So I'm a new guy, been using Yotatech for a few months to gather wisdom, but I've got a problem that my searches haven't found a solution for. One guy mentioned a similar problem years ago, but no solution was offered.

Here goes: 88 4x4 pickup 3VZE 5 speed DLX. I've owned it for the past 7 months or so, bought it with 275,000 on it. it was maintained well and generally it runs great, but it has an intermittent (I know-- sorry,) deal where I will be running down the freeway (this only happens at 60-65mph) and it will lose power suddenly as though I completely let up on the gas. No warning, no hesitation, no sluggishness, just instantly no power. Then, as I'm working the gas pedal and watching the trucks come up behind me in the rear-view mirror, it'll pop back to life. Maybe 3 to 6 seconds later. I never lose electrical power when this happens, lights and radio stay on, and like I said it's instant--no choking and puking like with a plugged filter. The frequency with which it does this is pretty variable: it's done it twice in one 35 minute ride to work, and then it took a whole month off, as though I fixed it somehow. Now it's back. Kind of cheeses me off because I'm scared to get it too far off the beaten path, for fear of it not coming back to life. Anyway, here's what I've done: Cleaned the throttle body, all the numbers check out with my ohmmeter. Checked all the electrical connections and vacuum lines and everything looks good. Cleaned up all the grounds and tightened battery connections. VAFM is clean and tests good. Plugs/cap/rotor/wires are new. Timing is at 12 degrees. What component can do this? I definitely want to fix this, because I'm keeping it forever! Thanks for your input.

 

wow, reading this gave me some really frightening flashbacks.. brrrr.. haha, WELL I have an 86 4runner and I was having this exact same problem (all descriptions to the T) except for the fact that yours does it only at high speeds (60mph). Mine would do it whenever the hell it wanted to. Did your problem just start?? Cause Mine would just shut off, but then revive like yours when mine just started doing it. But as mine got worse it would shut off then not want to start for me either after seconds, or minutes, or sometimes hours..
It took me MONTHS of punching my hood and slamming my head on quarter panels to figure it out,

What MINE was, is one of the wires going to my coil was corroded on the inside. The outside looked totally fine (which fooled me for so long), until i got mad one day and started ripping at wires at my coil and one of the wires just Broke.. It was corroded all the way through and broke as i was tearing at them LOL. I spliced it, cut them clean, re connected them, never had the problem since.... the electrial tape i used to fix it (while wheeling) is still on there to this day

 

Hey, thanks for your reply. I had begun to think that I had completely stumped the aggregate wisdom bank of Yotatech. I can't believe I'm the first to have this problem. The first time it happened to me, (remember I've only owned this thing for 7 months,) it was right after I had cleaned the throttle body, so I assumed that I had some solvent in the wrong spot or knocked loose some crud that was giving it fits. That was in the first month of ownership, and it's still happening in a really intermittent way. Can't say it's getting worse. Also, I don't know if the engine is shutting off or just losing throttle and going to idle. As I'm losing speed, it feels like the throttle just backed off. Haven't had the presence of mind yet to push in the clutch and see if the engine's dead. I haven't had to use the key to get it started back up, so it might be that it's re-starting by compression, but it doesn't really feel like it. As I said before, these events only last 2 to 6 long seconds. Thanks for the input--I'll definitely check out the coil.

 

All the plug and coil wires, cap, rotor, plugs are new.

 

You messed up your TPS? Bad signal to ECU might cause that.

Also probability of intermittent interruption to:
1) Fuel flow from blockage
2) Ignition power, like that corroded wire to coil.
3) Operation of fuel pump because it is going bad.
4) Power to fuel pump (i.e., C.O.R. going bad, because water was dripping on it from windshield-body interface right above it. This you can verify/isolate by trying to drive with fuel pump test connector jumped. DO NOT FORGET TO REMOVE JUMPER when not driving.

 

Thanks for the good input. I am a believer in that old saying that the new problem is usually caused by the last thing you messed with, so I was leery of my throttle body cleaning too. It did the power drop a couple of times immediately after I cleaned the TB, but then was fine for a month or so. I didn't make any adjustments to the TPS, either, just checked it out per the procedure. Doesn't really feel like a blockage, because the drop and return is so instant, but I could be wrong. I'll be checking all of your suggestions tomorrow, right after the Seahawks game. I'll let you know if I find anything. Go Hawks.