Which Obd Reader For 2001 2.0 D4D Rav4? How The Car Went Bad,what I Di

[IMweasel]

Hi all,

I have an ELM 327 USB module which i have used to diagnose a few cars already.

When i plugged it in the RAV4,no piece of diagnostic software can connect with the ECU.I think it doesn't support the connection protocol that runs on the ECU.

Anybody out there with a suggestion on which other reader i could use? Most of the manuals i find,state that reader x can be used for diesel cars after 2004.

The shop where i had it checked out before,doesn't exist anymore...i don't know which reader that was.

I want to try to restore this car to it's full powerful glory,already having replaced the;

Brake discs and brake pads...but that's not important right now.

SCV valves, clutch, flywheel,belts,oil,oil filter,fuel filter,air filter...

I've cleaned the turbo,egr,injectors, and have a tuning kit for it on the shelf

All that, because the car was acting up since 2009. The typical hesitating occured and severe stuttering (halfway 2010) when driving freeways and trying to take over.

All of this was unattended until the clutch broke down,after being battered because of the stuttering for too long, i guess. That was halfway 2011

I did the overhaul,with the fault codes in mind at that time. The car dorve way better again, but the problems did not go away,

They -did- become way milder though. Since then it was not driven much anymore, but nowadays it is again... It's annoying as hell and i want to continue my quest to restore it! I do love this big ol' machine!

I hope to be able to read the ECU codes soon again...

Going to check the VSV as well,clean MAF sensor...

Any more advice greatly appreciated!

[gjnorthall]

Your car is pre OBD2 and you don't need a code reader. Codes are extracted by connecting together pins E1 and TE1 of the diagnostic socket and reading the flash codes generated by the engine warning light.

[IMweasel]

Awesome, i had no clue on that! Will try it out after a good test ride as, soon as it hits the road again.

I started checking the vacuum circuit. I tested the vac chamber, by sucking it vacuum. it's OK and the actuator moves up all the way, it holds it's vacuum nicely.

Now to the VSV/VRV... Are these the correct parts? Insert some wd40 in all holes?

How should air flow behave when blowing air through either hole? Can i do electical measures? Other tests? Any more advice on them?

Edit:

Well i think i tested the "3 way" valve that's lying on my desk to be working fine. I emulated the circumstances; sucked the left tube and it went vacuum, which results in free air flow between the right tube and air nozzle. i then applied 12v 1A to the electric part of the valve and immediately it opened up a path between the left and the right tube, air could move freely through them. I can hear and feel a pop every time i give it power so the inner working must be fine.

Green lights on this one?

Now for the other one...what to do with it?

[gjnorthall]

If you intend to do quite a bit of component testing - it might be worth accessing the official Toyota workshop manual - this will describe the test method and the key parameters. There is a modest fee involved but you can download and save the material. Go to http://www.toyota-tech.eu

[IMweasel]

Well thanks! I might just do that. I tested the two valves to be fine though. They make a path between a and b or b and c, and that works fine.

I used a computer molex male/female adapter to make things easier,as illustrated. I took out the female pins,they slide on the valve pins very well! on the male side sits a 12v 1A power plug from an adapter. With a little sideways push on the 12V plug (to make contact with the neighbor pin) , the valve responds...the one in the photo with a nice and loud click...which changes the flow of air.

Testing the other VSV valve can be done in the exact same way.

Something quite different now.. when i was checking out the bottom right rear-side of the engine (see pic) , i found something that baffled me...loads of gunk!

I don't know where it comes from or what kind of stuff it is... I had no more chance to inspect further as my lamp's Battery went dead.

If this is a leak from the EGR pipe gasket,would this explain the hesitating behaviour?

[IMweasel]

Not much crowd here huh... i'll post my progress anyways.

After i have lubed/cleaned the VSV/VRV, air noticeably flows better through them,compared to my very first try back in the garage. I also did all the hoses that are a part of the vacuum system.

The green little buffer thingy that is on the hose near the vac chamber, even had a greater improvement of flow..at first it felt clogged when flowing air trough, that improved at least by 50%.

Furtermore i cleaned the turbo pressure sensor,MAF,and also gave the vac chamber a puff of WD40. It might be a good thing to keep oily fumes in the vac system for a while ;-)

I also gave the intercooler a internal bath of WD40 and had it lying like that overnight. The next day i could pour black goo out of it that looked nothing like wd40 anymore.

I'm thinking to give it another bath,plug one side shut and totally fill it up with paint thinner or something,to get all the gunk out for sure!

