Hey guys,

I've got a '92 22-RE 4x4 with 185,000 miles. Let me throw out the symptoms, and maybe someone has a diagnosis.

1. Warm idle is 200-700 RPM

2. Oil pressure barely registers until I get up to 2500-3000 RPM (then it sits slightly above the middle line.)

3. Thick, nasty, choking, exhaust plumes from my tailpipe.

4. Check engine light is ON

Other than that, eveything is great:)

I want to get this worked on, but I don't want to sound like a complete moron when talking to a mechanic. What do you guys think may be going on here?

I really appreciate any thoughts.

I want to help you figure this out. First, do a search on here on the self diagnosis procedure and you can narrow it down. It's very easy to do, and free, plus the cost of a paperclip. Do that and post back what you get.

i dunno if you do your own preventative maintenance/ tune ups... that would be a start besides doing a trouble code retrieval...

click & look here to start (http://www.troublecodes.net/Toyota/)

Retrieve the codes and see what is wrong.
Check your air filter.
Clean the butterfly valve in the intake.
Do a compression check.
What do the spark plugs look like?
When was your last tune-up and oil change?

I appreciate the help fellas. I never knew you could run diagnostics like that.

Here's what I got:

21 - Oxygen Sensor
25 - Air-Fuel Ratio Lean
42 - Vehicle Speed Sensor signal
43 - Starter signal

When was your last tune-up?
What do the spark plugs look like?
Did you do a compression test?
Is the air intake black, carbon coated, dirty?
Do you do the regular maintenance or do you take it to a shop?
Is the motor making any knocking sounds?
Are the valves adjusted properly?
Is your oil pressure really low? Have you tested it with an auxiliary guage?
Code retrieval is just step one.
A bad O2 sensor can make the motor run rich.
Poor valve adjustment or worn camshaft will prevent the motor from breathing possibly causing a lean condition in one or more of the combustion chambers.

Autozone.com has some free repair guides available. Take a look at them.
There is a factory service manual available at the top of the pick-up forum. Tke a look at it and see if it has steps to test the oil pump.

KimMG: I do an oil change every 3000, but I haven't had a tune-up in probably two years, when I had some engine work done and the timing chain/cover replaced.

Thanks for your suggestions. At least I have a better picture of what's going on here. I'm not exactly experienced in doing my own car maintenance, so some of the questions you've asked, I don't know. (i.e. compression test)

There are no knocking sounds. I don't know how to check if the valves are adjusted properly. The oil pressure is low on my dash gauge, but I don't know how to check it it with an auxilliary gauge.

I will take a look at my plugs and intake filter, though.

I know if I take the truck to a mechanic, there are a billion things he could test/fix/replace and charge me for. Basically, I want to make sure something going on right now isn't causing further, more permanent damage.

Maybe I'll dive into those maintence guides.



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What do the spark plugs look like?
Did you do a compression test?
Is the air intake black, carbon coated, dirty?
Do you do the regular maintenance or do you take it to a shop?
Is the motor making any knocking sounds?
Are the valves adjusted properly?
Is your oil pressure really low? Have you tested it with an auxiliary guage?
Code retrieval is just step one.
A bad O2 sensor can make the motor run rich.
Poor valve adjustment or worn camshaft will prevent the motor from breathing possibly causing a lean condition in one or more of the combustion chambers.

If you're getting an OX SENS code, that is the first thing I'd check out. It can cause all kinds of things to be off because it's giving a faulty (or NO) signal to the ECU.

21= yup definitely change out the oxygen sensor/check wires & plug to it...

if that sensor is bad, you're running in "open loop" mode... autozone also rents the tool to remove it for free (if you can't easily get to it w/ a normal box-end wrench)

25= check plugs wires cap/rotor etc... /air filter/ gas filter are my 1st things to do... then go from there... are you running soo lean that the coolant temps are going up?

42 + 43 ??? is your speedometer working? hmm, the ecu doesn't see the vehicle speed=mebbe the wires to it are cut or something... time for the multimeter.

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clear the codes again & see if the check engine light comes back on as well as the same trouble codes; just to confirm that the ecu is working...