Please Help! Shaking but already cleaned EGR

What does "MIL" mean, like in "MIL ON with Diagnostic Trouble Code". Guess I should know, but stumped.

 

Malfunction Indicator Lamp

 

MIL= mother in-law or malfunction indicator lamp, both of which are bad news.

 

I guess the used one might be not broken? Hey sorry to make light, but the valve is known to be problematic and you can't usually tell from looking at it whether it is good. As you've seen, posters here usually have good luck cleaning it or replacing with an eBay unit. It's sold as an "assembly".

A new one through a Toyota reseller for $242 vs. a "genuine new" one on eBay for $200, or a local dealer one for $342 MSRP are reasonable options. Do verify the part fitment in case my search was too hasty.

My impression on the manifold TSB is that it relates only to startup rattle. I personally haven't seen posts here where replacing the IM fixed an ongoing rattle, but I guess it could happen? Good luck!

 

I'd guess the replacement intake manifold had 1 into 2 into 4 EGR passages, vs the old style 1 into 4? There's a marginal benefit in that, and it's new (clean). Still I think you'd be back to status quo before long.

 

Unfortunately this is at the stage where you just start replacing parts and hopes one of the parts actually fixes your problem.

 

Yeah a new IM would be no-doubt-about-it clean -- and if someone had missed cleaning those EGR inlets it could make a difference. Particularly since they've proven here on PC to clog very unevenly due to that ganging issue you describe Mendel (and which that Gen4 teardown article you posted once specifically addressed, finally fixed I hope).

 

You do the deed yet to put that plan into motion?

Or other priorities have precedence at this point .

 

Not that I can see, at least not with the EGR. You've cleaned everything, and replaced-with-new the one item with electronics and moving parts. And yet, unplugging the EGR to drive home, no problems. A puzzle.

Maybe disconnect the 12 volt, wait a good minute, reconnect and try another test drive. Do have everything connected when you reconnect. And be prepared for a little rev-up on your first drive or two after, just within the first minute of engine start up. Seems like the car needs to reestablish some stuff, and rev up is part of the process. That's been my experience, after disconnecting 12 volt for brake work.

 

Well whenever I get the shakes, I solve it with a bottle of Pepto Bismol

 

Pepto’s for the runs.

Whenever I get shakes, I need a straw.

The Jack in the Box non-fake variety are best.

 

Back to the serious business at hand, did you say you didn't replace the plugs yet?

So if you disconnect the EGR and run it without computer interference, it's fine. Whenever I get engine issues with it not running right, I always look a the throttle body and the air flow sensors (MAF?) After cleaning/replacing the items, you should disconnect the 12v battery like Mendel mentioned to reset the computer and let it learn everything again.

When you cleaned out the intake manifold, did you replace the gasket?

 

EGR doesn't kick in until the car is completely warmed up. 6 miles might not be enough to do that. In fact 6 miles might not be enough to even run in closed loop if the engine was completely cold. (Refresher: When the engine is cold it runs "open loop" and doesn't rely on sensors. Closed loop is when the computer relies on feedback from the air/fuel ratio sensor as well as the MAF and other sensors, but it needs the coolant and sensors to be warmed up first. EGR needs that PLUS the catalytic converter to be warmed up. )

One way to know what state you are actually testing is to use techstream or an OBD2 adapter. But I think it's safe to say if you drive on the freeway for 10 minutes you can be pretty sure that EGR preconditions are met and that your tests using the EGR connector will be valid after that. If you just want to test open vs. closed loop, maybe 5 minutes of freeway is enough to be certain of closed loop operation. You can then force open loop by disconnecting at the MAF, and return to closed loop by reconnecting the MAF. Big changes in behaviour at the transition between closed/open loop or between EGR/no EGR are valuable clues -- especially if they are repeatable.

Looking back through the thread history -- have you been keeping an eye on the coolant level? What reason did Toyota give for being so certain there's no headgasket issue?

 

The mystery of cylinder 1........I don't want to tell you it's a head gasket