Why is my tacoma running so bad?

[jwtrd34]

My 2000 tacoma 3.4l with the trd supercharger has no power, and is surging while cruising. A while back I clean my K+N air filter and it started running terrible. I asked my friend who is a tech what he thought was wrong with it. He said K+N filters are oiled filters and it damages the mass airflo sensor, so I changed the filter back to a Wix paper filter and a new sensor and it ran better than the day I bought the truck. A few weeks later it started up again, and my friend said through plugs and a fuel filter in it and once again it ran great. Now, about two months later, it just has no power and is surging a little bit. On occasion it makes too much boost. Seen it get up to 15 psi. I brought it to the dealer and the said they didnt know what was wrong with it after looking at it for three hours. Their best guess was it had somthing to do with the watse gate. My friend checked it out and said it seemed to be working, and he thought it felt like loss of fuel pressure or air metering. What do I do now???? If anyone has a clue PLEASE HELP!!!!

[TheMaster]

How many miles on the rig and how long have you had it? When did you last replace your plug wires and check your timing.... When your truck acts up, what are the atmospheric conditions. Is the air damp etc .....

[jetqc]

hi jwtrd34, check your vaccum tubes, for rubbing and chafing. specially behind the fuel rail. i've done several installation on them and the tubes are a headache. hope this help.

[jwtrd34]

We checked for vaccum leaks and the plug wires are a year and a half old NGKs. The T-belt was done at 60k and its got 87k on it now. My buddy just called and he said he was thinking about it and he thinks my cat may be plugging up. He said they dont usually show check engine lights on the earlier OBD 2 cars, and it fits the description well. Plus he said that would also cause slightly higher manifold pressures while under load.(cause' the supercahrger) So he is coming tomorrow to unbolt the cat and take it for a QUICK rip and see what happens. Thanks for the tips though, nobody else could tell anything.

P.S. Your site rocks!

[Ldytaco05]

i have read about the k&n filters that long term it corrodes the engine and it doens't clean up as well (that's why i am sticking to the stock filter) my opinion (just an opinion but hope this may be of help) is you're going to have to have an overhaul of the vacuum tubing, engine,valves, and something else(...... woman thinking,,,,, remembering what part..... ok i'll get back to that.....)

[007Tacoma]

Originally Posted by jwtrd34

We checked for vaccum leaks and the plug wires are a year and a half old NGKs. The T-belt was done at 60k and its got 87k on it now. My buddy just called and he said he was thinking about it and he thinks my cat may be plugging up. He said they dont usually show check engine lights on the earlier OBD 2 cars, and it fits the description well. Plus he said that would also cause slightly higher manifold pressures while under load.(cause' the supercahrger) So he is coming tomorrow to unbolt the cat and take it for a QUICK rip and see what happens. Thanks for the tips though, nobody else could tell anything.

P.S. Your site rocks!

Thanks, Welcome to TW!

There is a good possibility that your problem is in the Catalytic Converter. It makes sense since that would cause all kinds of headaches if it were clogged/obstructed. You may also want to look at both intake and exhaust and make sure there is no film or build-up in either one. This is usually a pretty good indication of what is going in, going on, and coming out of your engine. Also, you may want to take a look at the bearings in the supercharger. A bad bearing or two in the wrong part of the turn can cause headaches as well.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

[TheMaster]

Originally Posted by jwtrd34

...he thinks my cat may be plugging up. P.S. Your site rocks!

CAT's are good to 125K plus miles. Should this be the case, you need to re-evaluate your emission components. Let us know what you find.

[007Tacoma]

Originally Posted by Themaster

CAT's are good to 125K plus miles. Should this be the case, you need to re-evaluate your emission components. Let us know what you find.

This is true, but I have destroyed a CAT by hitting it with a rock. It caused just enough restriction to destroy my MPG and made the truck lag while accelerating. Took me an entire day to figure out what was going on.

I have also heard of people getting mud/muck/water in their CATs, but I don't know how they did this without getting MORE exhaust flow through the hole the 'muck' came in through...

[TRDeity]

Do you have any other mods on the truck?

[jwtrd34]

I called the Toyota dealer and they said it very well could be the cat because of the bad combustion for the past 15k miles. So I brought it in and they had this neat little tool that goes in the upstream and downstream O2 sensor holes and it reads compares the pressures before and after the cat. Mine happened to be 3/4 plugged, and thanks to the federal mandated 80k mile emissions warranty, I got $1200 in cats for free. My truck is the split year with two cats, and they replaced both. So now I dont get passed on those long hills on the interstate by those chevy and ford owners. The dealer also said to run a Tundra V-8 spark plug because is is a cooler plug(I think he said cooler). Thanks for all the help, it is greatly appreciated. And I now have a Supercharger diagnosis flow chart so if anyone needs it, its from TRD and I got it, so just let me know and I can send it to you. Thanks again.

[TheMaster]

Glad to hear your problem is solved and didn't have to pay for the pussy CAT's.