OME Lift Complete: Truck is "shuddering" and feels weak

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denvermaxd

New member
2000 4Runner SR5 4wd. Manual transmission.

Finished installing OME 881s and 890s. My old suspension was worn plumb out (it was original stock, 180,000 miles).

Put the truck on the ground and drove to work. Everything felt pretty good for the first 10 miles. Eventually hit some traffic. A/C on, truck was shuddering like it wanted to stall when I would release the clutch to roll forward.

So, I turned off the A/C, thinking maybe it was working too hard. But it kept on shuddering whenever I'd accelerate. Just felt really bad, the whole last 2 miles in.

Is there any way anything done during the lift or as a result of the lift could cause this behavior? I'm frankly afraid to drive it, it felt so bad.

Current lift measurements:

Drivers side front: 21.5"
Passenger side front: 21.375"
Drivers side rear: 23"
Passenger side rear: 22.625"
 
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Sounds like there is another issues not related to the lift. Did you get it aligned after the lift?

When it is shuttering, is it only at idle or while accelerating / under load? Also by shuttering do you mean an RPM drop? Are there any Check Engine lights ? Did you happen to disconnect anything else while doing the lift; battery, relays?
 
awthorn said:
Sounds like there is another issues not related to the lift. Did you get it aligned after the lift?

When it is shuttering, is it only at idle or while accelerating / under load? Also by shuttering do you mean an RPM drop? Are there any Check Engine lights ? Did you happen to disconnect anything else while doing the lift; battery, relays?
Click to expand...

It seems to idle fine (although I only had 2 miles of driving during which it was misbehaving). The shuddering is definitely under load/acceleration. It really feels very similar to the "pre-stall" shudder you feel on a manual transmission when you try to release the clutch without giving it enough gas.

I have not had an alignment done yet. There are no check engine lights.

I did not disconnect anything other than suspension-related parts:

  • front sway bar end links
  • front suspension towers
  • all 4 wheels off
  • rear lateral control rod
  • rear coils
  • rear shocks

I can't imagine how the lift could do this, so I'm inclined to share your opinion it's something new/unrelated. But the timing? Literally within 10 miles after finishing the lift? Any way a changed angle on the CVs could create an issue like this?

The rear end was hanging pretty low while I was working on the coils. I wonder if it somehow buggered the transmission/clutch alignment or something?
 
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Find the grease zerks on the driveshaft and shoot some grease in there! The rearmost section is a slip joint and it has pulled out further due to the lift and is lacking grease.
 
How tight is your e brake now that you've lifted it?

Does it drag like the brakes are applied if you clutch in while driving?



I had something similar happen shortly after I lifted mine. I couldn't see how they were related though. It turned out to be bad gas. Add some premium if grease doesn't do the trick.

If necessary lift one wheel at a time and check for smooth operation.

U joints are another possibility since their angle has changed it might have polished one off.
 
Yeah coukd be the drive shafts needing lube, could also be front cv axles at too much of an angle, feont diff dro done? Hard to say for sure without driving it which is hard to do online. Good luck. I did the same lift as you with diff drop and had no issues.
 
Konkordmusk said:
Find the grease zerks on the driveshaft and shoot some grease in there! The rearmost section is a slip joint and it has pulled out further due to the lift and is lacking grease.
Click to expand...

Felt pretty good on the way home, but got a little of the "shuddering" effect when I got close to home. Not as bad as on my way in.

Greased 6 zerks (I could swear there were 7 when I last did it nearly 3 years ago). It definitely drank up a lot of grease in the zerks I located. Drove it around and it felt pretty good. The drive to work tomorrow will be the true test.

AZ4Running said:
Yeah coukd be the drive shafts needing lube, could also be front cv axles at too much of an angle, feont diff dro done? Hard to say for sure without driving it which is hard to do online. Good luck. I did the same lift as you with diff drop and had no issues.
Click to expand...

I bought the diff drop, but didn't install it. Maybe I'll throw it on there next week. Did you have to cut the skid plate to complete the install?


REVELC said:
How tight is your e brake now that you've lifted it?

Does it drag like the brakes are applied if you clutch in while driving?
Click to expand...

If anything, the e-brake seems a little less tight... truck rolled on my a bit in my driveway with the e-brake on, but not pulled to absolute top.
 
General consesus seems to be that a spring/shock install should not affect drivability, period.
I got the same springs as you installed on my '97 in June, 2013. New alignment was part of the installation. There were no drivability issues with the truck after install.
It's hard to believe being out of alignment could cause enough resistance to putter the engine, but what do I know?
Only sure way to check the ebrake is to jack up the rear and rotate the wheels by hand. Some slight sliding resistance is OK, but they should be rotatable by one hand against any resistance encountered.
You might as well jack up the front and check rolling resistance there as well.
 
