I was driving home today on the freeway and let off the gas to change lanes. When I went to hit the gas again I realized I was stalled. I have an auto so I slipped it into N started it (while still rolling) put it in drive and it's fine as long as I am cruising. As soon as I let off the gas and it gets around 1K rpm it dies! So the whole way home from work (think orange county traffic on the 22fwy) I had to slip it into N and hold the RPMs up with my right foot while braking with my left foot. then slip it into D right when it's time to go. A bitch to say the least, not to mention unsafe. Anyone have a clue what is happening? check the sig for year, etc.

 

sounds like a coil pack going out, but your 53k doesnt really add up

 

I am @ 61K miles now, (should update the sig)
coil pack huh, how many miles do they usually last?

 

coil packs and PLUG wires can all do this, just USUALLY closer to 80k-100k It can actually cause a cylinder to missfire, back firing, extreme loss of power, low rpm cut off, rough idle, CHECK ENGINE light.

Hope this sheds light

 

On my dads 5.9L Dodge Magnum, we had the same problem caused by a bad battery. The RPMS would just slowly die to 0 once you let off the gas. Worth lookin' into!

 

I have had the exact symptoms you described occur twice in my jeep. Both times it was caused by the Throttle Position Sensor ($30) quitting working. I have a 5 speed, and it would only run with my foot on the gas. Talk about crappy. At stoplights, I had to use my left foot for clutch and brake, while keeping my right foot on the gas. I have absolutely no idea if this is relevant to a 4runner, or if there is even such a thing as a Throttle Position Sensor on the 4runners, but it might be worth looking. Mine was plugged into the throttle body on my jeep.

 

A dirty fuel filter might starve the engine at low RPM's....

 

Thanks yotatechies for all the suggestions, I was snooping around under the hood and noticed that the throttle cable that comes from the little brain box.. not the gas pedal, had TONS of slack in it. I thought that maybe when the computer was giving a subtle movement to hold idle it was maybe "lost" in the slack. So I backed out the threaded collar and the problem hasnt' happened since, but who knows maybe it's not related. Anyway thanks again to anyone who chimed in on this, and I am still all ears to any other ideas. I'll be getting my 60k done in a week or so, I am already 1k behind shedule. I guess I'll ask them about it, I just don't want it to turn into an opportunity for them to gouge me.

 

Mine does the same thing on occasion, but the only circumstance that will cause it is flooring the accelerator. This has happened a couple of times and it won't idle for a day or so, but eventually the idle comes back. I certainly would not be letting my wife drive the 4runner when left foot braking is required!

I've also never tuned my 4Runner up, so that may be part of. I'm sure there's all sorts of junk in the intake in spite of the K&N which gets washed maybe once a year. The only thing it's had in 230k is a timing belt at 170k and that's it. I plan to get on it when the weather gets warmer, but I've been saying that for a few years now! My buddy wants to be around when I pull the plugs - to him it a science experiment to see what the originals will look like. I'm not real convinced that they are going to come out in one piece!

 

You guys might also want to try cleaning the throttle body and see if that helps as well.
It could be a number of things in these stalling cases (IAC valve, TPS, etc).