KLM

Hello Toyota enthusiasts,

First off, I would like to tell everyone how much information and knowledge I have absorbed from this site, I have been a lurker here for a couple years now. Usually, many of my issues or questions are answered just by searching the forums and reading, until now...

Well I am nearly at my wits end with this one. I will give you the back story here in case it is pertinent. About a year and a half ago I hit a dear with my 97 Tacoma. The insurance company deemed it totaled due to the front end damage (have an ARB bumper now..). Since I had just put a completely new 3RZ in the truck I decided to buy it back. The truck sat for about 9 months before I had time to fix it. So a friend and I bought all the parts and reassembled the truck. It was the standard front end damage, fenders, hood, grille, radiator and fan; nothing serious mechanical. A couple weekends and we had it up and going, running great as usual with a new ARB bumper on the front end. Beginning this winter I started having trouble with the truck running (the new motor had been a great runner!) acting like it was starving for fuel. So I pulled it in the shop and changed the fuel filter thinking it had some bad gas and possible some water in the tank from it sitting. Sure enough it seemed that the filter was packed solid. New filter on, it was running fine once again; or so I thought. About a month went by and it started sputtering or stumbling at an idle and was really losing power. So I pulled it into the shop again to look things over, needed to change the oil and rotate the tires anyway. It was at this point that I found a serious problem, the fender skirt on the passenger side had come loose and the tire had filled the air box with mud and water! So I figured that was the problem, the water would freeze and keep any air from entering the intake. I then bought a new filter cleaned everything as well as possible and moved on, truck running well again. That lasted about two weeks and it really began to run rough at idle and had very little power. I replaced the MAF first thinking that the water issue may have shorted it out, no luck. New plugs and wires next, no help. At this point I took it to the local shop to get scanned, they suggested the EGR valve was not working properly and that the truck only had 4 pounds of vacuum at idle, they hooked it to the smoke machine and didnt fine any leaks. The computer threw 2 codes, O2 sensor (expected, no CAT) and a knock sensor (which they thought was the result of the rough idle). So, I replaced the EGR valve as well as the vacuum regulator above it, no help. They also suggested the fuel pressure regulator, that didn't help either.

So, about $700 and many hours and I am still in the same situation, extremely rough idle (many times sputters and dies) and absolutely now power/throttle response. The motor has about 30,000 miles on it. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I am running out of ideas. Thanks in advance, I have a list of things I have replaced for reference. Sorry for the long winded question, just wanted to provide as much info as possible.

Fuel Filter, Spark plugs and wires, Air Filter, MAF Sensor, EGR Valve, EGR Vacuum Regulator, Fuel Pressure Regulator, PCV Valve. All parts were OEM.