My engine recently started to get really bad gas mileage, like 14 mph on the highway and I used to get 18 mph on the high way, and when my car is at a stop in drive it seems to lightly shudder, its barley noticable but when the car is in park it idles fine. Anyone have an idea of what might be wrong?

 

Do a tune-up:

Plugs
Wires
Rotor
Cap
Fuel filter
O2 sensor
injector cleaner

 

I'm working on moving into a 2nd gen 4Runner and have been doing a bunch of surfing on the net trying to find out what to get and what to avoid. One of the issues that does come up on the 3.0 other than the ominous headgasket problem is there being a problem with the knock sensor. Either the contact gets corroded or the wiring shorts (haven't found a good answer on that one yet), but the effect is that the sensor does not report properly and the ECU then cannot set the ignition timing. From what I have read, the result is poor fuel economy and sluggishness. Sounds like you have to pull the intake manifold to get to it though.
Good luck!

 

ewwww

i did cap rotor and wires, and it started to get cold out so i wrapped it up, the bolts for the o2 sensor are rusted so bad, I have no idea what i can do because of the position of the o2 and poor design.

 

Get some Liquid Wrench and blast the O2 sensor the night before you plan on replacing it...then rip the bolts off. I did mine in about 30 minutes no sweat. I hit it with Liquid Wrench no more than 15 minutes before I did it but I wish I had followed my own advice and done it the night before cause I had to use some muscle to get them free but once I did it was easy...one thing is to be sure to remember the position of the gasket that is between the sensor and backing plate...thats critical.

Hope that works for ya!

Fink