My rear axle seal leaked on one side and the rear shoe swelled up due to being saturated by gear oil. Drove fine once rolling, but from a dead stop it was the worst, tooth chipping, shudder ever. Similar to a popped clutch stall out. Easy to check and hopefully rule out.
 
squabeggz said:
My rear axle seal leaked on one side and the rear shoe swelled up due to being saturated by gear oil. Drove fine once rolling, but from a dead stop it was the worst, tooth chipping, shudder ever. Similar to a popped clutch stall out. Easy to check and hopefully rule out.
Click to expand...

How do you check this? I noticed the inside of one of my rear wheels had a fair bit of fluid staining, but I figured it was the brakes leaking? Was going to have a shop look at that, as I've never done anything with drum brakes.

Maybe it was my axle seal? Symptoms sound the same. Was yours intermittent, or always tough from a dead start once the problem first arose?
 
denvermaxd said:
How do you check this? I noticed the inside of one of my rear wheels had a fair bit of fluid staining, but I figured it was the brakes leaking? Was going to have a shop look at that, as I've never done anything with drum brakes.

Maybe it was my axle seal? Symptoms sound the same. Was yours intermittent, or always tough from a dead start once the problem first arose?
Click to expand...

Take the rear wheels off, then the drum (remember to release the parking brake and chock the wheels). If there is a leaky axle seal it will be coated with a ton of gear oil. I think if your brakes were leaking your pedal would be getting softer and softer.

My symptoms usually arose after the truck had been sitting for an hour or two and more so on cold mornings. Not everytime i came to a stop.
 
New information...

Well, I greased all the zerks, felt like truck ran better in a short drive around the neighborhood and for a couple short errands. I was planning to pull the rear wheels off tonight to check the brake drums for signs of gear oil.

Then today I had to drive around quite a bit in the heat of the day, and the under-powered shuddering behavior returned in force. A couple times it would feel like it would push through it and run smooth for a few seconds, then it would start again. Also felt inconsistent and the truck was shaking a bit at idle.

Eventually, on came the check engine light, flashing at first, then off, then flashing.

Stopped at Auto Zone and pulled the codes:

P0301 - Cylinder 1 misfire detected

After the codes were pulled, CEL stayed on the rest of the way home, and truck felt weak. Checked for loose wires, anything obvious in the engine bay. I'm supposed to drive up to the mountains this weekend, so I've made an appointment at the stealership for service. I hope they won't jerk me around. Called my "trusted" local mechanics and never even got a call back about availability.

I suspect it's a bad injector in #1. I hope it's just a bad coil pack or spark plug, but I just don't have time to troubleshoot it myself, with a busy work week and scheduled camping trip on Friday.
 
Ahhh the P03XX codes...I know these well. I opted to replace plugs and wires first as those seemed easier to get to than injectors, and certainly less expensive. I've also run a couple of tanks with Seafoam through and the combination seemed to go away.

If it stays consistent with just cylinder 1 I would assume a fouled plug. If it pairs with another cylinder (1 & 4 I think) then it could be wires or coil pack. The most frustrating is P0300 which is random so harder to track down.
 
friging I had a P0306 two weeks ago after cleaning the engine then it went away.

Misfirings are a pain, pull your plugs first and foremost that is the easiest first step. Get the GAPs for the plugs and make sure they are up to snuff
with coil from plug 1 to the adjacent coil.

Those are first and least expensive then run codes again...

Good luck
 
Well that timing sux. When you do one thing and then something unrelated happens, you always end up wasting time chasing a ghost. I put new tires on my wifes car recently and on the way home I started to hear and feel a grinding noise from the front end. I spent a couple of hours inspecting the tires, swapping them front-to-back etc, only to find that a wheel bearing was shot and it was unrelated the tire change.
 
Wrap up: Bad Injector

So, I figure I should wrap this thread up.

As I said, took the truck to the dealership to let them sort it out, hoping they wouldn't screw me.

They had it for a few hours, then called me to say they had test driven it and it threw misfires on cylinders #1 & #6, so the mechanic was pressure testing the coolant system to see if it had a head gasket issue.

I thought, "here we go, dangit." Or something like that.

Then later in the afternoon they called and said it pressure tested fine, that the mechanic had swapped the coil packs and it still had a misfire on #1 (although #6 misfire had gone away never to reappear), so they had narrowed it down to a bad injector on #1. Which is what I suspected all along. They had to get a new injector in from the warehouse, so it wasn't done until the next day.

I picked it up, total bill was $550, including 4-wheel alignment and replacement of #1 injector.

Runs like a champ again, towed a 3500+ lb trailer up over Cottonwood Pass last weekend, drove a couple of pedestrian 4wd roads to test the suspension (which feels great), and home without any issues.

So, looks like injector was the problem. Thanks for all your input.
 
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