Check Engine Light/Traction Control Light Off---POOR MAN'S FIX

I have been battling this for a few weeks now:::my check engine light came on, coupled with the Traction Control Off light. This put me in what they call Limp Mode. So I was told my truck apparently believed it was really going fast but was barely moving...felt suffocated.

I tried fiddling with the gas cap, unhooking/rehooking my battery...and most of the time it would work for a mile or two then suddenly go back to its problems. I googled plenty and watched a ton of YouTube videos. I went to an O'Reilly's where the man at the counter was extra helpful...gave me a parts list and their prices were reasonable, compared to the dealer who wanted $2600. Bottom line this is likely Secondary Air Injection Pump and/or Valve problem. Mostly they refer to the one of the valves getting stuck open.

And back to the Toyota dealer---my truck has 110K miles and is a 2011, 4.6L. So here on Tundras.com I learned that there was a 10-yr/100K miles extension on this problem with the Secondary Air Injection Pump or Valve situation. Well they said my truck went into service in April of 2011 so too bad, so sad...end of that discussion. My question was how come this was not ever made easy to find? I had this problem a long time ago, and simply cleared codes...never realized it was a dealer issue that would have been covered at that time!!! Service Writer had no answer to that.

So it would seem that the issue is one of these SAI valves is stuck in the open position, and if that is the case, and I do NOT want to spend a fortune right now, maybe I can un-stick the valves. I don't have any pictures but open the hood and on the left side is where both hoses go from both valves down to the pumps. I uncoupled those 2 hoses...then sprayed 2-second bursts of WD-40 in all the openings, and then blew compressed air in there and blew each opening for about 30 seconds to distribute the WD and get some moisture out. I reassembled everything and the truck fired up with no gasping or anything else. I used the code reader to delete the codes.

The reason I was willing to go all in on trying something like this is because my registration is up end of this month and I was looking at paying a ton of cash out...and the dealer I called said they could not even see me for awhile due to backlog. I spoke with the inspection station and they said I needed to drive for 30-50 miles after deleting codes. Today I logged 85 miles and went to the inspection station, and passed!! So far, so good. Might be worth a shot if you don't want to dig in too deep. I figure if it goes out on me now, I am at least legal, and can just order the parts and do it myself. I know this is what made the difference because the past 2 weeks have been just miserable and I can't get 1 mile on it after resetting before it is back in limp mode.

Late Note:::I thought later maybe I should have inserted a siphon into each hose that leads to the pumps and see if there was moisture that would come out. Or maybe just run the compressed air a lot longer. Anyway, so far it is working better than it has in a few weeks.

 

Interesting method... but if it works, it works!

 

Buy the Hewitt-tech secondary air pump valve by pass kit , fraction of the cost compared to the AIP replacement

 

Well I celebrated too early. I DID manage to get through state inspection, then the very next morning it was back to limp mode and CEL and Traction Control Off lights.

I made a $300 mistake trying to solve this by buying the Secondary Air Injection Pump Valve Bank 1. Before I put in the new valve, I had two codes: they were both P0412...for some reason it reads it twice.

NOW, after putting in the new Valve Bank 1, I have 6 codes and they cannot be turned off for even a second.
Some are repeats:
P0412
P2440
P2432
P0412
P2432
P2440

So I took your advice and ordered the Hewitt bypass kit. Wish I had done this in the first place. Sadly, this part I bought today from OReilly is considered an electonic part so no returns. Hoping this Hewitt kit works.

 

Keep us up to date on your progress!

 

Ok, good news!! First, I took back the Secondary Air Injection Pump Valve Bank 1 and got a full refund. Also, ordered the Hewett Bypass Kit and installed it today. Hard to explain but when I did the install, and reconnected the battery, all the same lights came on: CEL and Traction Control Off. I unsuccessfully tried to connect with my code reader a few times so just unhooked the battery again, and it cleared the codes.

Then I went for a test drive and found that although it was out of limp mode, the throttle had close to a one second delay every time I pressed the gas. So that was a new issue that I never had before.

So I decided to reconnect my Pedal Commander while still on that test drive to see if that might affect the one second delay. I had disconnected the Pedal Commander days ago in case maybe it was causing some issues. So the gas pedal stopped the one second delay, but then it immediately threw the same two light codes. Went back home and disconnected my battery...same codes came back on. So finally got my code reader to connect. It read that there was a P2138---Throttle/Pedal Pos Sens/Switch D/E Voltage Correlation. So I figured I was simply being punished for reconnecting the Pedal Commander while the truck was still running. Went ahead and erased that one code, and so far so good.

Ok, so the other day, I had essentially 2 codes, then put in that new valve, suddenly had a handful of codes. Removed the valve, installed my old one, installed the bypass kit and now it appears life is good.

Thanks everyone for the Hewett recommendation!!