Rough running engine, Flashing CEL, pulled codes
 

OK well after searching as much as possible I have decided to post my series of problems and see if anyone can help shed some light on this

Ca 1999 4ruuner sr5
210000+ miles

Few months ago started surging when driving, CO2 (front Co2 replaced)

Little better,
then new problem on warm starts Idle is rough and would sometimes stall.

pulled TB off cleaned throughly (was pretty bad)

Cleaned IAC

Replaced plugs

Purchacedt obd tool pulled codes
General Misfire
and Miss on cyl 2 and 5
Moved coil pack no dif


Took Throttle body off again really took every little thing apart and cleaned IAC better,

Put in New Air Cleaner,& New EGR valve, new NGK spark plugs gaped at .043

Better for about 2 days but Still surging and CEL on WOT Going up hills ( I went to Toyota dealership to just see if the techs would talk. 1 gave some suggestions and asked if I had single or double electrode plugs. I told him I just put in new NGK singles, he pointed to the sticker that I must have overlooked. So I bought 6 new Denso dual electrode plugs.

Last night I was waiting in a line or cars to leave where I was and just sitting at idle the engine kept wanting to die and started to backfire a bit. I would rev it up to keep it from dieing and to get home.

Today I pulled the plugs and they were all black and sooty (sp?) smelled of fuel.


I replaced with the new plugs and went for test drive still hesitated a little but when I oped it up to WOT Flashing CEL indicating a misfire right?

The engine just doesn't sound quite right it surges when idling every 5 seconds or so like it missed. and there is a general metal tapping sound.

I'm inclined to thing the valves out of adjustment? Is there a way to adjust the timing on this vehicle.

Any Ideas???

Many thanks

I live in So Cal near Palm Springs if anyone can recommend someone who can lend a hand or idea?

I have only a small amount of experiance with working on cars but I am a anventurous researcher, thats how I ended up on Yotatech :-)


BTW thanks to all the posters.

Chris:bigok:

the fact that u said there is still a misfire even after u moved the coils would make me wanna check the compression on all 6 cyl. That will help rule out a bad motor.

J-man: Thanks I will look into that ASAP I only have one of those old Compression testers you have to Push and hold in, will that work? Anyone know off hand what compression should be?

Thanks.

This may be a long shot, but any idea when the timing belt was done? It seems that there have been several threads recently that describe your symtoms. The cause was a loose crank shaft pully (bolt).

Check out https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/c...ighway-128206/

You can see what it did to the gear below.
LSUMatt1514 reported the same problem in this thread: https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/m...t-guys-139577/

Matt figures it out in post 7.

If you can eliminate a couple other potential problems, this might be worth a look.

on all of my 4runners - they seem to be in the 175 - 200 psi range in each cylinder, but look for any big difference between cyinders. good luck

Also, didnt see if you replaced your fuel filter, or cleaned your maf sensor. Try that, and get a bottle of SEA FOAM and run one bottle thru your pcv valve, and another bottle in your gas tank. Maybe you have a clogged injector as well.

J-man: Thanks
I should of mentioned I have ran two bottles of seafoam through the tank but none yet through the hose.
Might be fun to scare the neighbors in the morning :-)

I clean the MAF regularly with MAF Cleaner even cleaned it real gentle like earlier today with some q-tips dipped in MAF cleaner.

Ive never done the fuel filter though I will try to get one tomorrow with a better compression tester.

Element:
Thats nuts! err well bolts.. but is this the same bolt that the older factory manuals all seem to advised wrongly tightening to the wrong settings like 170 Ft lbs when its supposed to be 200+ its been mentioned here somewhere.
Thanks

Well I put a can of Seafoam in through the PCV Hose.
Took for short 5 min drive a lil while after. (Blew some smoke thats for sure.)

Idle is still surging. and on way home Flashing CEL on WOT

I don't know how others "hear" things but sometime I will listen near the exhaust. I seems that it should be a constant mechanical breathing but the surges I feel and hear in the cabin seem to be relayed here for sure:
like when someone is talking fast and the stream of words is interrupted by a hiccup or cough.

I will pickup the compression tester on way home from work. I hope.

