Just Sharing an experience

2016 Taco 3.5L with OTT at 60k miles just turned 90k.

About March my Taco started bucking and falling on its face when accelerating out of a roundabout or sometimes taking off. Usually occurred around 2500 rpm. Would not always do it. On 2 occasions I thought it backfired but had the radio on a little loud so I am not positive. No codes ever thrown.

I thought that the tune maybe was to blame. My tuner checked it out and everything appeared fine. Test drove and of course I couldn't duplicate the issue for him. He reinstalled or flashed the tune, not sure and I drove away.

It would still do it occasionally and so since I was gaining on 90k miles I decided to replace everything. Air filter was due anyway, PCV, serpentine belt, and ran a can of

$24 BG44K BG 44K Fuel System Cleaner Power Enhancer 11oz.

BG44K injector cleaner. Plugs were next but its been 115 the past month and I really didn't want to change plugs in this hell heat.

I got with a buddy finally who has a cooled garage. Changed the plugs and used the Denso TT Iridiums. I think the OEM are Denso Laser cut Iridiums, whatever that means. Still same heat range plugs as OEM

I think that was the issue. Been driving a week and no more falling its face. Ive tried to duplicate it multiple times. I am wondering if the tune was trying to push the engine to perform better and the plugs were saying screw you we are to old for this crap. Its only been a week but mileage is up a little too.

Sorry for the novel but if you are tuned and experiencing a similar issue, I would suggest changing your plugs. Closest dealer is 80 miles from me and no one had the exact OEM plugs. But after researching the Denso TT Iridiums are like one step up in quality which doesn't mean much. Heat range is the same so maybe they last a few miles more. Good luck

 

dont forget to clean the MAF and throttle body, that 2500 rpm stumble tends to indicate when it needs cleaning on mine, i think the interval is around 10-15k miles?

 

Good call I will do that. Thanks

 

Have literally never done that to a vehicle.

 

Didnt expect it to make much of a difference either but the throttle body had more gunk on it at 30k than a car with 130k..
Maybe the dual port and direct injection makes the cylinders cleaner, it doesn't do wonders for other parts though.