ricky

Hi All, I've got a 95 Tacoma with the 3rz-fe 2.7l engine, manual tranny, 180k miles. Over the last year or so I've had a really weird sputtering problem that I have yet to figure out.

When the engine is all warmed up, rpms are below 2000, in any gear, under light acceleration, the engine will misfire several times and cause the whole truck to jerk really hard. if I floor it, it stops. This is most common when I'm sitting in very slow traffic and barely accelerating in second gear with rpms at 1500 +/-. It's way worse with the A/C turned on. I've put a can of BG44K in there, and it stopped almost completely for the entire tank of gas. It also seems to do it a bit less if I throw an octane boost in the tank.

What I've done so far to try to fix it:
-replaced fuel filter
-replaced spark plugs
-checked timing with timing gun
-will be replacing the entire exhaust manifold this weekend due to a leak in the manifold gasket.

The engine is very noisy on cold start. valves make more noise than I think they should, but they quiet down in about 30 seconds. When still cold and giving the engine a good rev, it will hesitate and sputter a little at first.

It idles great when warmed up, and still has great power, I think. It just drives me nuts to have to drive in first gear in traffic with the rpms over 3k so that if I shift, it won't go below 2k and start jerking. Plus I'm sure it's robbing me of power.

Anyone have any other ideas as to what the problem could be with this thing? I've been asking all over the place and still no solid ideas. My only other thought is that the injectors are super dirty and they're not spraying efficiently at those lower rpms. But I won't know anything about how the injectors work.....

94x4

Is the clamp bolt on the distributor tight ?
You've replaced the plugs, did you happen to inspect the plugs wires, both ends, while you were at it ?
Did you inspect the distributor cap and rotor ?
Just some places to start to try to help.

ricky

Distributor bolt is tight. I didn't do a thorough inspection of the wires, but they do look like they are in excellent condition.

Would the cap and rotor be a factor even when at half to full throttle it doesn't do it?

94x4

Possibly... and there's something about the emissions system that escapes me at the moment that could be the cause... try "Searching" this for more info. and check the wires.

ricky

OK, it's been a few weeks, and I still have my problem, except that it has gotten worse.

I replaced the exhaust manifold, which my original theory that the gasket was leaking, was wrong. The old manifold was cracked in 2 places, right near the center. So, I replaced the manifold, and the thing runs so damn quiet now.

New info: I think my cat is starting to break apart inside. I hear a consistent rattle from it, and I've looked for anything loose. Nothing. I guess I'll be replacing the cat. However, wouldn't a clogged cat cause problems only at higher RPMs?

Checked: I checked the plug wires, etc, and everything seems to look ok. no damage or anything. Everything seems happy.

I saw another recent thread about a 22R engine with sputtering problems and saw the suggestion of now making sure the O2 sensor (sensors in my case) are nice and clean because they might be dirty due to the manifold leak.

This problem gets REAL bad on hot days. We had a 100+ degree week and every day I was having to deal with low end sputtering.

Any other ideas as to what the problem could be?

What about injectors? I mean, I know nothing about injectors on this engine. Are they replaceable, or can they be cleaned? Or could that even be a problem in this case?

Thanks all!

94x4

Man, has this been coming up alot...

Let me direct you, too, to the throttle position sensor (TPS).

Reason being the changes in throttle response during AC usage, climate changes affecting the engine's performance, etc., etc., all seem to point to the TPS according to other membger accounts here on the sight.

You should be able to find a wealth of information on the subject by doing a "Search" for it.

Good luck and I hope that this helps.

p.s. Clean those O2 sensors too.

ricky

Sweet. I'm going to look into the TPS, and I'll clean the O2 sensors.

I'll be checking back soon Also, before I do that, I just threw in a full tank of 91 octane instead of the reg old 85 to see how much of a difference it makes. So, I may run this tank through and see how it does. If it sputters, I'm going to start cleaning stuff.

colsoncj

Mine had a sputtering problem similar to that, come to find out it was the plug wires.... if I think of anything I'll post it, best of luck figuring it out!

ricky

OK, so then tell me this, What exactly would I be looking for on the plug wires? I've looked at them, end to end and they just don't seem to be in bad condition. Now, I'm assuming they're the original wires, so they're definitely 11+ years old.

Just drove home on some of the tank of 91 octane gas, and the damn thing acts like a new car... There's times when I'm turning a corner with a huge bump, and I have to slow down enough to get it into first gear so that I don't lug the ÅÅÅÅ out of it truing to accelerate out of a turn. Today with the good gas, it seems to accelerate out of a turn better in 2nd gear.

