I was driving down the highway today and all of a sudden my engine began to cut out & sputter. It did it for about 1/4 mile untill I exited the highway. I drove back home and it didn't do it again. Any ideas what may have caused this or had the same problem?

132,000 miles
Put a new fuel filter on 3 months ago
Put BG44K fuel injector cleaner in 2 months ago.
No new engine work
Already used half of the tank with no problems
Check engine light didn't turn on

I am thinking that the fuel pump could be the problem

Thanks
Jeff

 

Anybody???

 

My truck used to do something similar. It would cut out for about 2-4 revolutions about a mile after a hot soak start, which never did make any sense. Changing the fuel filter almost completely stopped it, and it hasn't done it for at least 5 months @ 24,000 miles/year. Because of that I never could track it down, and I still don't know if it was fuel or spark related although I do suspect fuel.

 

Pull the codes.

No MIL != nothing inside the ECU

 

Oh yea - My truck never put out an error code after doing this.

 

There may be a temporary code in there that will not trigger a CEL.
I would pull the codes just to see if there is anything there.

 

I will try to pull the codes tonight and see if anything shows up.

Jeff

 

Hmmm....My sister's 4runner was doing something similar this past week. She took it to the stealership and they said it was the spark plugs. How long has it been since you've changed the plugs. I noticed that you've got some mileage. If it's been a while I might pull a couple out and check for wear or carbon buildup.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that Toyota fuel filters never needed to be changed. If I'm wrong don't ask me where I heard this 'cause it may have just been the voices in my head.

 

I changed the spark plugs about 10,000 miles ago, so I imagine that they should still be fine and you do need to replace the fuel filter. I believe Toyota's have higher quality filters than many American vehicles crappy filters which need to be replaced or cleaned on a regular basis, but like any filter eventually it will get dirty and need to be replaced.