Greetings,
First, I promise I searched prior to starting another thread, but I can't seem to find a definitive answer, which honestly, seems to be the case when attempting to diagnose my problem(s).
The vehicle: it's a 2002 SR5 with 258k miles and an auto transmission. I picked it up about 3 weeks ago.
The back-story: last weekend I made a stop on Vail pass to get some night photos. I was up there for about an hour and left the car running. On my drive down, I noticed the CEL and VSC lights came on. There were no signs of mechanical issues that seemed to trip it (no sputter, no hesitation, nothing of that sort). It was after midnight, I didn't have a scanner so I waited until the next day. I went to Autozone and they pulled some codes; the first was P1300, but also some ABS/braking codes came up (C1246, C1224, C1201). I figured I would do plugs and wires (as recommended by the employee) later in the week and hope that would resolve the issue. I drove to Denver that afternoon (about 70 miles) and had only one issue: on my drive down I did notice a bit of a power drop that felt very similar to that of a misfire. From owning an Audi as well, it felt just like when mine misfired prior to having my coils replaced. Well, the light stayed on for not even two days before it just went away. I figured, "ok, it's off so maybe it fixed itself..."
Yesterday I went on a trip behind Aspen and all was well for the highway drive, but prior to leaving from a lunch stop, it just died randomly at a stop light. It fired right back up, CEL and VSC lights were on so I headed to Autozone to scan and check it. This time all the previous codes returned and now a new one was there; C1201 (ECM). Being potentially an idiot, I didn't just get plugs and wires while I was there and swap, but rather figured, "I'll just tend to it later when I can read up a little more online and maybe diagnose the probably more accurately." I drove it to my destination and it did sputter and feel like it misfired once on the way there, which was more reason I was thinking it has to be plugs and wires.
Where I was going was some moderate off-roading and all in all it performed fine, minus a few issues. It died on me 3 times and all of those times were on an incline. Two times were while I was operating the vehicle and slowly climbing up some steep, rocky terrain, the third was while I left it running on an incline to get some photos. The first two times it started back up without hesitation, the third it took quite a few cranks before it fired. All of this gave me the impression that it is a fueling and spark/ignition issue.
It was fine for most of that drive back until I was coming down a long pass; it drove fine (no hesitation) on the way up, but at the very bottom while returning to normal throttle use, it would hesitate (no sputter, just sluggish at lower RPMs).
We made it to my buddy's shop and his OBDII only showed a code for P1300. None of the previous codes came up: no ECM, no ABS, no misfire codes; just P1300. We cleared it, the vehicle ran fine until I had started to climb the pass which made it sputter, the CEL flashed and then went solid. This made me go back on my initial thought of plugs and wires.
Now, everything I've read seems to suggest just do plugs and wires while some have gone to the extent of replacing the igniter. I also read one individual had an issue similar to this and it turned out to be his aftermarket alarm. The vehicle is equipped with an aftermarket remote start and I have noticed that the few times I've attempted to use it, it only started on two of those occasions. I would assume the previous owner would have either resolved or removed this had it been the issue in their ownership, but who knows. What I'm confused on, however, is the misfiring without misfire codes. The week prior I had no real symptoms of a misfire, but yesterday I had quite a few.
So all in all should I just do what everyone else has done and start simple OR should I just do the fuel injectors as well? I can't pull any codes for a misfire to even know which cylinder(s) to begin with for maintenance.
CLIFF NOTES:
*Random CEL and VSC lights after being left on for an hour in park.
*Scanned for P1300. The next day had engine bogging for a brief moment; only once. 2 days later CEL turned off.
*Nearly a week time passes with no issue.
*Vehicle died while starting on an incline at a stop sign. Scanned; P1300 returned along with C1201.
*Drove vehicle without any repairs. Vehicle died on slow/low RMP incline acceleration 3 times that day.
*Scanned again and C1201 was gone, but P1300 remained. Cleared codes.
*Vehicle drove fine until going up an incline. Sputter, flashing CEL, solid CEL/VSC.
Thanks for any insight!
