Exorcism needed?

Good day all!

I have a 1993 (Gen 2) 4Runner 3.0L V6 automatic which I'm sure needs an exorcism for ghosts in the electrical system. I've owned the vehicle for 3-4 years now and it has multiple issues. Any advice on any of them is appreciated. Before I bought it, the car sat for several years. It still sits about 6 months of the year, when I come up I routinely put some Sea Foam and fresh gas in it and it starts great 98% of the time. It lives in Alaska. Currently has 184k miles on it. I've been back in AK for a week and finally decided I just need to join a forum.

1. The entire time I've had it the radio will very often (sometimes constantly the entire time I'm driving, sometimes sporadically every few days) switch from radio to trying to eject a CD and back. If I turn it off it will turn itself back on to do this. Actually giving it a CD to eject didn't help. It makes it very difficult and annoying to listen to the radio. I often think I hear a click in the steering column at the same time.

2. The back window is a crap shoot if I can open it or not (either with the button or the key on the tailgate). I understand this is a common problem and that I should check a relay over the window.

3. Last night when I started it and was waiting for it to warm up a moment the speedometer needle flipped up once. This morning when I was driving the needle went down to 0 for a moment, then started working again. Then it went down to 0 again and the engine stopped responding as if the car was in neutral. The RPMs revved in response to the gas pedal but it didn't accelerate. I stopped, put it in park, put it back in drive and drove the rest of the way to work without incident. The radio actually has been behaving for the last week until this happened this morning, then it started acting up again (see #1).

I'm sure there's more but that's a good start...

Thanks!

 

Is it kept in a dry garage or outside while it resides in Alaska for those six months? All of these problems indicate corrosion and dampness that has permeated the inner workings. Basically you are just not driving it enough to keep it happy. The worst thing you can do with any vehicle is not use it regularly on a daily basis. The waste energy in the gasoline warms up a lot of other things beside the engine and drive train. That head will drive out moisture ingress and keep electronics devoid of corrosion and general degradation.

Now this may come off as rather tongue in cheek but, take it to the Southern California desert for a year and I bet it will be as good as new!...

 

Lol, for years it lived outside but last fall I bought it a heated garage to live in. When I'm not here in AK I live/work mostly in dry NM, where I'd love to take it but I already have 2 other vehicles down there. Glad to have a garage to work on it out of the rain, I hope to get the rear window working. Last summer I had to replace the rails inside the tailgate, one side had rusted and disintegrated.

Is there anything I can do the reduce the moisture buildup?

In the winters the last few years they have been using some pretty nasty stuff on the roads that definitely causes more corrosion. Caused my brake calipers to rust and seize up 2 years ago. The cancer in my rear bumper is getting bigger.

Would love to get to the bottom of these issues. Wondering if replacing the radio and wiring harness would fix that ghost (I'd like something with Bluetooth capability).

Thanks!

Sharon

 

Well on a more pleasant note, welcome to the forum.

 

As for the radio, I would just get a new one. You can get a decent one for less than $50. The back window is most likely the relay in the back left hand side of the vehicle. It is a box that some people have fixed if you have good soldering skills. I bought a used one off of ebay for $45 and replaced it. Works good now. You will have to find out if you have a cable driven speedo or wire one. If cabled, either pull it out and grease it or replace. If wired, then it will either be the sending unit, sensor, or speedo itself. Mine did that for 3 years until it finally gave up the ghost and it ended up being the speedo itself and cost me $400 to fix. Good luck.