AgRunner06

Well it finally happened. This POS I call a 4runner will barely run. It ran fine yesterday. I started it up this morning to go to class and she won't hardly run. It's blowing out a lot of blue smoke and missing really bad. There doesn't seem to be any missing coolant or white residue under the cap. I have no idea as to what the problem is. It smells like a lawnmower when you first start the lawnmower up.

It's just my luck that this happened right before finals.

Off to the dealership I go. Any ideas please?

Designsbyme

I'll take it off your hands for $10.00
When was the last time you gave that thing a proper tune-up?

Waterboy

I'm pretty sure blue smoke is gas not coolant so it doesn't sound like your headgasket is bad. Odd that this happened with no symptoms leading up to it. Leads me to believe that it's electrical. Usually mechanical stuff gives off some warning signs before crapping out.
Has your CEL come on?

kenandjenn

If you've got blue smoke then your burning oil. Theirs only 2 main ways oil reaches the combustion chamber. Rings and through the Valves. If the truck has been running fine and hasn't been smoking then I doubt its the rings. I would give your Valves a check.

AgRunner06

That was my first thought.

My service guy is stumped. His thought after seeing it start up is that the problem is a fuel issue. I'm hoping the problem is injectors but I'm not going to hold my breath. If it's something I can fix myself, I may hold off on it and drive a different vehicle until exams are over. Then just fix it myself. I'd rather do that but I'll have to take time off from work.

When they started it at the dealership, the smoke was black. When I started it this morning, it was blue. Go figure.

I've got no CE light. It won't even idle.

When it runs it smells like a lawnmower that has just been started. Funny huh? I'm guessing that means it's running really rich. Right?

I just took a trip in her this weekend and she ran fine. The gas mileage was even good. This is something we like to call FM.

Hooray for Toyota quality.

Anymore ideas?

I think I need one of these.



EDIT: Complete tune-up was done about 18K miles ago.

MTL_4runner

Keep an eye on both the oil and coolant levels.
If either of these are dropping that will give you a hint as to which is leaking.
You should pull a plug and see if it is burning rich (ie jet black plug).

AgRunner06

Here's what I've found out so far.

I got a call from my service guy and he said that the tech is pretty sure the problem is the CSI. The only thing I can think of is that maybe the switch got stuck open and is causing it to run poorly. That or my CSI has gone to hell and is leaking massive amounts of fuel into the intake. Anyways, the tech wants to keep it overnight and take a look at it in the morning. This is fine by me because it isn't of much use to me right now.

Hopefully this will be the final diagnosis. This is much better than I anticipated. I'll probably just let them fix it since they already have $80 into the diagnosis and that goes towards the repair.

I never would have suspected the CSI because all the problems I've heard about it have been related to hard cold starting and not making the vehicle run really bad. I knew that mine was leaking a little but I hadn't had any adverse effects because of it.

I'll keep you guys posted. She may go up for sale VERY soon.

For now, things are going better. (knock on wood)

My99

Ya man, sounds like it should be a fuel problem. I mean maybe the blue smoke was really black. Seriously, it's not normal that valve seals or rings will just go bad over night. It's usually a process that take a shile and progressively gets worse. Hopefully it'll be alright

-Kyle

weezy

That sounds like a problem I had with my Mazda long ago. There was a non-dealer theft deterrant system installed on the truck and some of it had been removed, but not all. One day while driving down the road it made a "kabammm" noise and sounded and smoked just liked you described. Turned out to be electrical and I was only running on 3 cylinders instead of four. We took out the rest of the detterent system and had to replace a few wires/fuses, but all was well afterward.

Fink

Man, I'm sorry to hear about all this stuff happening man! But I'm glad it may be something as "simple" as the CSI.

I'll be checkin back to see what you find out.

Fink

AgRunner06

Alright, here's the story.

The tech went out and started her up at 7am this morning without the least bit of problem. She started fine and ran fine. So he started it at every hour until 2pm this afternoon without any trouble. They think that maybe some trash got stuck in the CSI and was holding it open. Then it blew through and now it works fine. Go figure.

My service guy said he or the tech had never heard of this happening before. It seems like a plausible explaination. It was just a weird occurance.

So I got charged $80 for it but if it happens again there won't be a charge.

This may have been the last straw with this 4runner. It all depends on if I can get out of my lease.

Thanks for the input.

Fink

Thats good news man...atleast shes runnin fine now.

Hopefully all is well and stays well with her now that she got that out of her system!

Fink