2004 Sienna - replacing the Intake air control valve assy No.2

[Bob F]

The A/C tubing prevent removing the current part. It look as though I
will have to disconnect the air surge tank it goes into from the intake
manifold to get it to clear the A/C tubing.

Is there a simpler solution?

[Bob F]

For anyone thinking about replacing this valve, it looks easy at first,
until you try removing the old valve and realize it will not clear the
A/C pipes going through the bulkhead right next to it
I just finished replacing this valve on my 2004 Sienna. I did it by
removing the wiper tray, and the air cleaner plastic and rubber parts up
to the throttle body. I undid the surge tank back stay and the 2 stays
on the throttle body, then the nuts to move the vacuum control valves on
the top of the engine out of the way, and then the nuts and bolts to
separate the surge tank from the intake manifold. From there, I could
lift up the surge tank as high as it would go on the rear studs and a
little less at the front, and slipped a 3/8" x 3/4" x 2" piece of wood
under each end. I could then use pliers to carefully twist the wood
chunks like a cam to lift the ends over the bolts, narrow side up down
to wide side up down. At that point, I moved the whole surge
tank/throttle body over enough to pull out the old valve and replace it
with the new valve and surge tank seal. Thus, I did not need to separate
the throttle body and remove the water connections to it.

Putting it back together, I found I needed to tighten the surge tank
firmly onto the intake manifold with a new gasket before I could get the
stay bolts to go in their holes. Trying with the surge tank bolts loose
just did not work.

Be sure you connect the 90 degree bent vacuum tube on the back of the
surge tank just to the drivers side of the replaced valve as you put the
surge tank back on. I missed that, and it took me a lot of time with my
WiFi endoscope to find and correct the resulting vacuum leak.

It runs great now, with the fuel trims after the first little drive back
pretty close to the desired 0 level from 6-12 I saw before. Hopefully,
the mileage will get significantly better.