The Toyota Landcruiser Owners Club

[PhilLewis]

Hope someone can give me some guidance on a couple of issues I have with my Colorado. It's a 2000 3.4 VX with 160k. Bought it about six months ago with a full dealer service history. My first proper 4x4.

Gave it a decent test drive on country roads prior to purchase and seemed to be ok. However, on the drive home on the motorway I was surprised at the lack of grunt. No warning lights so put it down to age, mileage and shear size of the thing  

Took it to Julian at Overland a few weeks later for a checkover. All ok but when Julian plugged in his laptop he discovered a P3025 knock sensor cable fault. Retard on the ignition explains the gutless issue I guess but there was no engine warning light on the dash. Hmmm. Took the dash apart when I got home and discovered some git had deliberately removed the bulb so the warning didn't show. Replaced bulb and hey presto light now comes on.

One thing though, from cold the engine warning light is off. It only comes on once you have been driving for a few minutes and the engine is getting up to temperature. You can actually feel the ignition retard and the light comes on about 5 seconds later. If there was a break in the knock sensor cable, wouldn't the light come on straight away from start up? No knocking from the engine by the way.

One other question. Just tried the stall test on the transmission as recommended in Max Ellery handbook. Foot on brake, gas pedal fully down for a few seconds, revs rise to 2k but no stall in either D or R. Does that mean the tranny's shot as well?  

Hope you guys can help. Excellent forum by the way.

[Google]

[modvrs]

I can't help on the fault codes but I have a 3.4 V6 and think it is quite sprightly for a heavy old car. They will definitely click along in my experience and the claimed 0-60 of 11.7 seconds still seems do-able in mine.

I don't think the automatic transmission stall test means the engine is supposed to stop; rather it should settle at a set engine rpm after a few seconds (2000rpm seems about right) - higher revs suggest some clutch band slippage and lower revs a problem with the torque converter lock-up mechanism. Yours sounds fine. Make sure you only test it for a few seconds or something could break.

[PhilLewis]

Thanks for the reply. A relief to hear about the stall test. The manual said it should be 2250rpm +/-150 so it's slightly low at 2000 but at least it's consistant for both D and R.

There's some vibration coming through the floor and seats under acceleration (my wife seems to like it   ) so trying to find out if it's the tranny, the front diff or maybe UJ's.

Thought about finding a local garage that will let me stick it on a hoist. I could stick it in D and let it go through the gears. Should be able to locate any vibration by feeling the transfer box, tranny sump and dif casing?

If anyone has had the P3025 fault I'd be interested to hear if the engine light came on straight away after starting or whether there was a delay like I'm seeing. Really don't want to go through the hassle of getting the air intake manifold off only to find the cable perfectly fine and it ends up being an ECU fault.

[poze]

Stall test is test for torque converter health not transmission, afaik

[PhilLewis]

Thanks for the clarification. Had the UJ's checked yesterday and seem ok so vibration is from elsewhere it seems. There's am audible clatter from the transmission when you are under the car. Doesn't sound healthy but works well enough for now. I'll keep the ATF fresh until i can get round to replacing.

Seems the knock sensor cable fault is rarer than i thought. From the other forums it seems quite common. Mice like the V of the block apparently and chew the cable. Mine has spent a number of years on a farm so it's possible I guess.

[PhilLewis]

Slight revision. I got the fault code wrong, should have read P0325, not P3025.