Here's another thing that is strange, but it's been this way since I bought the truck with 128k miles. The gas pedal is very odd. Wait, I truly mean throttle. Not the pedal.If I take off, and floor it, then let up just a little bit, the truck will actually accelerate more after I let up a bit. I feel a little power boost. Same when at highway speeds driving up into the mountains. I get better power by flooring, then letting up a little rather than always flooring it. There's like this sweet spot in the throttle like 3/4 of the way open. Is that not strange? Might it have ANYTHING to do with that?

The other thing, which is odd, the black box up near the hood on the driver's side (under the hood), which by the chilton, says it's the charcoal canister, makes noise after I shut the truck off. Weird noises like it's letting off pressure bit by bit. Also, when at no acceleration, and no deceleration going about 30-40, and even faster sometimes, there is a whistle sound... sounds like when you blow across the opening of a beer bottle. It's high pitched, but it also sounds like it's coming from the charcoal canister. Should I worry about this? What the hell is the charcoal canister for?

ricky

Just tested the TPS. Chilton says to measure with .022 and .029 feeler gauges with continuity at .022 and none at .029.

Mine has continuity at idle, and no continuity at .022. Does that mean it's gone bad?

ricky

Damn, $108 from Napa... Still looking... Would there be any reason that I should buy OEM over aftermarket? I mean, if the aftermarket TPS is anything like that aftermarket exhaust manifold I bought, it'll be 10 times better than OEM.

94x4

ricky, give the "Search" feature a shot and you're sure to come up with all of the 411 you need on the TPS.

94x4

it's 50/50 on the OEM-Aftermarket parts tip..., sometimes the aftermarket exceeds or is a great improvement over the OEM, sometimes it's just some half made ˟˟˟˟˟.

Let me/us know what you come up with if you decide to go that route as I'm sure plenty would be interested.

ricky

Trust me, I've searched all through the forums and the chilton about the TPS, however even the chilton doesn't even clearly define when the sensor is actually bad. It just provides testing instructions. So, I'm assuming that because it doesn't read correctly at .022, that it's bad.

That's what I figured about the aftermarket stuff. I mean, if I can go get an OEM for $80 and an aftermarket for $69, I think I'll just buy oem...

94x4

Idon't know why you can't find anything by punching TPS into the "Search" feature here, but let me direct you to the thread started by Allyia: "22re pcv relocation for emissions question"

You should find what you need there.

ricky

Hopefully the last update:

So, after my fiasco of removing the throttle body and not being able to get the thing started, I have successfully replaced the TPS. and everythign seems to be running much better than before. The next tank of gas will be the regular old 85 octane, and we'll see how it does.

Thanks again for your help in all of this!!

94x4

Yet another satisfied customer of the YOTATECH community.

ricky

So, it's been a month or so since I replaced the TPS in this truck, and it seems to have eliminated the missing that I was experiencing, for the most part, however I still have problems and wanted to hear some more opinions on what it may be.

Sputtering at low end is slowly getting worse. When at idle, if you rev it up a bit, you can hear one or more cylinders misfiring. It always does it whether or not the engine is warm or cold. I've also had some recent issues with starting. It becomes more difficult to start, the hotter the engine and OAT. To me, I'm guessing it might be that the injectors are SO dirty, that it's causing the misfire. The engine does not seem to miss at higher RPMs, but maybe I just can't tell that one of the cylinders is misfiring at higher rpms. I have noticed that under acceleration I sometimes feel a slight drop in power as the rpms increase. Maybe this is one of the injectors not able to provide enough fuel to that cylinder?

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated. I'm about to take the thing in to toyota to have it diagnosed, but that's $100, and I'd rather spend that money on actually fixing the damn thing.

84sr5yoty

I recently had the same problem with the low speed miss and I narrowed it down to the injectors. Just make sure that everything else is in perfect working order before condemning the injectors. I decided to send mine out to a guy on Ebay who did an excellent job cleaning the injectors and hooked me up with new o-rings and grommets. He is also one of the very few people who clean cold start injectors (make sure you have that cleaned as well). His turn around time is the same day as long as he receives the injectors before 2 pm. Much quicker than anybody else you'll find. I highly recommend him. Here is the link

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ASNU-...spagenameZWD1V

ricky

So, after all this time, up until 2 days ago, I was still having this problem, and it was getting worse. Problem was that I didn't have the cash to take it in to get it diagnosed AND fixed by the dealer. So, one night I go and wash the truck, and I'm driving around and I notice that it has slightly gone away... The truck acts kinda normal. At that point, I KNEW it couldn't be the injectors, and that it had to possibly be the plug wires. So, armed with $50, I went and bought a new set and threw em in. And holy crap, the sputtering problem is completely gone.

I have a brand new truck with 190k miles on it.

Here's to another 200k.