2016 TRD Off Road 50k miles sputters and dies

I'm driving across country. I drove for about 1500 miles day 1 (yesterday) only stopping for gas. Day 2 (today) I get about 300 miles down the interstate and all of a sudden my Tacoma sounds like she is gasping for gas. I get really low RPMs (below 1k) and can't get her past 20 mph. I pull off, and after a couple of restarts with the same issue I get towed to a dealership.

The dealer said I had a fault for all the ignition coils on bank 2. However, they can not recreate the fault and have been driving it around all day with no luck. Any ideas?

EDIT:

After doing some research on here seems I went into "limp mode". Could a miss fire or single coil failure send this fault and put the truck into limp mode? (source for this is this thread: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ignition-coils.596702/)
If this is the case would replacing all the coils accomplish anything?

Additional info:
Regularly serviced at dealer. 1 week ago put in an OPTIMA Red Top 35 after other battery died. No other after market maintenance or tinkering.

Finally:
The original trip was from VA to OR. I'm in KC,MO. If they can not recreate the fault and don't fix anything, or if they can, fix the problem, but are unsure of the cause, do I continue? Original plan was to spend about a week in the back country around Moab. I'm not too keen on that now...

 

Fuel pump?

Did that effect the 2016s? Even if Toyota isn't officially admitting it?

 

Not sure. I initially thought fuel pump or filter. Dealer says unlikely because of the specific fault (only on one bank on ignition coils). Also they have been driving it around quite a bit today with no issue.

If it was the pump would it fail intermittently?

 

CPS failing?

 

I brought that up also, after reading some of the threads on here. Same response as above from the dealer: it doesn't explain the fault on the ignition coils.

Could a CPS failure be intermittent as well?

 

Might the fuel pump be more likely to lose pressure during an extended drive time rather than the dealer's tech going around the block a few times?
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Yesterday the dealer had it idle for 3-4 hours, drove it for an hour, let it idle for another hour and drove it for 30 minutes. Perfectly fine.
Today they cold started it and it is idling right now. They are going to idle it for a while and then drive it again.

The problem is that the original fault code (bank 2 ignition coils, all the coils on that bank) showed up as a "history" code by the time I got to the dealer. I was told this means that the fault had already cleared.

Some additional questions:

Is there anything I can do to give me some peace of mind driving this truck away today? I brought up component checking each piece of the ignition coil system (coils, wiring, computer...) but the tech said the problem is that if everything is working properly (as it has been the last day at the dealership) it will all read SAT.

Would a problem outside the bank 2 ignition coils (like the fuel pump or CPS) cause my specific fault?


Appreciate everyone's help.

 

I had a problem with a ford explorer that was throwing a misfire code on one cylinder. changed the spark plug and still same code. changed the injector. code moved to a different cylinder. then multiple cylinders . turns out it was a dirty mass air flow sensor.I am not saying this is your problem but other parts can cause some crazy stuff. Maybe something in the fuel.

 

Interesting....my gut initially went to fuel. The last place I filled up was a lone BP off a random road that was pretty isolated. I burned about 12 gallons of it before the problem. Maybe it was old and with some sediment? The fuel is the only true variable in this equation.

Understand though about different parts causing seemingly unrelated errors.

 

Could be any number of things. Bad gas perhaps? Doesn't really explain why you burned so much before experiencing an issue though. Our 4Runner ran into a multiple cylinder misfire issue after filling up from damn near E and letting it sit in the garage for a few days. Hasn't happened since so all we can figure is that there was condensation on the tank that settled to the bottom in those couple of days and was the first thing to get sucked up when it was started.

Limp mode is a safety feature of sorts so I imagine any number of things can trigger it. My GMC triggered it when I tried to force open the throttle body to spray seafoam into it.

MAF sensor, as suggested before, could be a possibility too. Those are easy to clean generally though and can usually also cause other issues such as lean/rich conditions. I haven't heard of one triggering limp mode, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible.

 

UPDATE: Dealer was unable to recreate the fault. Their assessment was: Ignition Coils are all good. There was probably a communication/signal to the coils. In their experience a computer issue is extremely rare and unlikely. This leaves the harness, and all wires are reading SAT with no physical damage. I'm continuing on the road trip tomorrow morning.

Brand new fuel went in yesterday and has been running a lot, so the fuel from the day before is gone. I looked at the MAF and it looks like I can get at it with my multi tool, so I'll do that before I head out.

I got a print out of the fault codes: P035213 (Ignition Coil "B" Circuit Open); P035413 (Ignition Coil "D" Circuit Open); P035613 (Ignition Coil "F" Circuit Open). These are on cylinders 2,4,6, all on "Bank 2".

Last bit they left me with is that intermittent faults usually happen again and need to get bad and reoccur to be caught. Not the greatest thing to hear going out the door. I was hoping this was a "freak" environmental condition or some bad fuel.

 

Well good luck on your trip, keep us updated on what comes of all this. Hopefully you can still enjoy the trip.

 

Happened to me today, 2017 TRD. Truck went in to limp mode getting on highway, pulled over and turned truck off and started back up and ran fine. Went directly to dealer and was told it was fuel pump, glad I have extended warranty, looks like a fairly expensive fix. They ordered a part and will replace it Monday, I will update with the exact part they change after it is repaired.

 

Your truck i Believe falls under the fuel pump recall. I hope it fixes it.

 

They looked it up and said it did not fall under the recall warranty, I do have the extended warranty that they said should cover it.

 

Mind trying to find out what fault codes they were when you update on the part?

 

Being a tech there is only 2 things that will cause this set of codes. Loss of power or loss of ground to the coils (or both, if you unplug one you will get this code for that cylinder). Now I cannot say if limp mode doesn't shut a bank down which would be an odd thing to do.

Any tech worth their pay would have went straight to a wiring diagram and checked connections, especially any ground connections. Located any connections related to that bank of coils and addressed any possible weak connection (which they can't test for unless the issue is constant) they could access. When you have 100s of connections needing to be made for these trucks, somewhere, someone is going to get one that has an issue.

 

What is the build date of your truck? Mine was built in September of 2017, and it falls under the recall.

I don't want to say your dealer is full of poo, but your dealer might be full of poo. Although, you should have received a recall
notice by now if your truck is included in the recall.

 

According to the sticker in the driver's door, build date is 05/17.

 

Weird. Mine was built early 2017 (march) and i have no recalls.

I haven’t had any on my Tacoma. I must have got the unicorn model year, configuration and build window.