First, I promise I searched prior to starting another thread, but I can't seem to find a definitive answer, which honestly, seems to be the case when attempting to diagnose my problem(s).
The vehicle: it's a 2002 SR5 with 258k miles and an auto transmission. I picked it up about 3 weeks ago.
The back-story: last weekend I made a stop on Vail pass to get some night photos. I was up there for about an hour and left the car running. On my drive down, I noticed the CEL and VSC lights came on. There were no signs of mechanical issues that seemed to trip it (no sputter, no hesitation, nothing of that sort). It was after midnight, I didn't have a scanner so I waited until the next day. I went to Autozone and they pulled some codes; the first was P1300, but also some ABS/braking codes came up (C1246, C1224, C1201). I figured I would do plugs and wires (as recommended by the employee) later in the week and hope that would resolve the issue. I drove to Denver that afternoon (about 70 miles) and had only one issue: on my drive down I did notice a bit of a power drop that felt very similar to that of a misfire. From owning an Audi as well, it felt just like when mine misfired prior to having my coils replaced. Well, the light stayed on for not even two days before it just went away. I figured, "ok, it's off so maybe it fixed itself..."
Yesterday I went on a trip behind Aspen and all was well for the highway drive, but prior to leaving from a lunch stop, it just died randomly at a stop light. It fired right back up, CEL and VSC lights were on so I headed to Autozone to scan and check it. This time all the previous codes returned and now a new one was there; C1201 (ECM). Being potentially an idiot, I didn't just get plugs and wires while I was there and swap, but rather figured, "I'll just tend to it later when I can read up a little more online and maybe diagnose the probably more accurately." I drove it to my destination and it did sputter and feel like it misfired once on the way there, which was more reason I was thinking it has to be plugs and wires.
Where I was going was some moderate off-roading and all in all it performed fine, minus a few issues. It died on me 3 times and all of those times were on an incline. Two times were while I was operating the vehicle and slowly climbing up some steep, rocky terrain, the third was while I left it running on an incline to get some photos. The first two times it started back up without hesitation, the third it took quite a few cranks before it fired. All of this gave me the impression that it is a fueling and spark/ignition issue.
It was fine for most of that drive back until I was coming down a long pass; it drove fine (no hesitation) on the way up, but at the very bottom while returning to normal throttle use, it would hesitate (no sputter, just sluggish at lower RPMs).
We made it to my buddy's shop and his OBDII only showed a code for P1300. None of the previous codes came up: no ECM, no ABS, no misfire codes; just P1300. We cleared it, the vehicle ran fine until I had started to climb the pass which made it sputter, the CEL flashed and then went solid. This made me go back on my initial thought of plugs and wires.
Now, everything I've read seems to suggest just do plugs and wires while some have gone to the extent of replacing the igniter. I also read one individual had an issue similar to this and it turned out to be his aftermarket alarm. The vehicle is equipped with an aftermarket remote start and I have noticed that the few times I've attempted to use it, it only started on two of those occasions. I would assume the previous owner would have either resolved or removed this had it been the issue in their ownership, but who knows. What I'm confused on, however, is the misfiring without misfire codes. The week prior I had no real symptoms of a misfire, but yesterday I had quite a few.
So all in all should I just do what everyone else has done and start simple OR should I just do the fuel injectors as well? I can't pull any codes for a misfire to even know which cylinder(s) to begin with for maintenance.
CLIFF NOTES:
*Random CEL and VSC lights after being left on for an hour in park.
*Scanned for P1300. The next day had engine bogging for a brief moment; only once. 2 days later CEL turned off.
*Nearly a week time passes with no issue.
*Vehicle died while starting on an incline at a stop sign. Scanned; P1300 returned along with C1201.
*Drove vehicle without any repairs. Vehicle died on slow/low RMP incline acceleration 3 times that day.
*Scanned again and C1201 was gone, but P1300 remained. Cleared codes.
*Vehicle drove fine until going up an incline. Sputter, flashing CEL, solid CEL/VSC.
Thanks for any insight!
