2.7L (2TRFE) Cold Start Knocking Issues

My 2009 does the same thing in cold weather.
107,000 miles now.

 

The pistons are aluminum. They fit a little loose in the cylinder bore when cold on purpose. When the engine gets up to temp, they get all snug in there and the slap goes away. Honda engines have done this for years..

 

Mine has the cold start knock since new.

 

While starting in 15-20 degree weather, I get cold-start knocking if I use conventional. It went away when I switched to Mobil1 0-30 (cap says 5-30). I also ONLY use the

$52 Toyota 90915-YZZD1 Oil Filter 1 Case (QTY 10)

Toyota 90915-YZZD1 filter.

 

My 09 tacoma with 120k miles and a 2.7 started to rattle about 4 years ago on cold mornings as soon as I let the clutch out. It got worse each year. I have over maintained it with full synthetic 5w-20 and toyota brand filters its whole life. This year the rattle/knock got so bad I feared the hammering would destroy the internals. Always been quiet at start-up/idle but as soon as I let the clutch out...the load caused knocking. This year I went to 10w 30..and even at 19 degrees this morning....silent. I attribute the rattle to piston slap, sloppy tolerances on the piston skirt and the fact that it gets worse each year tells me the wear is not good. I would expect it to get progressively worse until metal hammers it unusable. The oil spec’ed is great for cafe standards and wrong for the tolerances in reality. My last 2.7 was in a 96 tacoma and got 250k miles with no rattle, thicker oil and only retired due to rusty frame.

 

I have a 2005 2.7L with 221,000 on it. Last year I put in some Seafoam for no reason in particular, just thought "what could it hurt?". Well, after using it I changed the oil like you're supposed to and it sounded AWWWWWWWWWWWWFUL on the first start-up. I put Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5W30 and it sounded like piston slap or a piece of metal hitting something else; it sounded like when there's no oil in a motor. It did this EVERY start, in 65-70 degree weather, until a few days later when I immediately drained the brand new Pennzoil and put in Mobil 1 0W30. Hasn't happened since. WTF? It's never, ever done that, even in the coldest weather, so I think the Seafoam clogged something, making the 5W30 (which it's supposed to take) to be too thick. It threw a code - something about camshaft retard or similar.

 

Well the seafoam didn't clog anything. It is way too thin.

You probably have a partially clogged Oil Control Valve or it's Filter for the Camshaft VVTi System.

 

Mine used to knock on cold start up with the recommended 5w30 oil. They were out of 5w30 once so I put in 10w30 and it stopped knocking so I use that weight oil now

 

has the changing of this filter been an effective proven solution to the cold-weather start knock issues that lasts approximately 120 seconds
... maintenancing a 2o11 with this issue (now at 100k miles and the original filter...) about 3 months until colder weather hits and the pinging knock returns
still using 0w20 per the oil cap rec...

 

food for thought
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypereutectic_piston#:~:text=These pistons require a larger,has warmed to operational temperatures.

I heard a rumor that the tacoma uses these noisy hypereutectic pistons
I had a low mileage 2001 2.7 that had the cold start slap, the high mileage 1998 didnt do it . A verry experienced Toyota specific mechanic diagnosed the noise for me after leaving it overnite, he told me about this piston slap and said to just ignore it but just make a point to avoid driving it very far with a misfire or ping, call a tow truck
slightly thicker oil and changed more often helped some but I just learned how to ignore it which was easy once I knew what the cause was

 

I don't think the filter is causing a ping or knock...

 

Your guess is as good as mine!! Lol
I am thinking restrictive flow through that little filter until whatever blockage heats up after sitting over the night in the cold and allows allows the warmed oil to freely flow

 

I have done 2 flushes with LiquiMoly Proline Engine Flush and it fixed it. Run the LiquiMoly for 18 min, flush with clean oil & filter, drain & add your regular oil & filter. I've done this twice and the problem went away completely.

 

I never quite figured out the cold start knocking in my 1GRFE. Same thing, first noticed on winter cold starts and it progressively got worse to the point that I'd hear it faintly at full operating temp. I drove it that way from 180,000km to 300,000km, I thought it was either a cracked flex plate or piston slap.