My 1996 Tacoma is starting to act up.

The PO didnt do any maitinence on it AT ALL for about 100,000 miles

and now im running into a few problems.

#1- Today at a stoplight my car was running fine, then started dropping from around 850 to 500 RPMS and then died. It started back up and was fine, drove fine and didnt have the problem again.

#2- Sometimes when i go to start it, even when its warm, it seems like it takes about twice as long with me on the key to get it to catch and start.

#3- I left my truck running and got out to see if i could see any reason that the idle was dropping, and as i was walking away the RPM stayed the same, but the exhuast burped twice. It didnt pop it just kinda ticked.

#4- I was driving a dirt road today and noticed that my steering wheels feels like its wiggling when i go over bumps, it clicks like its rattling around in it housing. And when i try and wiggle it myself i get nothing. Its a fixed wheel, not tilt.

#5- Ive only noticed this once. When im driving my truck at about 50 miles per hour it sounds like i have a tiny turbo under the hood, and its not a wind whistle.


Any advice on any of these problems is greatly appriciated

 

Have you done a tune-up lately?

If not things like cleaning the throttle body, running Seafoam through the oil for the last 50 miles until you change the oil, spark plugs etc. can do a bit.

And if you have I have no idea about the problems. And my wheel wiggles too, but I have 35"s and go over really rough terrain, but even when it was stock a dirt road with some minor bump would cause the wheel to get a mind of it's own.

 

I have changed the oil 3 times in the past month

ran seafoam through the crank, PCV, and gastank

changed plugs to NGK

changed air filter

cleaned throttle body

 

**DISCLAIMER** What you read below is just heresay, not personal experience:

I talked to a Toyota Master Tech/Shop Manager at the Toyota dealership in Bend earlier today about the 3RZ. He mentioned staying on top of valve adjustments as particularly important with the is engine. Sounds like that might not have been the case with yours.

Awhile back, I emailed back and forth about some with a guy who posts as engnbldr on 4x4wire and is somewhat of a 22RE guru, sells upgraded cams and heads for them, has a machine shop in Portland. They see a fair number of 3RZs too. FWIW, he said they are great engines but indicated they are prone to oil sludge buildup.

I wonder if getting one of those motor flushes would help, by taking the Seafoam treatment a step further...

 

seafoam is bull in a can

check and clean MAF

 

Funny you should suggest this, I just downloaded a diagram of the 3RZ MAF and located THIS info about cleaning it.

Does anyone have anything to add, e.g. which specific cleaner to use?

 

CRC MAF cleaner and the local auto store

or any carb cleaner that specifically states leaves ZERO residue. the idea is
to melt any crud offa there with some volatile spray, but no film or residue left behind [or that will cause more issues]

CRC makes MAF specific stuff and there are some other carb cleaners like Berrymans spray which state 'no residue'. that'll work also.



clean it anyway.... a dirty maf can cause all your issues if it makes mistakes reading airflow

don't physically touch anything, let the spray do it. drown the thing.

 

go a bit down on this page

It has a pic of the cleaner they used
http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/mainte...tenancep5.html

 

Has anyone bought and used an Lc engineering bored out throttle body? I got mine in but the tps sensor on my throttle body doesn't match to the throttle body from Lc engineering. Any help would be awesome. Here's mine and the second one is the one from Lc engineering please help. Lol my truck is stuck in the garage lol