start here.

HG replaced, No leak no over heating. Code 340 post HG is taken care off, again, thanks to all of you who have contributed to that.

Now I am constantly getting this 304 code. Idle is little bumpy, but it holds up, white gas smoke gradually starts to come out through the exhaust and gets intense over time. I have got standing fuel on top of the piston #5 (probably 1 or 2 mm deep). The spark plugs for #4 and #5 are clean but #5 has fuel on it. #4 has it too but the bottom tip of #5 plug seemed to be submerged in that standing fuel on the piston. To isolate the wiring issue I did some thing stupid. I switched the #4 injector connector with #5, after that I got codes 300, 304 and 305. Obviously I altered the firing order by doing that, didn't realize it. So after switching it back the way it supposed to be, I get 304. All the other codes are gone.

I did not proffessionally cleaned the fuel injectors, I cleaned them myself with carb cleaner. They looked pretty clean outside but I know without proper testing they are not really good, especially IF any/all of them is/are bad.

I am really eager to order a brand new wiring harness from Dan. It would definitley isolate the wiring problem. Rory (Ruadhrigh) suggested to switch the #4 and/or #5 injector to see if the code changes. I am going to do that next week. I have been spending too much time in the garage and kids and wife seem to be pissed about it .

Meanwhile, can some one please explain to me why there's standing fuel on top of the #5 piston? My guess is the injector/connector/wring to the connector is bad. Can the problem be more serious then just the wiring and/or the injector(s)? If there was a way to get rid of that standing fuel, would that help (I can think of either using some thing to suck it out or go back and remove the head again)?

Don't wanna give up on the truck until I have explored all the avenues. My worst nightmare would be that the compression pressure has gone down due to cleaning the pistons (or some thing else that I did) and now I need new pistons.

As always, I appreciate all the inputs.

Thanks

Riad

 

[landtank]

I think it is either the wiring or the injector. Moving the injector is the correct move at this point. It will identify the problem at little to no cost. I believe the electronics for the injectors is negative logic. By that I mean it switches ground. So if there was a wiring issue where a bare wire touched ground the injector would pulse allowing fuel to enter the cylinder.

Let us know what happens after the swap.

 

[Riad]

The Octopus is out!!

Pulled both the main and t-case harnesses last weekend, wasn't too hard. I had the upper intake out so every thing was accessible but tedious. So here are some pix.

Pic 1: Wires near the firewall, not the wires near the EGR. These wires are enclosed inside the black plastic shell attached to the fire wall with two screws. Some of them look melted and deformed.

Pic 2: Busted #3 injector wire.

Pic 3: Main Engine Harness

Pic 4: Tcase wiring harness, perfect condition, tested connectivity with volt meter, everything looks good.

Ordering the harness and one injector on Friday.

 

[Riad]

...

 

[Ruadhrigh]

wow!

good work Riad. How painful was the harness cost?

 

[Riad]

Thanks!

I haven't ordered the new one yet, I am not sure about the cost, Dan mentioned it to me once but I forgot. Pulling the harnesses wasn't as painful as I had expected it to be, took me a while to trace all the connectors. I installed the tcase harness this afternoon, that went in smoothly.

 

[g8mfzj80]

That brings up another topic…connectors, who sells the common ones like for the MAF, injectors, etc. Regular auto parts stores don’t seem to carry them and full harnesses can get expensive.

I’ve come across folks stranded with the wires or connectors melted where the meet but without another connector to splice in they basically need to be towed.

 

[Riad]

Success!!!

Y E S!!!

I received the new engine harness on Wednesday from American Toyota and got to work ($335.00 with 2 day shipping). Finally finished plugging every thing in this morning and went for a test drive for the first time in almost 3 months. Man what a difference!! Drove for 40 miles 60 mph. No hesitation, no CEL, no burping, no over heating, just smooth sailing. I still had white smoke coming out but no strong gas smell. It smelled like all the carb cleaner I used to clean the intakes and manifolds. I also ditched the K&N filter and switched back to OEM. Man I feel satisfied . By the time I got back in my garage, all the smoke was gone. I still need to drain the coolant for one last time then I am good to go. I need to invent something to further insulate that harness because I don't know whether Toyota is going to continue to make them or not. I am thinking of going to the Home Depot and pick up one of those outdoor cable insulators for the Home ACs. I was looking at mine outside and it looked pretty durable.

Oh well, I am very happy to be back on the road again with my 80, it feels real good . I am going to keep a close attention to the overall operation/performance of the truck for next few days in case any thing starts acting up again.

Thanks!!

 

[gray]

Y E S!!!

I received the new engine harness on Wednesday from American Toyota and got to work ($335.00 with 2 day shipping). Finally finished plugging every thing in this morning and went for a test drive for the first time in almost 3 months. Man what a difference!! Drove for 40 miles 60 mph. No hesitation, no CEL, no burping, no over heating, just smooth sailing. I still had white smoke coming out but no strong gas smell. It smelled like all the carb cleaner I used to clean the intakes and manifolds. I also ditched the K&N filter and switched back to OEM. Man I feel satisfied . By the time I got back in my garage, all the smoke was gone. I still need to drain the coolant for one last time then I am good to go. I need to invent something to further insulate that harness because I don't know whether Toyota is going to continue to make them or not. I am thinking of going to the Home Depot and pick up one of those outdoor cable insulators for the Home ACs. I was looking at mine outside and it looked pretty durable.

Oh well, I am very happy to be back on the road again with my 80, it feels real good . I am going to keep a close attention to the overall operation/performance of the truck for next few days in case any thing starts acting up again.

Thanks!!

Sounds like you did a good job, how long did it take, and much do you charge for the installation

Wondering if that type of insulation that is aluminum, kinda corrigated, like the piece that covers the AC line on the PS
would work/fit?

I think ?Gates makes different sizes and lengths of insulating "pipe"
that is split to use for this type problem; never tried it myself, yet.

g

 

[Brian894X4]

Congradulations on getting it fixed. Forgive me if this was already covered and I missed it, but where did the injector wire break, where is it located and what caused it? Rub through, melting?

Just looking to try to better protect mine.