Ex-Lurker "Guest" Now Member

[Rattlehead]

Hey all! I have been a lurker of this site for going on 3 years now. We got our 2005 TB EXT 4wd back in our home state of Illinois just over 3 years ago. The TB spent about 2 years dead stock. A year ago, we moved from Illinois to Arizona, and absolutely LOVE it here! Shortly after we got out here I started slowly doing the “typical” mods on the TB. If I setup my sig correctly, they should be listed there.
I finally joined because 1. I realized just how much I have used this site, and how many times it has bailed me out, and 2. After about 3 years of ownership, I may have something useful to contribute from time to time.
I am going to attempt to attach a few photos from this last weekend up in Flagstaff. Funny story about this…we ended up getting up there several hours later than planned. On our way out of town the TB died on us before we were even 5 miles from home. I was able to put it in neutral and restart it while rolling and get it back home to the garage (albeit engine missing badly). About a month ago I was noticing some missing and occasionally where the motor would die even at speeds above 50 (strangely NEVER throwing the CEL or code). Using the help of this site I was reasonably sure that it was a good idea to replace the ignition switch. I did this about 2 or 3 weeks ago and the problem seemed to completely go away…at least until we had a room booked and were on our way out of town!
Now, I am not normally one to throw parts at a problem randomly however we were REALLY wanting to get out of town—only being out of Illinois for a year, I guess we were needing a snow fix. So I pulled out the scanner and BLAMMO I had like 5 or 6 codes after it was running PERFECTLY the day before! I had codes along the lines of misfire, camshaft actuator, crank pos sensor, fan clutch over speed, cylinder 1 misfire! I figured that the instant onset of all of these, from nothing the day before, was probably due to in reality 1 or 2 of these being an issue and the others being a result of the 1 or 2 things truly wrong.
So between an incredibly frenzied research of this site and some chaotic logic on my part, I figured my best bet was to throw a new crankshaft position sensor and a new ignition coil wire on cylinder 1 at the problem. Amazingly, the parts store about 5 miles away had them both in stock. Got them home, after cramming myself into and out of the wife’s miata, and got to work. Next I did the “non-tool” crank pos sensor relearn procedure, and then we packed up and tried it again.
We ended up not having a single hiccup the entire trip. Flag is about 2 hours from us each way, not to mention the time we spent driving around and on some trails.
THANKS for ALL the help over the years!!!
--and sorry my first post ever is so incredibly LOOONNNGGG!!

[Rattlehead]

Oh, in case anybody sees: *K&N open element CAI, and wonders what series it is...the answer is none. Sometimes i tend to be cheap...I had an extra air box laying around, so I butchered one stock intake. I measured the inlet tube and went to the parts store to find a nice big canister style K&N filter (the ones with the sealed plastic end) and a clamp to fit it. I then removed the stock air box, clamped the filter to the stock tube (thus not having to mess with any moving of the sensor). With the box gone, the breather tube was replaced with a breather filter. And, yes this is going to sound horrid, the extra 'hole' left in the stock tube was covered and sealed with a lid from a bottle of sweet tea that fit perfectly and marine epoxy. I know...but it fit PERFECTLY. I stuck the "STOP do not discard filter" sticker on the lid to somewhat hide the fact it was a lid & a bonus is its proximity to the filter.

The filter rests almost perfectly lined up on top of the washer fluid bottle, and it gets a SLIGHT amount of pressure from the hood. Has not moved or relocated itself at all in 2 years, with several off road trips to boot.

I have been running this for 2 years.

[jonbo2002]

Welcome to the show!

[navigator]

welcome, and you should know by now that we need to see pics of your CAI setup

[Rattlehead]

welcome, and you should know by now that we need to see pics of your CAI setup

Yes, I know. Kind of one of those things that has 'worked' but you dont want to trot out in front for everyone to see because it is NOT pretty. By "worked" I am going purely by a LITTLE better 'seat of the pants' feel and a little more throaty sound. That said, I will grab some pics later and post it.

[CNCwell]

Great to see you on here! I feel like a kindred spirit with the Cam sensor issue. I replaced mine 4 weeks ago along with the passenger side front ABS sensor. I have never had a mechanical issue with my TB but those darn electrical gremlins seem to pop up at the most inopportune times!

[mikekey]

Welcome to the site! Looks like you're in a fun part of the country.

