Long story short, I started up my 4Runner yesterday and began to drive down the road. Everytime I let off the gas, the RPMs went to 0 and the engine died. I started it up a couple more times in traffic and parked it in a parking lot to see what was wrong. The engine would barely start up, and you had to keep it halfway floored just to keep it around 2-3k rpms. It doesn't start up at all now, but the engine will still turn over. My roomate and I towed it to my house, and we're going to take a look at it on Monday because we think it might be something with the fuel, like the filter, lines or pump maybe. Maybe the new filter I put on it is clogged or something, who knows.

I just hope if I have to take it to the shop that it's nothing that serious.

So here's the syptoms:
doesn't start up
engine turns over
has spark from the spark plugs (my roomate shocked himself, ha)
isn't out of gas (we put more in thinking that was the problem)

Any guesses?

 

Well, sounds like a fuel issue to me, others might chime in here. What was the time frame between the new filter install and the problems? Was it immediate? Did you use teflon tape on the filter threads that may have plugged the filter?

 

Nope, I didn't use any tape. I put the new filter on Sunday, September 14th. That was about a week and a half ago. I never noticed any problems then though, but maybe something clogged it up.

 

Well, if you still had the old filter, it couldn't hurt to swap it back in, or buy another replacement. Does sound weird that this would happen so close to when you installed the filter.

 

I hope it's just something wrong with the filter. If it is I'll just go back to Checker and make them give me a new one. They're known for selling lousy parts anyways (my roomate got a falty starter from them and had to take it back).

 

You didnt go with an OEM fuel filter?

I would get that Checker junk outta there and go OEM. TOR (Todd) here on the boards can hook you up.

If that does not solve it, I would look at the fuel pump.

 

I've had the same problem. Thought I would have a hard time finding the problem, but luckily it turned out to be simple. One of my air intake hoses (behind the MAF) had ripped. So false air got in and the ECU shuts down the engine at low RPM's. And gets confused at high RPM's. So check your air hoses, vacuum lines and oil filler cap because it really is identical to my previous problem.