t2d2

iTrader: (8)

O2 and cats sound worth investigating, but you might also open up the ECU and see if there's any sign of capacitor leakage and board damage. I had a knock sensor issue that turned out to be nearly shot traces leading to that pin -- so close to gone that electricity flowing through the circuit was probably heating things up enough to break continuity and cause erratic behavior.

Slackful

Drivers side, clearly aligned with tick.

Passenger side, cant see the tick, but if the driver side is aligned then that means the passenger is aligned right?

Wouldnt this cancel out the tbelt problem? That and it only misfires when warm and CEL comes on when I load the acceleration. I've done a bit more research on the code its throwing itself. I'm gonna see if the cam and crank sensors are all the way in (not cracked) and ensure the wiring didnt happen to get chewed out by the tbelt or serpentine. If all is good I'll move onto the distributors and the rotor caps. Most likely hit the O2/Cats last.

Slackful

So as soon as I got off work I popped the hood and decided to do a quick look around. Alas I found a chewed wire. It seems to be connecting to the drivers side bank and connects to another loom that goes to the middle of the engine. I'm not familiar with what it's coming from yet, besides a little drain plug mechanism that I accidentally pulled out while trying to fit the wire back onto the harness. (Its too short )

Although I hope this is the the cause of my problem. Unlikely though. BE SURE TO CHECK YOUR WIRES PEOPLE!! (Mainly to anyone who is learning about there car / engine) I'm gonna see if I can find any more indicators of chewed wires loose connectors, pertaining to the cam and crank sensors. Does anyone know the specific name or wire this goes to so I can find a replacement? Btw it's on the outside of the lower timing belt cover. Also any thoughts? Going back out! (Pic is uploaded sideways! Have the sbelt parallel to the bottom of your screen for an upright view)

emLEX

That sort of looks like the crank sensor wire. Is it shielded? Meaning, does it have a metal braid between the outer jacket and the conductors inside? I believe the crank, cam and knock sensors have shielded wire to keep interference out of them.

Slackful

As far as I can visibly see on the outside where it is chewed no, no braiding but I followed the lines up and it takes me to this plastic connector. Following it some more it goes into a bigger loom that finds it's way nesting into the V of the engine on the drivers side. I'd have to remove some covers to see where exactly it goes to.

Bright side is since I does have a connector before it goes into the crest of the engine it might be an easy replace.

One thing i did note was that there was another wire coming from the passenger side and it seemed like it was the same thing for the other bank except it had it's own unique pathway. Making it's way from the psnger bank out and up (had it's own harness like what the other one should have been on) towards under the distributor coil box thing (near the thermostat housing). Under the coil box was a plastic connector like opposing side. I'm not sure if it was actually connected to the coil box. My phone is low so no flash atm.
Following that it finally emerged into the crsst with the rest of the wiring.

Things to note, I know that the only thing that was protecting the wires was the insulation on the front face of the engine. Once all the wires were forming together there was a rugged plastic tube that seemed to be holding everything together.. I'll send more pics shortly.

Hooked it back on its harness. You can see there is no special protection other than insulation. The exposed wire area is near where the connector is. (Drivers side)

Here is the the connector going into the crest of the engine. The rugged tubing is what i described above.

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

That is 100% your problem, that is the wire for the cam sensor (there is one on each bank).
I did the same thing on a 2uz after I finished the timing belt job I forgot to route that wire just exactly right and it rubbed against the accessory belt and started misfiring and stalling.
I am guessing when you had the cover off you or someone forgot to put the wire back into that clip, or it came out and then got "cut" by the belt.
It is a shielded wire so you have to repair the inside wire, and then make sure the outisde sheathing has a connection, and they cannot touch since the sheathing is grounded.
That bit of exposed strands of wire in the picture is the sheathing, there is a very thin wire deeper in the middle that is probably cut or nicked by the belt causing the issues.

Right now, the inside wire touches the outside sheathing every so often and drops your cam signal, which freaks out the ecu and hence the code 13.
Once you repair the wire it should be fine, maybe clear the codes or ecu reset wouldn't hurt.
This wire runs all the way to the ecu through the entire loom, so there is no easy replacement and needs to be repaired.

