I'm having some issues with my 4runner. She is a 1990 4wd V6. 150k and I just bought her about a month ago.

This stuff all happend yesterday, I'm not sure if any of it is related at all or not. As the morning started off she was running beautifully. But during the course of the day and about 70 miles of driving the following things happened.

1) It smells like she is running very rich

2) Upon starting my vehicle after she sat for a few hours I immediately noticed something wasn't right. It sounded like the engine was misfiring. I got out of the vehicle and my exhaust sounded like something was "popping" inside. I was almost sure it was a misfire, so I got under the hood and started checking the spark plug wires thinking maybe one of them came loose. They were all in place. I reved the engine from the throttle under the hood and the engine sounded like it was reving normal. I let her warm up a bit and then started driving (kinda had to be somewhere).

I got on the freeway and something definitely felt wrong. My exhaust sounded like a tractor (no there is no hole or anything) and my vehicle started feeling like I was lightly tapping the brakes every few seconds. My RPM's and speed stayed the same, but the vehicle felt like it wanted to die. The closest thing I can describe the feeling is if you just lightly tapped the brake pedal while keeping your foot on the gas. After about 10 miles, it completely went away and she drove normal. I pulled into a gas station and check all the basics over, but everything looked normal.


I continued about my day and she was running good until we come to #3

3) I was cleaning out my car with the CD player on and engine off. After about 20 minutes I went to start her back up and she wouldn't start. My cd player still had power, my lights worked, ignition was on, etc.

Starter wasn't getting any power, but the thing is brand new. Just put it in a few weeks ago. I called up a friend of mine to come help and after some McGuyver style diagnostics we come to this conclusion that the starter solenoid isn't getting any power. We found the starter solenoid line under the hood and ran power from the battery straight to the starter solenoid line and she started right up. So basically the communication between my ignition and my starter isn't working.

I did just get an alarm installed a few weeks ago and it has a starter kill switch or whatever it is. From my understanding they must have tapped into that starter solenoid line behind the dash somewhere. I completely disabled my alarm system (valet/suspend mode) , but it still wont start from the ignition.

I am going to take it back to the shop that installed the alarm ASAP and see if it has something to do with the alarm. If it isnt the alarm, what would it be? What will cause the break in power from my ignition to my starter?

Any ideas as to if the weird running and running rich smell could have something to do with it?

Thank you!