[Rattlehead]

Great to see you on here! I feel like a kindred spirit with the Cam sensor issue. I replaced mine 4 weeks ago along with the passenger side front ABS sensor. I have never had a mechanical issue with my TB but those darn electrical gremlins seem to pop up at the most inopportune times!

You know, mechanically speaking it has been good, and I am just shy of 176,000.
Thinking back I did have a few other electronics issues. Shortly after I got it I lost '5' on the blower, then lost '3', then '4'. Then I finally replaced it. When I went to replace it I noticed it was strange that the hard black plastic connector looked like it sort of melted onto the contacts a bit. I didn't think much of it, just bought a new blower resistor cleaned up the contacts and plugged it in. A few months after that I lost '3' again on the new unit! I put it off and it didn't get any worse...just missing 3, which would actually show up working from time to time. Well about a month after that, the driver's side tail light stopped working on the blinker and backup light. I go to open it up to change a bulb, and I find the bulb is good! However, again the plastic wiring harness socket is partially melted onto the contacts. Interesting to note in both of these cases, none of the covering on the wire is melted...just the plug connectors. So, in the same day I cut both connector ends off both the tail light and the blower resistor and soldered the wires direct. ...both have worked flawlessly for over a year now!

[The Roadie]

Hiya, Scott! If you're 2 hours from Flagstaff, that can't be Phoenix is it? The center of the Expedition driving universe (Expedition Portal, Overland Journal) is in Prescott.

[KE7WOX]

Hiya, Scott! If you're 2 hours from Flagstaff, that can't be Phoenix is it? The center of the Expedition driving universe (Expedition Portal, Overland Journal) is in Prescott.

ExPo is also based in Prescott? I know Overland is published there, and there's a company that makes trailers somewhere around the Dells (Adventure Trailers??), but didn't know about ExPo.

[Rattlehead]

Hiya, Scott! If you're 2 hours from Flagstaff, that can't be Phoenix is it? The center of the Expedition driving universe (Expedition Portal, Overland Journal) is in Prescott.

Yes sir, Phoenix. Technically, I am in Glendale to the Northwest. Moved out here from Illinois in February, so I am still trying to wrap my brain around the sheer magnitude of off road opportunities.

[djthumper]

Welcome! You have lots of nice trails near you. I was stationed there for 3 years and had a blast.

[The Roadie]

The guy who started the whole thing with expeditionportal.com is Scott Brady in Prescott, and along with a few local friends, they seem to run it all, or select the remote contributors. When Adventure Trailers considered moving from CA, Prescott was the natural choice given the lower cost of living, great wheeling nearby, and availability of affordable production space.

[caseyk08]

Welcome!
Rattle your god damn head!
Is your name a Megadeth reference?

[Rattlehead]

The guy who started the whole thing with expeditionportal.com is Scott Brady in Prescott, and along with a few local friends, they seem to run it all, or select the remote contributors. When Adventure Trailers considered moving from CA, Prescott was the natural choice given the lower cost of living, great wheeling nearby, and availability of affordable production space.

Awesome, I will have to do a little digging on that and add that to my research on 'what to do/where to go'. It is just mind boggling being out here. Where I lived in central illinois the 'off roading' choices were corn fields or taking the long drive into Indiana to go to the Badlands.

[Rattlehead]

Welcome!
Rattle your god damn head!
Is your name a Megadeth reference?

Yes it is! One of my favorite bands and my favorite band mascot. If you are ever cruising through Glendale, AZ wifi sniffing and see Hangar 18, that is me!

[HARDTRAILZ]

Welcome. Looks like a good place to explore.

[SmokeyMcBlazer]

Welcome. Aboard bro!

[Rattlehead]

OK, it isn't pretty, but here is the low dollar K&N filter I did using a stock intake tube. I have not fabricated a metal barrier to block out any extra heat that the stock ex manifold heat shield doesn't block. However, it really would not be hard or expensive. I did this because it was incredibly cheap, very quick & easy, and seat of the pants feel seemed to be there, but a more throaty exhaust note was definitely there.

Eventually I will retire my frankintake once the list of other stuff I want is covered!

[HARDTRAILZ]

You may want to read up on the many discussion of KN filters on here. I would never run one on something I owned, but others do.

I like the simple Idea you used though to make it happen.