Hope someone can advise. Looking at buying this nice 97 4Runner but mechanic says CEL is a P0330 knock sensor malfunction.
Question. The rig is gutless on the freeway and hills and the 1hr 25 mile test drive showed the fuel gauge dropped about a full "white line" width. shocking. This is only thing wrong with it. 136k miles.
Could this sensor malfunction be causing this? Thanks so much!!

 

yes. a malfunctioning knock sensor will retard the timing causing loss of power and poor gas mileage. there will also be high emissions if you care about that

 

Definitely care about the emissions too! It passed one year ago. I am told this sensor is the only code found. Could the sensor malfunction be hiding or indicating something else is going on? Thanks so much for the advice!!

 

well if thats the only code found id go ahead and replace the sensor and see what happens. its possible that it is hiding something else thats going wrong, but from the symptoms you have it just sounds like your KS is bad

 

Thank you all for the info to help me decide on a 4Runner. I passed on the one needing the knock sensor, there ended up being too many issues and questions about it./C