Hey folks, trying to start chasing down a new problem with my '88 22re pickup. The past two days while driving, I've been catching glimpses of the CEL flashing at random. RPM at moment of hesitation is not consistent. While on the highway, there is a clear moment of power loss coupled with the cel flash, and then everything resumes as normal. On city streets, the power loss isn't as pronounced, but I still catch the light flashing.

The other day, I had difficulty starting it up, and happened to notice that while the ignition is on, pre-startup, I normally have 4 illuminated lights in the dash. The check engine light being one of them. In this instance, when the truck wouldn't fire up, the cel wasn't illuminated. Between messing with the ignition cylinder and pumping the gas, the truck did indeed fire. That starting issue was only a one time deal.

I'm inclined to say that the ecu or its connections are the culprit, but just looking for some insight and ideas before I start jumping off the parts cliff.

 

Bad EFI fuse connection in the under hood box.

 

I think what he meant to say was that it could be the EFI main relay found in the fuse box under the hood in the engine compartment. Fuses generally blow, and become useless, as opposed to operating intermittently. A faulty relay can though. The EFI fuse is actually located in the fuse box found in the cab by the driver's side kick panel too, BTW.


Oh..check for codes too. You might find that useful.

 

I had a T that would do that... It went to two different guys to fix, none of them could, and finally Toyota did it... in less than 2 hours!

The CEL is the ignition. W/o it, the engine will turn over and over but will not start.

x2 on the relay. They can "go out" i.e not, "there's only working and broke".

 

Thanks so much for the advice.. I'm headed out to take a look at the condition of the fuse connections and the relay. Can't thank you guys enough for sending me off in an appropriate direction. Cheers, and will update with result

 

Well I checked the relay, which seemed to be operating properly. The EFI fuse was not blown, but I cleaned the connection and it seems to have remedied the problem. I've been trying all day to recreate the problem and it hasn't reoccurred. Fingers crossed that the solution was so simple, thanks so much for the help!