Tag tacoma iac

So although I have the new Pioneer stereo is installed in the SSR and all functions working, except for the rear camera which is not hooked up yet, I will be ripping back into the car sometime soon.  There are several issues I am not happy with and want to address.

The first is the fact that the radio appears to be just a fraction of an inch too far forward, causing that area of the dash to not go back together as it should.  My plan to resolve this is to totally pull apart the dash AND the top dash cover so I can get a bird’s eye view of what is going on behind the radio.  This will also allow me to make sure I am not inadvertently pinching something that shouldn’t be.  After my car totaling electrical fire in the 71 Buick years ago I am a bit sensitive to this possibility.

I also want to enable the system to automatically flip to the rear camera view when the truck is put in reverse.  In order to do this I need to connect a wire in the radio harness to a supply wire that is hot when the truck is put in reverse.  I found out there is such a wire behind the fuse box that is located behind the passenger seat.  Unfortunately to gain access to it I have to remove the “waterfall” and the fuse box case.

Of course I also have to actually mount the rear view camera which I think will wind up going right above the license plate.  I also need to decide exactly how I want to route the cable from the camera to the control box.  Obviously it needs to be out of harm’s way with minimal exposure to the elements.

I am also considering removing all my crimped wire connections and soldering them since that is the best way to ensure nothing works it’s way loose long term.

Anyway it all adds up to a bunch of additional hours digging around inside the SSR.  I’d like to get to to work on it this weekend but free time will be a bit hard to come by since we have to time a race Saturday and then run a half marathon Sunday.  Plus the replacement IAC for the Tacoma should be showing up soon.  That needs to be replaced ASAP.  Driving the truck after a warm start is downright hazardous at this point.

Last night I made my final attempt at the February Bar-barian challenge.  This was my third video taped attempt.  I wanted to try something different.  For my other attempts I was doing larger numbers of reps early on with some small breaks in between the exercises. This time I was going to try a strategy I saw others use successfully, mini-sets.

Basically I did a decent sized first set with 15 pull ups and 30 push ups.  After that I just bounced back and forth between each exercise, trying to just do as many reps as I could without taking a long pause during the set.  It worked out well, netting me 5 extra pull ups over my previous attempts but a few less push ups.  Overall it worked out to my highest point total of the month.

I have started watching season two of 24. It has been entertaining so far but it sort of seems like Jack has absolutely lost touch with reality.  I mean how is he allowed to shoot, kill and behead a federally protected witness, even if they threw in the qualifier that the witness was into kiddie porn? It was pretty insane.  Regardless I am strapped in and ready to enjoy the ride.

So yesterday I claimed I was 90% sure that my cleaning of the IAC valve on my Tacoma was going to take care of my warm starting problems once and for all.  Well I guess I am one of the 10% after all.  When leaving the gym yesterday I experienced the same issue and once again when I left early to go home  to meet the mattress delivery guys.

As you can imagine I was discouraged that the effort I put into cleaning the IAC appears to have been for naught.  My next plan is to disconnect the battery cable for an extended period of time to allow the engine computer to totally reset.  There is a remote chance that could work.

After that I could look at buying a replacement IAC which will run about $200.  There is a chance that the solenoid that actually opens and closes the valve (part of the IAC) is defective.  Of course if I spend the time and money on a new IAC and it still doesn’t fix the issue my frustration factor will be multiplied several times over. Either way I will wait till our tax refund hits to buy more parts for it.

Last night I seemed to arrive at a firm decision to perform the radio upgrade on the SSR myself.  The self doubt I was harboring about the project just felt less important than saving the money and the satisfaction of doing the job myself.  When you face something you don’t feel comfortable doing, 9 times out of 10 that is the signal that is exactly what you should be doing.  That is how you grow and learn.

So after repeated calls to the shipping location I finally got a delivery window of between 3PM and 7PM.  When I got home from work I got busy disassembling the old bed and dragging it out to the dining room, hoping the delivery service also included removing the old bedding. (I wasn’t sure)  It was a bit of a chore lugging the king size mattress around.  I also figured it would be nice to put clean sheets on a brand new bed so I threw the sheets in the wash.

I was feeling sort of blah since the gym where a three mile run on the treadmill after doing my GUTS routine really wore me out.  The idea of juicing seemed like entirely too much work.  I was very close to just throwing a Lean Cuisine meal in the microwave.  I decided to just suck it up and make the juice, adding beets to the mix.  Beets will dominate the color of any juice and their sweetness helps counteract stuff like spinach, celery, tomato and broccoli.  Ali liked the juice as well, she is a beets fan.

Well it was now 6:45 and still no delivery guy.  I called and left a message.  He called back a few minutes later and said they should be at our place in 20-30 minutes, we were the last stop of the day.

The truck arrived a few minutes before Ali got home from track practice.  It was good Ali got there so she could try to keep the dogs occupied.  They were both very interested in the delivery guys and were getting in the way.

The delivery guys were happy that I had everything totally ready to go.  All they had to do was drop the box springs and mattress on to the bed frame and they were done.  Evidently most people expect them to do more of the tear down.

The two guys seemed nice enough, especially considering they are based out of the Miami area.  They said they had to drive back across the state and then report to work at 6:30 AM to head towards the Keys today. I felt bad for them and had no issue handing them a $20 bill for their efforts, especially since they took the old bedding as well.

The first thing Ali and I noticed was the bed height was now significantly lower than it was with the old pillow top mattress.  I bet we are a good 6-8 inches closer to the floor which is fine, it makes it easier for the dogs to get on and off of.

This mattress was listed as a “firm” ,a dramatic departure from our old puffy mattress.  I had some worries about buying a mattress without ever laying on it, especially when changing the type of mattress.  Well the new mattress is dramatically harder than what we slept on for the last 7-8 years but with the two mattress toppers we have it took the edge off.

Ali and I both woke up this morning with no reported problems sleeping.  Ali, whom often woke up with a sore back because of the bowled out shape our old mattress developed, said she had absolutely no discomfort last night and felt great.