toyomonkey

I have a '96 Tacoma 4cyl, manual transmission. Its a 3rd vehicle, and we use it mainly when we need a truck. About 3 mths ago we started having problems starting it up. It would start, but then die. If we gave it gas while we cranked the engine, it was stay on. If I let go of the gas and let it idle, it would stutter and die. If I continue to press the gas a bit, it would eventually act normal. It would drive just fine, but sometimes at stop lights it would die when idle. (sometimes, not every light).

Since we dont use it much, a couple of weeks later it wouldn't start at all. I finally brought it in to the mechanic last week (towed by AAA), and they said I need a tune-up. They changed the fuel filter, spark plugs, etc. When I picked it up, it started fine and I drove it home. That night, I started it up and it wouldn't start unless I gave it the gas. I took it for a ride last night, and it was driving just fine. About 10 minutes into my ride, I stopped at a stoplight and the engine died. I started it back up, and continued riding. The next light it was fine. The light after that it died again. I called the mechanic, and he said to bring it back in. Since its a 3rd vehicle, I don't want to keep putting money into it.

Anyone have any ideas what may be causing this? I visually checked the hoses, made sure the connections where tight. My wife thinks its probably the fuel injection.

Paul H.

What is your idle set at when warm? Maybe injectors are clogged or fuel pump going bad.

toyomonkey

Where do I check the idle setting? I plan on putting some Slick50 in the engine on the next fill up. Maybe that will help?

PirateFins

I had a similar problem with a VW I had once. Turned out the Cold Start Injector was bad (always on) and was causing it to flood/run rich.

chadbobb

You say its a 3rd vehicle... so how old is the gas in the tank?

I think putting some seafoam into the gas or directly into the intake could help clean it out if anything is clogged up, and if this fixed it, it would be very very cheap.... $20 or less depending how much you used.

toyomonkey

Is this the Seafoam product you are referring to?
http://www.seafoamsales.com/motorTuneUpTechGas.htm

It says one of the possible sources to pour it in is thru the PCV valve. This seems like the easiest place to get to. Is this where you recommend?

As for how long the gas has been in the truck, I filled it up in mid November, and its on 3/4 tank now.

Firefightertaco

Yeah you could try some seafoam, you can get it at your local auto parts store, put it in all the vacume lines that suck into the engine you can find put some in your gas tank and pour some in the intake. If you want more info use the search feature on yotatech and theres probably a thousand different posts on seafoam.

toyomonkey

The PCV valve is easy to get to on my truck. So all I have to do is remove the PCV valve and pour it into the hose? Should I remove the PCV valve from the hose, or pour it into the valve?

91TPU

pull the hose, either the pcv or brake booster, and feed it thru that, do like half a bottle, then half in the crankcase, then if you want a full can in the gas tank...

toyomonkey

Feed it thru the PCV vavle, or remove the PCV valve from the house?

chadbobb

Im not sure the design of your engine, but the V6 you would remove the hose and poor it into the hose..... while the engine is running... so whichever one has a vacuum.

DO NOT poor it in the side that doesn't suck air in, because when you plug it back on it will suck all of it in at once and possibly hydrolock the engine.

Also poor it in semi-slow. You are going to have a smoke fair, literally. It is going to smoke like a batmobile.
When i did it my check engine light came on after it stalled the engine. It started right back up though with a little extra throttle.

I put like 2-3 times the ammount into my gas tank afterwards that it said to do.

This should help increase your gas milage too....
Since you don't know where the problem is i would put it in the PCV and the gas tank.

It might help clean out your fuel pump if its clogged, or any of your lines.

toyomonkey

I dont want to screw anything up, of course, so my PCV line is plugged into the top of the engine. The other end goes to the air intake planum. So I would pour the liquid into the hose going to the air intake planum, correct?

toyomonkey

Here is an image of my engine. Is the direction of flow for the seafoam correct?

bamachem

did you clean the MAF sensor?

you should consider doing that for sure...

also, check the spark plug wires - you could be grounding one of them out thru the insulation if it's been rubbing on something in the engine bay enough to finally wear it thin enough.


any check-engine lights? other symptoms?


i second adding something to the existing gas - along with topping off the tank w/ fresh gas and some STA-BIL, possibly in addition to some Seafoam.

toyomonkey

I just finished cleaning the MAF sensor, and I also replaced the air filter. I started the engine up, and it started just fine. I thought "Wow, that was it!". I then turned the engine off and restarted. It hesitated, then started. I then tried again, this time I needed to give it a little gas

I think cleaning the MAF helped, but it didn't solve my problem. Next step is to try Seafoam.

Here are some pics of the MAF on my '96 4cyl, future reference for other people. https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/how-do-i-clean-maf-96-4cyl-107669/

chadbobb

I am not at all familiar with the 4 banger, but if that is your PCV valve, then start the engine up and disconnect the hose. Whatever side is sucking is the side you want to poor the liquid in. I actually stuck a funnel into the hose so i wouldn't spill the fluid all over, and the funnel on the hose sucking all that air in made a really annoying noise.

EDIT: btw that picture looks correct though, at least for where the throttle body is.

toyomonkey

I did the treatment today. I put about 1/3 of the can in the PCV line to the intake, and towards the end of pouring it in, the engine started to stutter. I turned it off, waited 5 min, then fired it up. A good amount of white smoke came out, and I gave it a drive. I put the rest of the can in my gas tank. I drove it around for about 10 minutes, and smoke was still coming out. I just got back from the grocery, and whenever I stopped at a light I could see some smoke coming out.

Is it normal for smoke to be coming out like this?

BTW, Seafoam didn't solve my idle problem, so I'm stumped on what my problem is It does start better than before, sometimes I don't even have to press the gas. Another weird thing that happen was at a stoplight I revved the engine a bit and the engine died. It started back up just fine though.

bamachem

when you turn the key to the ACC position, does the check engine light come on for 3-5 seconds?

toyomonkey

Nope. The only light that comes on is the airbag. What does this tell you?

bamachem

it tells me that the CEL (check engine light) is either burned out or the bulb was removed to hide an issue.

first things first - get a replacement bulb and pull the code to see what errors the computer is throwing at you.

it could be anything from a MAF sensor failure (sounds possible) to an O2 sensor, to a crank sensor, vacuum leak, bad gas, bad/intermittent injector, etc...