2nd gen losing all power. HELP!

[danhtx92]

Randomly while driving, my 4runner will lose all engine power. It will gain it back and then it will cut off again, sometimes causing the engine to die. I took some videos of it acting up to better show what I am experiencing.

Video 1: https://youtu.be/kNVX-HXVAt4

Video 2: https://youtu.be/riKpE_MXXmU

Video 3: https://youtu.be/1iNLWSdYtec

Video 4: https://youtu.be/5Vrq4BX4OGo

Video 5: https://youtu.be/6EGsOts6GZY

Any ideas of what it could be? Anything helps, thanks!

Also it is a 94 SR5 3VZE Automatic

 

[santanvalleydirt]

Randomly while driving, my 4runner will lose all engine power. It will gain it back and then it will cut off again, sometimes causing the engine to die. I took some videos of it acting up to better show what I am experiencing.

Video 1: https://youtu.be/kNVX-HXVAt4

Video 2: https://youtu.be/riKpE_MXXmU

Video 3: https://youtu.be/1iNLWSdYtec

Video 4: https://youtu.be/5Vrq4BX4OGo

Video 5: https://youtu.be/6EGsOts6GZY

Any ideas of what it could be? Anything helps, thanks!

Also it is a 94 SR5 3VZE Automatic

Woah. Those RPMs are totally out of whack. I was having issues with power loss recently, but not anything that drastic. It almost seems like every time you let go of the gas it's dropping straight to zero rpms, is that correct?

 

[danhtx92]

Woah. Those RPMs are totally out of whack. I was having issues with power loss recently, but not anything that drastic. It almost seems like every time you let go of the gas it's dropping straight to zero rpms, is that correct?

I'm not letting go of the gas though, thats the thing. My foot is down on the accelerator when the RPM's drop to zero, i'm not taking my foot off the gas in the videos at all.

 

[Ahlem]

Does it Idle OK? Does it rev in neutral in the driveway OK?
I'm leaning toward electrical ignition issues or fuel pressure issues.
I would start with a spark tester on the coil wire to see if there is anything interrupted there. Second, I would take a look under the cap and at the rotor to see if anything is dying.
If your fuel pump is cutting out for some reason, like a grounding out wire or a bad relay ( cant remember if these have fuel pump relays) you would see this from a fuel pressure test.
I would open the hood at night with all the lights off and see if anything electrical is arcing.

 

[santanvalleydirt]

I'm not letting go of the gas though, thats the thing. My foot is down on the accelerator when the RPM's drop to zero, i'm not taking my foot off the gas in the videos at all.

Wow. That's nuts. I'd have to agree with Ahlem on this one, all that is totally out of whack.

 

[onian]

Seems electrical with that rapid of a drop off. Check your grounds. Let it idle and start wiggling wires. Check output of battery/alternator. To me if it is idling correctly and you can I would just pop the hood and start wiggling stuff first to see as it is most likely bumps on road causing that.

 

[v_man]

I agree ^^^ , see if you can duplicate the problem in your driveway . Wiggle your wires coming off the alternator , into the fuse box , near your battery terminals . Check your motor grounds . I had a similar problem and it turned out to be a bad igniter , I'd be puttering along and lose all power , then it would crank and crank but never catch .

See if you can pull any stored ECU codes , it's easy to do ...

Toyota OBD Trouble Codes ?

 

[danhtx92]

Does it Idle OK? Does it rev in neutral in the driveway OK?
I'm leaning toward electrical ignition issues or fuel pressure issues.
I would start with a spark tester on the coil wire to see if there is anything interrupted there. Second, I would take a look under the cap and at the rotor to see if anything is dying.
If your fuel pump is cutting out for some reason, like a grounding out wire or a bad relay ( cant remember if these have fuel pump relays) you would see this from a fuel pressure test.
I would open the hood at night with all the lights off and see if anything electrical is arcing.

The only thing is that this problem is intermittent. Sometimes it will act up really bad and other times I can't get it to. I did check all of the wirings and everything looked alright. I'm thinking that it may be the igniter now. Thanks for the tips!

 

[danhtx92]

I agree ^^^ , see if you can duplicate the problem in your driveway . Wiggle your wires coming off the alternator , into the fuse box , near your battery terminals . Check your motor grounds . I had a similar problem and it turned out to be a bad igniter , I'd be puttering along and lose all power , then it would crank and crank but never catch .

