Check Engine Light, Trac Off, and Stalling / Losing Power

Hello all. I've had my Tacoma about 2.5 years now and it has never given me any issues here in Germany. Today as I was getting ready to ship it back to the states it decided to give me trouble. The "Check Engine" and "Trac Off" lights came on, and the engine began to erratically lose power. When idling it would constantly drop to 500 RPM and reach back up to idling speed and go back and forth on it's own. When depressing the accelerator pedal, it could not reach anything higher than 2200 - 2300 RPM. It could barely even make it through the parking lot. This came as a surprise to me since I had cranked it up maybe 2 to 3 hours prior and ran it for roughly 30 minutes to de-ice the windshield and burn off enough fuel to be able to ship it (they require the gas tank to be no more than 1/4 full) and it ran perfectly fine. I've made sure that the gas cap was tightened down, and tried disconnecting the battery several times for up to 10 minutes and the issue came back every time. I checked as many connections as I could find in the engine bay to ensure everything was snug. I believe this may have been caused by water damaging something while I was cleaning the engine off the day prior, but it ran fine yesterday after washing and first thing this morning.

One of the employees mentioned that it could be caused by an excess of water accumulating in the muffler after he saw a large amount of water come out of the exhaust pipe while revving the engine, and there was actually a large pool of water collected around that area which made his assumption seem plausible. I also checked the air intake filter and found it completely dry. I'm leaning more towards an electrical or sensor issue. Has anyone encountered or experienced an issue such as this before? Any assistance provided would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

Sounds like you are in "limp" mode for some reason.

 

Almost sounds like the CPS issue from a couple years ago but that was mainly happening in warm weather.

 

I've had a check engine light and trac off light come on 4x in the last 6 weeks. The dealership had my truck for a month and said their OBD2 scanner read a code for P00031 "vehicle speed sensor". I brought my truck in twice to have it fixed. The 2nd time they replaced my entire instrument cluster but the lights came back on yesterday (about 10 days later). When I used a friend's OBD2 scanner it read a code for "Crankshaft Position Sensor A".

 

I had the same exact problem.. checked the code and it was a p303 misfire cylinder 3

 

Did anyone find out anything definitive with the above issues. Today, my Tacoma 17, had similar issue, Check Engine light came on with Trac Off light. It happened when I accelerated from @ 60 mph, to @ 65-70 mph to go around a semi. Power dropped to almost nothing had to move over to emergency lane, could not get enough power to safely move. It felt as if it would cut completely off though it did not. I turned engine off, then back on, no change, had to have it towed into dealership. Thus far tech could not reproduce, he did see several codes that were generated. (Not sure what they were). He asked if I could leave it for him to run additional test.

 

Any fix to this? Happened to my Tacoma 2 days ago, it is still at the dealership.

 

I got a letter from Toyota for a pending recall for stalling issues. Seems the low pressure fuel pump might be a concern.

 

The answer is quite obvious. Your truck does not want to come to the US. You will need to purchase another truck here stateside and let this one stay. I know it's hard to let go, but in the end you have to do what is best for the truck.

Otherwise, it is possible you have water (from condensation) in the tank and it is trying to run on that. Have you thrown a bottle of Heet in it?

 

Did dealership fix this for you? Or do you continue to have the same issues?

 

They originally tried to blame the issue on my aftermarket amplifiers and speakers. They disconnected them, reset the code and gave me the truck back. Not even 5 miles after I left the dealership the lights turned right back on. I told them that those were installed for a year before I had the issue and that it made no sense that car audio would cause trac and engine lights to turn on.

It went away after they replaced my instrument cluster. I think it came on once after they replaced the cluster and they reset the code and it never came on again.

About 12 months ago I had issues with my brake pedal fading all the way to the floor. They replaced the master brake cylinder.

Kind of odd I've had so many issues with this truck. I've had it for 3.5 years now and it only has 14,000 miles on it because I own two other vehicles and it has spent so much time in and out of dealerships with issues.

 

I am having the same problem with my 2016 V6 3.5L right now. My truck has been at the dealer for three days now. They sent it over to their Master Tech and turns out he had another in his shop with the same problem. Mine read a P219A code, which isn't in the 2016 list of codes, or at least I didn't find it. I'll post what I find out... Hopefully soon..

 

https://www.obd-codes.com/p219a

P219A Bank 1 Air/Fuel Ratio Imbalance

Read more at: https://www.obd-codes.com/p219a
Copyright OBD-Codes.com

 

I was told today that the fuel injector in bank one/cylinder three is running too rich and that the fix is to replace it. All vacuum and compression tests resulted in no issues.
With dealer labor rates what they are, this is gonna be a bit pricey, but I need my truck.

I will update this thread after I get my truck back and run her for awhile.

Thanks for all your input.

 

2017 with 13k on the odometer. I had the same abrupt loss of power while passing about 2 months ago. Limped to the side of the road and shut it down. Restarted and then ran fine. Still took it to dealer said it showed misfire #3 cylinder. Couldn’t reproduce and blamed on bad gas. Then 2 days ago same thing about 60 mph up a grade loss of power with massive cloud of blue smoke. Shut down and towed to dealer. This time they report engine was over filled with oil (they did the last change end of November at about 10k) They say they drained off some oil and report it runs fine. I’m out of town and won’t pick it up until 5/8

 

Any update on your issue?

 

Any update on your problem?

 

If this is the crankshaft position sensor recall issue, then it should be extended to the 2015 year... It isn't just a 3rd gen issue. Mine does this regularly.

 

Same issue with 2016 Tacoma happened right after filled up machanic said it was fixed. But then it started missing around 40 to 60 mph so he cleaned injectors & changed plugs. Was accelerating to pass lights came on , same issue again???? Noticed a more than normal amount of humidity coming out exhaust.