303k miles trac off light / CEL / shuddering n loss of power / with occasional check charging system

hey yall. It's a '16 4 banger auto 4x4 . Yes it does have over 303k miles.

Previously there have been intermittent times when the check charging system will have a pop up warning flashing on the dash screen. This happens randomly and goes away with no cel associated. Sometimes it would flash for maybe an hour of driving tops but would always go away. The dealership couldn't pull any codes on it or identify the source.

There has also randomly been times when I start the truck up (generally on a nose up incline) where it would make some strange sounds, run a bit rough and the trac off light would come on with a flashing cel. Trac off would go away once a certain mph was reached. Generally this happened on a short mile and a half Drive between my brother's house and mine. It would never repeat itself the next time the truck was started, being fine the following day.

The last work night I noticed a pulsing feeling that was not normal when I would be accelerating on the interstate generally around the 70 mile per hour mark, it happened with other hard acceleration. Seemed to be intermittent loss of power but not super noticeable aside from the fact that I live in this thing so the little tiny things do stand out.

I drive a ton for work so tonight after my trek from Knoxville to Elizabethton TN as I got off interstate to surface roads the truck started sputtering and losing power on any acceleration especially up hill. Initially there were no cels. But then after a few stop lights I think it went into limp mode and I couldn't get it to go, cel flashing and trac off light on. Loss of power in a large way. I got to the destination store in Elizabethton, disconnected the battery cable and checked the gas cap after talking with my brother for a bit who is more mechanically inclined than myself.

After I finished the job of about 30 minutes I reconnected the battery and headed out. It didn't take very long for the problem to reappear. Basically anything other than a feather touch to the accelerator would cause sputtering and loss of power with cel flashing and trac off. I got back on 26 heading towards 81 and made it up to Johnson City before I ended up where I am now sitting in a Holiday Inn Express parking lot. I pulled over a couple of times on the side of the road to turn the truck off and on and also filled it up all the way with gas.

If anyone has thoughts or experienced similar issues give a shout. My brother is going to be driving up probably in the morning. Unless the Free Service Tire and Auto Center that is just down the road can shed some light.

There should be some codes coming soon either from my brother when he gets up here in the morning or from the auto care place. I'm going to try to get some sleep but wantrd to check in and see if anyone had and idea that might make the next 12 hours a little bit easier. <3

 

Crankshaft sensor ?

 

Maybe there’s stores codes in there now?? Being a 4 cylinder cranks sensor probably not the issue....

 

Fuel pump possibly

 

Thanks for the replies. From other threads I've been reading through for some it's been a coil pack, and ?air pump?

I should have some codes in a couple hours.

After sitting for hours I started the truck up. Still a noticeable miss/ slight shudder on idle. Any attempt to accelerate causes it to shudder worse, with no throttle response and the cel starts flashing.

 

These vehicles almost won't let you damage them from trying to keep em going with an issue.

Almost.

I'm sure they'll get you sorted. A few guys on here use newer tacomas for all sorts of business so please share your info when it is fixed

 

With that many miles- definitely get it to a good tech, to start with the basics, fuel, air, compression, ignition, etc
GL

 

Air pumps will cause limp mode

 

p0301 so cylinder one misfire is the only code it's throwing

 

Also love the name OP.

Wandering the south for 40 years makes sense with your mileage hahaha

 

I don't have much to offer except to add that if your CEL light is flashing that generally means the engine is actively mis-firing. That *could* mean you have a bad headgasket (had a similar thing happen to an old Isuzu 4x4 I used to own). I would have a shop perform a leak-down test to make sure that's not your issue.

 

U ever done plugs yet? Could be something as easy as plugs or coil packs. The pulsating u describe sounds like a fish bite miss. flashing CEL is indictive of a missfire

 

I replaced the cylinder one ignition coil a hope that it would be the issue. I'm about 3 hours from home right now. Didn't change anything. Still actively misfires and same code comes up after clearing it.

 

That's a lot of miles. Bet your drivers seat is shaped like a butt.

 

What condition were the plugs in? Injector would be my next guess. But that's just a fat guess. How are u looking at codes? Can u view fuel trim data.

 

We're going to need those codes to be of much help. It's a shot in the dark otherwise.

 

...

 

How does your engine oil look? Is it at the proper level? How does your coolant look? When the truck is idling and you put your hand near the end of the exhaust pipe, do you feel a 'miss' back there? Does the exhaust have a 'sweet' smell to it? It's impossible to say for sure of course from where I'm sitting but I'm thinking you have a problem with your headgasket or your cylinder head which is allowing coolant to get into Cylinder #1. I know you're on the road probably with limited tools but if you have a way to do it, I would pull the Spark Plug for Cylinder #1 and see what it looks like. Keep us posted!

 

Huh, somehow I missed that. Thanks!