Smiley52
New member
This is going to be way longer than I thought it could be. I'm sorry, please don't kill me. There's a TL;DR at the bottom.
Alright guys, I searched a few threads, but nothing seemed to fit with what was happening. I'm on TacomaWorld with the same username, but just recently (a year ago) got into 4runners, not much experience with the 3.4 as this is the first time I've had it.
I bought a 96, 3.4 auto, 4wd about a month ago. It seemed to be running pretty good, bought it in Orlando and drove it home which was about an hour. No overheating issues or anything, cv axes still intact, the only thing was there was a whine coming from the engine. My initial thought was alternator-had it tested, and it passed with flying colors. Didn't sound like a power steering pump. (And I wish it was a supercharger, but no). So I searched, and found it *could* be the torque converter, but I didn't really believe that was it. I checked all the pulleys, nothing seemed out of whack.
Fast forward, a couple weeks ago my ac fan belt started squeaking, and I thought the pulley may have been the cause of the whine from before. So I figured I could deal with the squeak for a couple weeks (stupid me) while I work on other things and then I'll change it when I get some time.
Fast Forward again to last Thursday- I have the day off, and I'm going camping in Gainesville Florida with some friends for the weekend so I want to go get the RTT I've been planning on getting for a while, from Miami, which is about 3 hours away. I start the drive down there, about 20 minutes in, my fan belt breaks. Fine, no worries, I can ride without ac. Some time later, traveling about 70, I try to pass somebody so I hit the gas, engine bogs down after a downshift. Strange... so I let it slowly accelerate, no bog. I get to Miami, make my purchase, leave from Geo Overland Gear(great stuff, Ander is a good dude), start my trek back to my hometown so I can set up the tent. In traffic, engine stalls at a stop sign. Hmph, that's weird. Stalls again. uhhh.... okay. Keep my foot on the gas so the engine can't stall from low rpms. Research a bit and I see torque converter may be an issue again. So I think okay, that's fine, I'll buy one and put it in when I get home. Stop and go traffic on the Florida Turnpike, I keep stalling and restarting in traffic. then one time it doesn't fire up, I sit on the side of the road for a few hours trying to get it to start, but nothings working. Check codes while not running, I see a code for cam position sensor, talk to a buddy, he says that might be whats messed up. So I fiddle with it, unplug, replug, get no difference. Somehow after a couple hours, got it to start, still bogging, rpms all over the place, get a mile down the road, stall out. Try to restart, nothing. Tow to autozone, replace Cam position sensor, still nothing. Tow home-$550.
TL;DR-
truck bogging down, stalls at stop signs, now won't start.
So what am I lookin at? I'm thinking torque converter. I don't think it's a fuel issue, but it could be. Not throwing any codes/can't get it started to figure out what codes it might throw.
Alright guys, I searched a few threads, but nothing seemed to fit with what was happening. I'm on TacomaWorld with the same username, but just recently (a year ago) got into 4runners, not much experience with the 3.4 as this is the first time I've had it.
I bought a 96, 3.4 auto, 4wd about a month ago. It seemed to be running pretty good, bought it in Orlando and drove it home which was about an hour. No overheating issues or anything, cv axes still intact, the only thing was there was a whine coming from the engine. My initial thought was alternator-had it tested, and it passed with flying colors. Didn't sound like a power steering pump. (And I wish it was a supercharger, but no). So I searched, and found it *could* be the torque converter, but I didn't really believe that was it. I checked all the pulleys, nothing seemed out of whack.
Fast forward, a couple weeks ago my ac fan belt started squeaking, and I thought the pulley may have been the cause of the whine from before. So I figured I could deal with the squeak for a couple weeks (stupid me) while I work on other things and then I'll change it when I get some time.
Fast Forward again to last Thursday- I have the day off, and I'm going camping in Gainesville Florida with some friends for the weekend so I want to go get the RTT I've been planning on getting for a while, from Miami, which is about 3 hours away. I start the drive down there, about 20 minutes in, my fan belt breaks. Fine, no worries, I can ride without ac. Some time later, traveling about 70, I try to pass somebody so I hit the gas, engine bogs down after a downshift. Strange... so I let it slowly accelerate, no bog. I get to Miami, make my purchase, leave from Geo Overland Gear(great stuff, Ander is a good dude), start my trek back to my hometown so I can set up the tent. In traffic, engine stalls at a stop sign. Hmph, that's weird. Stalls again. uhhh.... okay. Keep my foot on the gas so the engine can't stall from low rpms. Research a bit and I see torque converter may be an issue again. So I think okay, that's fine, I'll buy one and put it in when I get home. Stop and go traffic on the Florida Turnpike, I keep stalling and restarting in traffic. then one time it doesn't fire up, I sit on the side of the road for a few hours trying to get it to start, but nothings working. Check codes while not running, I see a code for cam position sensor, talk to a buddy, he says that might be whats messed up. So I fiddle with it, unplug, replug, get no difference. Somehow after a couple hours, got it to start, still bogging, rpms all over the place, get a mile down the road, stall out. Try to restart, nothing. Tow to autozone, replace Cam position sensor, still nothing. Tow home-$550.
TL;DR-
truck bogging down, stalls at stop signs, now won't start.
So what am I lookin at? I'm thinking torque converter. I don't think it's a fuel issue, but it could be. Not throwing any codes/can't get it started to figure out what codes it might throw.
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