Many thanks for the advise so far.

217 ft/lbs if I remember correctly. Have you had a chance to read those threads to see if they are describing your symptoms? I know they are both kind of long.

What caught my eye was the fact that you mentioned the code at WOT/highway speeds (decent load on the engine).

I’m not sure how loss of compression would cause the symptoms that you are describing.

The hiccup you are hearing is probably the misfire.

Element:
Thanks: Yes I did read the other threads and they do seem to have a lot in common. I will have to see if the bolt is correctly torqued. ( and perhaps re-read more carefully the other threads)

I'll know more after my commute today 40 miles there 40 back and whatever in between :-)

Thanks for the feedback. I post more when I get back in front of a computer.

even if the bolt is loose tightening it may not help. If your crank gear has worn like mine did from the loose bolt, it needs to be replaced. See my pic above?

I took the day off to figure this out.

1. was a compression test: Result 150 PSI in each cylinder. (I only cranked the key for around 3 seconds each time and test them all twice.) If there is another way I should have done this please let me know.

I decided I was sick of taking the Intake silencer box in & out, I did the ISR mod & put in a straight pipe to the Air box just before the MAF I used a pneumatic hose barb to hook up the small hose that was connected to it.

Few odd things all the plugs I got from Toyota were gapped wrong I know I should have checked but I thought perhaps because they were dual electrode you didn't gap them the same. I gapped them all at .043

and started her up.

Funny thing the miss I kept hearing seems to have gone away at least at idle.
I realized that I forgot to plug in the MAF connector though. Car started fine. When I plugged it in MAF though the Miss seems to have come back.

So I am looking for a way to test the MAF before I run out and just throw whats left in my wallet at the parts counter people,

Any ideas are always welcome.

I'd like to thank the Yotatech comunity in general.
So Thanks

mine wont run at all w/o the maf

It is starting either way. but If I have the engine running and just unplug it it dies, but if the engine is off and I unplug it and then start it it starts right up. Go figure.

I have to return some part I bought a while ago so I'm going to pick up the MAF while I'm out If that does not do it I am going to tear into things and look into the possibility of the loose Crankshaft pulley like 98runner210 mentions above

Here is how to test the MAF.

http://www.ncttora.com/fsm/2000/Repa...0Flow/insp.pdf

New MAF in No change, I've lost my VM so I will have to find one. Looks like I should start looking into the pulley issue.

Have you checked the Fuel injectors? if not, unplug the connector and perform an ohm test. It should read around 14-18 ohms. If you get anything higher than that on cyl 2 and 5, you found your problem. It cant be the coils since it utilize diff coils.

May be fixed!
This is little embarrassing, but it shows that you cant overlook anything.

I started to take off the cover to get to the timing belt, when I noticed that the date stamped on my plug wires was 99. I have an invoice showing I paid for new ones, so I didn't really think it was them. but here they were the original wires. with over 210K miles of service I cant be mad but I decided to replace the wires just as a precaution.
I replaced them one set at a time, reassembled everything and started engine. on the 3rd set all the idle and misfire problems went away.

I will be driving it today to work so I'll know if it really was it or just ginving me the illusion that it worked.

Thanks to all the posters,

Hi all: Wonder what some of you would make of this.

CEL started again this week I cleared it once with little to no issues but it came back and the car is now running sporadically again.

I normally have no trouble starting the car for work and driving an hour, after I stop and restart the Idle is not always constant. and sometime feels like there is no power, If I "punch it" with the gas it is back to normal.

All the problems went completely away and my 4runner had never been running better since the last post. not sure whats changed just yet. I welcome your thoughts and will start re-reading the posts :-)

Here are the latest codes as of 4-25-08

P1133 (Air / fuel Ratio sensor)
p0446 (evap vent control)

I replaced the MAF sensor about a month ago, could the 2 code suggest a problem with removing the elbow from the Filter box and Silencer from the intake?

i have taken pictures and will post tonight.

thanks all

I recently had some misfiring and it turned out to be the crank sensor not plugged in all the way, also how old is your o2 sensor, I've had weird symptoms caused by a bad o2 sensor. Just my two pennies