See if you can pull any stored ECU codes , it's easy to do ...

Toyota OBD Trouble Codes ?

I can't get it to throw any codes which makes it even more of a pain.

 

[flyinhawaiian01]

that is DEFINITELY electrical! Do as everyone says, get it to idle, tap around under the dash first since you're sitting there when you start it. If nothing seems to trigger this cutout, then move onto the ecu, sit in the passenger's seat and wiggle the ecu's connectors. If nothing there, then check the ground to the engine block. Try this one to test if its a ground issue...

Grab jumper cables, connect black to battery, connect other side of black to engine block where its clearly metal. Try running it with that in place. If issue goes away, your ground to the block is shot.

If not, try checking the fusible links and wiring to the fuseblock under the hood next. Re-seat every fuse and relay in there. re-seat the connectors to the MAF, the TPS, every sensor you can get to.

If you can't get codes at all, tps is out of adjustment. If its flashing "no codes set", then its more than likely an ecu issue as its cutting power to the ecu before it can set any codes.

These should get you closer to the issue at-hand.

 

[Wazukie]

My 93 did the same thing and it turned out to be the igniter.

 

[danhtx92]

that is DEFINITELY electrical! Do as everyone says, get it to idle, tap around under the dash first since you're sitting there when you start it. If nothing seems to trigger this cutout, then move onto the ecu, sit in the passenger's seat and wiggle the ecu's connectors. If nothing there, then check the ground to the engine block. Try this one to test if its a ground issue...

Grab jumper cables, connect black to battery, connect other side of black to engine block where its clearly metal. Try running it with that in place. If issue goes away, your ground to the block is shot.

If not, try checking the fusible links and wiring to the fuseblock under the hood next. Re-seat every fuse and relay in there. re-seat the connectors to the MAF, the TPS, every sensor you can get to.

If you can't get codes at all, tps is out of adjustment. If its flashing "no codes set", then its more than likely an ecu issue as its cutting power to the ecu before it can set any codes.

These should get you closer to the issue at-hand.

Awesome! I will definitely give all of these a try. Thanks for the tips.

 

[danhtx92]

My 93 did the same thing and it turned out to be the igniter.

I sure hope that's what it is. I am replacing it tomorrow. I am sick of it happening. Question though, what all symptoms were you seeing? Were they all the same as mine? Anything different?

 

[Wazukie]

Mine would begin to cut out just like yours is doing after driving for about 10 miles. It would just lose power, tac would go all speratic, it would come back up, run for sec, then do it again or just plain ole die. What was happening was as the igniter would heat up, it would cause an eternal short and give this problem. Never once through a code. I couldn't figure it out so i paid the shop to do it, and it took the mechanic several calls to other Toyota shops to figure it out. He said that he'd never seen the problem before and he's been wrenchin on Toyota's for 30 years.

 

[danhtx92]

Mine would begin to cut out just like yours is doing after driving for about 10 miles. It would just lose power, tac would go all speratic, it would come back up, run for sec, then do it again or just plain ole die. What was happening was as the igniter would heat up, it would cause an eternal short and give this problem. Never once through a code. I couldn't figure it out so i paid the shop to do it, and it took the mechanic several calls to other Toyota shops to figure it out. He said that he'd never seen the problem before and he's been wrenchin on Toyota's for 30 years.

I took it to a shop last Friday and the mechanic thought it was the igniter as well. He replaced it and I got it back yesterday and so far so good! Thanks for the help man!

 

[elias.romero]

Does it Idle OK? Does it rev in neutral in the driveway OK?
I'm leaning toward electrical ignition issues or fuel pressure issues.
I would start with a spark tester on the coil wire to see if there is anything interrupted there. Second, I would take a look under the cap and at the rotor to see if anything is dying.
If your fuel pump is cutting out for some reason, like a grounding out wire or a bad relay ( cant remember if these have fuel pump relays) you would see this from a fuel pressure test.
I would open the hood at night with all the lights off and see if anything electrical is arcing.

I had a similar problem on my runner, turns out that one of the spark plug cables had melted on EGR hose and I couldn't see it arching until it was dark. I'm gonna switch it out with a couple hoses and see what happens. My idle was waaay off and the engine had almost no power...