enthalpy

son of a

131K miles - and everything has been cool - I have put off doing the timing belt/water pump (budget reasons) - well, drove to Sacramento (3hrs) worked great. Drove back to San Jose today - worked fine. Stopped by my house to get gas (before it goes up another .25) and after starting it up....didn't sound so good. Shuddering at idle (around 750rpms) and just didn't feel good - at the light, I put it in neutral the idle went up to 1000 and smoothed out a little. I drove it real easy back home - but it was sounding like crap. It didn't die - just idled very rough. Strange though b/c as soon as I gave it gas (slowly!) - it seemed to run fine. The only thing was that the exhaust sounded a little lower than usual.

Ideas? I am just flabbergasted since it was running perfectly and just starting acting up after a brief stop to get gas. I have the uber-power combo of the 3.slow, 2WD and the slushbox...

I did a search - and the only thing that sounds kinda plausible is a bad injector. Which would suck.

thanks!

ChickenLover

Hopefully it's something stupid and simple like sparkplugs. Mine went out on me - all of a sudden. It had the same symptoms as yours. I just put in some new plugs, wires, and a cap and rotor and she ran just fine after that. I would try that first before putting any real $ into it.

enthalpy

Well - I have those Bosch Platinums in there - so I picked up some NGKs - hopefully that will help. I think this is just a sign that I should do all that maintenance I have put off. At least I didn't have to walk home

jimbo74

did you get the ngk std plug or the v power? the v power is actually the specified replacement in the toyota manual....

also, try the fuel filter and running higher octane gas, i had some issues with my truck and did both those things and it runs better than it ever has before

HondaTec521

You could have a bad load of fuel.If it started after refilling the tank.

enthalpy

I picked up the NGK v-power plugs.

I use 87 octane - and I try to use Shell gas (it has worked well so far) - I actually had about a half tank so it wasn't completely empty. I woud like to think that the gas station by my house doesn't cut their gas with water - especially since we are paying so much per gallon

Mad Chemist

You didn't put diesel in, did you?

Hope you get it figured out. As mentioned above, I'd take care of all the simple things first, which never hurts, then move onto bigger issues.

enthalpy

ha! I didn't put deisel in - but maybe I can try to swap in some glow plugs instead of NGKs to see if it helps things.

I took Stewie (my 4runner) to the shop this morning - it was still idling not so good - so at least the mechanic could hear it an action. It was also strange b/c it took forever for it to warmup (via the temp gauge). To make things more interesting, I noticed my "seeping oil" might be more of a "leaking oil" on the front passenger side - strange b/c there is actually oil on the suspension from this leak.

I am very excited. I think if it's going to cost me over $1K - I will hold off and look into doing an engine swap

Mad Chemist

Have you checked the level of antifreeze? Has the head gasket been worked on before?

Praufet

you got off easy, mine is dead.

enthalpy

NICE!

The headgasket was done under the recall at 70K and it has the "gurgling" in the heater core - but it hasn't impede the rocket-like performance that the 3.slow is known for.

So the mechanic called - one of the spark plug wires had a higher than normal resistance - swapped it out and it seems to be idling fine. So it looks like the usual tuneup will be in order.

Although I put in NEW BOSCH spark plug wires about 6 months ago - so I will definitely not be using them again (the Toyota OEMs will do nicely). He will also be replacing the timing belt/water pump - and once he gets into the engine more, he can check on the phantom oil leak.

I think the best part was the mechanic calling me up and saying "Your engine's dead bro" - to which I just kinda laugh since that would just be my luck on a monday. He then said he was joking and told me the whole schpiel. Good times when your mechanic can toy with your emotions like that...