I then finally installed the tuningkit with the help of a specially developed tool to unplug the common rail plug. Basically a M6 wire end with a hook, of which the tip was grinded to look like a flat screwdriver. This could slide into the clicking part of the plug,and i could finally take it off. It was a bit of a search though,as you cannot see the click mechanism,and you have to do by what you feel in your fingertips.

Ofcourse, plugging the plugs of the tuningkit in between the rail and original plug was going to be as much of a pain, but my wire end proved to be of help... I could use the hook to pull the original plug toward me and slide the other plug on... Also used the hook to guide the plug on it's way that goes on the rail.

All parts mounted back on and connected and went for a drive.

Beast unleashed! Much more torque thanks to the tuningkit! And no more hesitating or stuttering on the highway when going 110/120 kph and flooring it.

I'm 99% satisfied... I tested it out thoroughly and extreme, and felt one mini stutter when going 160 and flooring it to reach 170, but just once. Ofcourse i'll keep an eye on it's future performance.

I do wonder already what i could do to work that last itty bitty bug out of the system... any advice is greatly appreciated.

Also haven't found out yet where the black gunk comes from...any experiences with this matter? Educated guesses?

[gjnorthall]

It would have been interesting to see the improvement after cleaning the various components but before fitting the performance kit. Cleaning the intercooler will have made a big difference - sounds as if it was well coated in gunge internally.

Don't know the origin of the black gunk you've photographed but it appears to have accumulated over a fair time. May be worth giving the are a good clean with engine cleaner so that you can then more readily identify a source of leakage.

[IMweasel]

You are right about that performance comparison. I thought of that...

But it would have meant to re-fit the main cable-tree,the bracket in front of the rail plug,bonnet,intercooler,hoses,coolant tank... along with the other parts...

Just to undo them a little later again, and re-do them again, felt like too much of a job for the day. I'm not a car mechanic superstar after all...i was so delighted that the car started back up after my tinkering!

The intercooler had been cleaned with the previous overhaul...i don't know if that helped at the time. But although the stuttering and hesitation was way milder, it was still noticeably there. And it had not changed the past few years.

So i'm pretty sure it was the VSV... after cleaning it out, air flow improved. And the popping noise went louder than before,when i applied current to the VSV. It felt as if it could not switch 100% when i just took it out.

There must have been a tiny internal blockage in there! After all, when the vac chamber need to lose it's vacuum, the VSV lets outside air in, so chances of some corrosion or particles coming in over the years are fair i guess. Also, this part of the engine was totally unattended all this time.

Do you know if there is a filter element in the rubber air nozzle that plugs on? If so, i might just replace it.

I'll clean the engine and look at the area from time to time. Good idea! I might have found it's origin though (see pic) ... i think it is a leak on the breather pipe... is it called a PCV hose?

It might have been leaking all the way down. I'm thinking to lube the pipe and put a proper hose clamp on it, would that do the job?

[mcorban]

From what i read you want to reset the ecu. You can do this by disconnecting the Battery for about a half an hour. then re-connect. The ecu will revert back to factory.

[IMweasel]

The Battery was actually dead until i started working on the car again, replacing that bugger was the first thing i started with...i forgot to mention it.

Or do you think it is important to do this reset after my tinkering, and why exactly?

Thanks

[gjnorthall]

Ecu's learn as the car is driven - stored parameters are altered for best performance. The ECU may also store bad values because of equipment defects - in extreme cases the unit will go into a limp or 'get you home" mode. It's always a good idea after changing faulty parts, clearing fault codes etc etc to wipe the slate clean and revert to the original factory settings. About 30 minutes mixed driving thereafter will upgrade the algorithms in the ECU and during this learning phase it may be noticeable that the engine doesn't perform at it's best.

[IMweasel]

Ok i will do that, as i have driven after replacing the Battery, with the valves still malfunctioning.

Concerning the tuning kit, i asked the tuning company about it. I can remove the box from it's plug and connect the testing module that was supplied along,instead.

This would give normal car operation, so i can still do a valid comparison after all!

[IMweasel]

So, i did some more testing, cleaning and tinkering... Removing the tuningkit off the cable end and replacing it with the testing module gave valid results.

When driving at any speed,any RPM,also under extreme testing, no more stuttering and hestitating whatsoever. The tinkering must have done some good ;-) ... I'm baffled by the amount of torque i was suddenly missing again. So i quickly placed the tuningkit back in ;-)

I've cleaned the gunk i have posted about earlier, and replaced the spring-like clamp with a normal clamp...no more new gunk buildup!