Try and pull all the loose sheathing to one side so you can see the inside wire, then repair the inside wire and tape it good or heat shrink if you can find a way.
Ten re-wrap the outside sheathing and retape that up well or heat shrink is better.

Don't feel too bad, this is a very common UZ issue when doing repairs yourself the first time, enough that if you do an internet search you'll see other people talking about it.

also as extra info, for seeing if the timing is set right you use the notches on the cam gears and the indicator on the crank or crank pulley if its on.
The white markings on the timing belt itself, only line up on the first timing belt installation and it slowly gets out of alignment every engine cycle till at some point it eventually lines up right again.
So in short, unless you are installing the timing belt, those white marks are useless and majority of the time misleading cause they will be off. They are only good for installing a new belt at TDC.

Slackful

Thank you for the information! As crazy as it sounds i rebooked the wire and started it up. Usually after it warms up in idle it started to malfunction. Now it isnt since it's been hooked I believe it revs alot smoother. I reset the negative battery terminal for a minute hook it up and it's been idling for a minute. The CEL and TRAC OFF is still lit but no signs of fluctuating RPMs (thank goodness). Did you have the same experience with perfect cold starts as well? Then as it warmed up it started to malfunction? And you mean after the gray insulation under is the sheild?

Also I called the shop to ask if they did it correctly, kinda felt bad by questioning there work as they are a tuning shop etc. But none the less I had to get that out off the list of things to worry about.

It's been idling I'd say for ten minutes after the neg terminal reset and no misfires or stalls but CEL is on. I dont want to drive around cause I dont want to lose my parking, so I'll see by tmo when i head to work if it happens to come off.

Also could you go into a little more detail about repairing the wire? To my knowledge I'd think to just cover it up with insulating hose/tape cause the idling is fine now. Unless that might be catastrophic in the long run.. I believe I read a post about your issue explaining it to someone else but it didnt go too much into detail.

emLEX

Ali, I was thinking the same thing, what threw me was when he said it was coming from the lower part of the timing cover. Definitely could be the cam sensor wire, which is the one code he has.

Slackful

ha my apologies, im still trying to get the hang of the anatomy of this thing. the more you know tho i guess. it's my first engine im getting handsy with.

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

For me I would get about half way down the street and it would just cut out all of a sudden, did that like twice before it stopped working completely. I think the wire got worse from vibrations, and in my case the belt was still hitting it.
since you caught it earlier, when you put it back in the connector it is probably in a spot where the 2 wires aren't making contact (if the inside wire is just barely sliced, which sounds like the case or it wouldn't run right at all).

so I think you really just need to get to and wrap the inside wire in electrical tape (not to much just enough to go around a few times) and then put it back together so in the future you will be good then.

basically with like a razor blade, make like a 2" long slit in the black rubber on either side of the cut, you don't want to go deep to cut the wire or strands, basically just want to slit the black rubber insulation so you can peel it back.
once you slit the rubber it will open up like a soft taco more or less , you will see the metal stranded wire wrapped around the inside wire.. but you can slowly pull the inside wire to one side and the metal stranded wire to the other side.
that last step won't make much sense till you do it, but the idea is just to make space around the cut by moving the metal stranded wire so you can tape the inside wire up.

If the inside wire is not cut, and just the insulation is cut, wrap that thing up with electtrical tape, move the stranded wires back into place around the wire, tape that up or even better slide heat shrink over the whole thing at that point and then give it a test.

here is an example I found online of fixing shielded speaker wiring with a full cut, in this picture you can see the metal looking stranded wire has been already unwrapped, and then twisted to look like its own wire.
if you were to look under the black insulation, you would see that wire starts to wrap around the other wires like a "shield".
https://www.howtogeek.com/66124/how-...-audio-cables/

that is how you repair a full cut, you unwrap the shielding and twist it like a regular wire and make a joint, but since you have a slice, you just peel it out of the way (unwrapping it a little makes slack), repair the inside wire, and then re wrap it.
you could cut it and do a repair like in the picture, but if the inside wire is mostly still connected, I would just tape it up. I did and mine was fine after that, it was only an issue of missing the insulation around the inside wire.

t2d2

iTrader: (8)

Ali's explanation of the problem and how to fix it makes me think liquid electrical tape may be worth a try. I've never used the stuff, but it should make fixing the insulation within the bundle a lot easier than wrapping tape in there.