Hi folks, I have a 2006 lx470, 162k on this rig, owned the truck since 110k miles.
After coming home from a long hike new year eve with my wife we noticed a tapping sound under the hood. Upon further inspection and promptly throwing a misfire code I saw cylinder 1 spark plug stripped the threads and blew out and was the source of the tapping. I had the car towed to my in town Indy mechanic who confirmed. After researching mud I see that Time sert or helicoil is the least invasive option. My shop is saying “ Insert will not work, aluminum guy ( he had an aluminum welder??? Look at the issue ) recommended cylinder head replacement, He said drilling into for the insert will put a lot of shavings inside the engine and didn't want to do that. “ Further goes on to say “ the wall is so damaged the insert won't hold and will tap its way out”.
I’m not a mechanic but I do have an out of state father in law who is a mechanic who says this doesn’t make sense. Should I have my rigged towed to another shop for a second opinion? How could the timesert not work? Why not do the timesert and see if it fails before undertaking a new cylinder head replacement which is going to cost big $. My father in law was saying just put positive pressure air into the intake and blow the shavings/chips back out through the insert hole to prevent buildup in the cylinder. I called a local Napa store and they mentioned this is a fairly common repair. As you can tell I have limited wrenching experience. The pic below is what I saw after removing the spark plug. The last time these plugs were replaced was by Toyota dealer when I acquired the truck and paid for a big $ baseline service with tp/wp…etc. Thanks in advance.
After coming home from a long hike new year eve with my wife we noticed a tapping sound under the hood. Upon further inspection and promptly throwing a misfire code I saw cylinder 1 spark plug stripped the threads and blew out and was the source of the tapping. I had the car towed to my in town Indy mechanic who confirmed. After researching mud I see that Time sert or helicoil is the least invasive option. My shop is saying “ Insert will not work, aluminum guy ( he had an aluminum welder??? Look at the issue ) recommended cylinder head replacement, He said drilling into for the insert will put a lot of shavings inside the engine and didn't want to do that. “ Further goes on to say “ the wall is so damaged the insert won't hold and will tap its way out”.
I’m not a mechanic but I do have an out of state father in law who is a mechanic who says this doesn’t make sense. Should I have my rigged towed to another shop for a second opinion? How could the timesert not work? Why not do the timesert and see if it fails before undertaking a new cylinder head replacement which is going to cost big $. My father in law was saying just put positive pressure air into the intake and blow the shavings/chips back out through the insert hole to prevent buildup in the cylinder. I called a local Napa store and they mentioned this is a fairly common repair. As you can tell I have limited wrenching experience. The pic below is what I saw after removing the spark plug. The last time these plugs were replaced was by Toyota dealer when I acquired the truck and paid for a big $ baseline service with tp/wp…etc. Thanks in advance.