Also i had an idea to clean the intercooler more thorough, as i felt like i did not get it all out with WD40... so i closed off the intercooler at one side... got me a few bottles of turpentine-oil and filled it up! (about 2,5 - 3 litres) ... I left it standing overnight and poured it empty... what came out was pitch black, and with actual residu i cannot define. so i filtered the residu out and filled the intercooler up again. Closed it off at both sides and gave it 5 minutes of shaking... it was even more black,and no more residu came out... so i'm pretty sure this thing is properly cleaned out now. Left it standing for another day so that leftovers could evaporate.

One funny detail; i used a funnel to avoid spilling... later when i was about to change the motor oil, i wanted to use it again, and i found a WASP stuck in it! It must have come out of the intercooler,as it was not in the funnel before. I guess the RAV4 was driven without an air-filter at sometime,and this bug found it's way in!

Furthermore i changed the oil-filter and motor-oil... 4,75 litres of good 5w30 and 1,5 l of Flashlube Heavy Duty Oil Stabilizer additive.

The oil filter sits tight by the way! I had not placed the new filter tight enough,and that caused a tiny leak after extreme driving.

Added the community-beloved BFG-22 to the diesel tank,and went driving....and driving...and driving...

I had so much fun... I fell in love with this car again ;-) .. it is behaving so nicely, and is still performing better and better! ECU is still adjusting i guess.

I can even hit 180 kph again! That was a looong time ago.

Still waiting for a new K&N air filter, i can't wait to see/hear if that will improve behaviour even more.

Gave it more love and also succesfully replaced the driver side doorlock actuator...but that's a whole different topic.

Which tire pressure is optimal for these RAV4's? The info in the door says 2 bar/20kpa. Seems a little low to me,i'm on 2,5 bar/25 kpa now...

[gjnorthall]

Many Rav owners have complained of excessive induction noise with K&N filters. Despite the clever marketing, these filters are infact far less efficient (in terms of dirt removal) than standard paper filters - there have been many tests published. There's also the issue of oil from the filter getting on the filament of the airflow meter though there have, to my knowledge, been no definitive tests carried out.

2 bar is the prescribed tyre pressure for standard wheels and tyres on this model (higher if you regularly carry heavy loads / 3 or more passengers). Excessive pressure causes the centre band of the tyre tread to wear preferentially.

[Loobs]

Reading this, it seems like I may have wasted my money on a code reader. The one I bought just gives me a Linking Error, 2002 2.0D4D. Is there a picture of the pins to be linked available please? And perhaps a sheet of what to watch for?

[IMweasel]

loobs,as far as i know you need a device that supports ISO 14230-4.
Especially the -4 is important,the first 4 bytes in the OBD's data stream are aberrant from the ISO 14230 original protocol. I blew some money on a (cheapo) reader as well,which supported ISO14230 without the -4..thats why you get a link error.

[Loobs]

Thanks for that, I will go back to the supplier and see what they have to say.

[IMweasel]

YW!

Gjnorthall,
The K&N filter arrived just after i had read your post. I could not resist trying it anyway,and you are totally right...noise has got quite a bit rawer when stationary and low speed/low rpm driving. All other comparison have equal results.The sound is beautiful on the highway! Without being louder.The engine likes the extra air,it sounds smoother,sort of...

Performance seems equal,perhaps a bit smoother when shifting gears. I will inspect the filter regularly,and will see about the cleaning once it's time to do so.
Despite your warnings,do you think it is dangerous to drive with such a filter? By 'dirt removal' , do you mean the ability to filter particles whilst driving, or are you talking about a manual cleansing?

[IMweasel]

Btw Loobs.. You might want to try a replacement device first,before you drive off ;-)

[Loobs]

Well, I had a really cheap one called something like U480 which worked ok with my old vauxhall. Now, I've bought a slightly dearer one that does have ISO stuff but neither will link to my RAV.

[IMweasel]

Damn.

I can't exactly remember where i had found out about the protocol that runs on the OBD port of my RAV4. Maybe the user manual? Or i think it could have been in some workplace manual i found when googling around. Not sure if the 2001 and 2002 model have same or different protocols...

edit:ah,found it... the document is about 1cdftv engines and is called 'dtc read 0004.pdf'. I think i got it from Anchorman's file deposit.

I must admit i didn't invest any more time and money on trying to find out which reader or which pins to short...etc, as i had already identified and solved my trouble along the way.

I hope you can crack it without great trouble and expenses!

DTC read 0004.pdf

[Sigor]

 Do you remember what protocol it is? I can’t seem to find out, and the pdf you linked to is gone.