I think that my 4runner is misfiring. Before I had the head gasket recall done, I did a tuneup on it which included new plugs, wires, cap, and rotor. The plugs are Champions and I don't know about the wires, cap, and rotor. When I took the car in it idled smoothly without any engine shake or a slight decrease in RPM's.

Now that I have gotten it back, I can feel the engine shake at idle and see the RPM's slightly drop on the tach. I can also hear what sounds like a poof (maybe a cylinder not firing) whenever I put my head down by the tailpipe. It also pings a little bit and I run premium gas in it. Does this sound like my truck is misfiring to you guys?

I took the truck back to Toyota and the guy who did the work on it said that it wasn't misfiring. He also said that if I replaced the plugs with NGK's and replaced the wires, cap, and rotor with Toyota parts that it would probably take care of these symptoms. The people at Toyota seemed to think their stuff was of much better quality and that I should replace these things.

I know that they didn't pull the plugs out of the heads when they cleaned them. Do you guys think the gap could have been knocked off?

I also used dielectric grease when I put on the plug wires. Do you guys think that they still could have damaged them in some way?

I really don't want to spend another $100 on tuneup parts again. It's really not all that bad, but I like to have my vehicles running great. And its kind of annoying.

What do you guys recommend?

Thanks for the help.

 

You would be surprised how many people put new aftermarket cap, rotor, and wires on their cars or trucks and come back a week later with a "miss". Junk all of the aftermarket stuff, especially those plugs and put in the NGK's. Most people think we try to rip them off by selling such expensive Toyota parts, but NOTHING beats Toyota parts. They are much better quality, and will last a hell of a lot longer. You get what you pay for, same is true for the aftermarket crap

 

It true what mogwai snot is saying. Not all aftermarket parts are worht the money and sometimes can harm your rig. For some things its better to stick with toyota parts.