1997 Toyota Tacoma 2.4L - Maybe needs coil Pack?

Hello. New to the forums, seems to be the place to go with the best information from what I have read thus far.

Recently my truck has been sputtering and really struggling to climb a hill, feels like no power when I attempt to accelerate. This led me to replace spark plugs and spark plug wires. My issue persisted despite my recent changes. It seems that catalytic converter is working properly, fuel pump an filter have not been diagnosed. Two scanners have produced a code for Catalytic converter, but after a mechanic friend checked temps associated with a bad converter, hit it a few times to see if there were any fragments rattling around and found nothing amiss.

If I drive for 20 min or so and get out to get groceries get back in it will struggle to start / sometimes it starts right up. What I can say definitively is that it sputters badly (75% of the time) on a cold start, and most times needs a second attempt. Do you think this is coil pack related?

Thanks for any help provided.

 

If you are using an aftermarket distributor cap, I would suspect this as a possible cause. Remove your existing distributor cap and inspect it closely for hairline or micro sized cracks. I ran into the same problem about a year ago and I went through just about everything, only to find that my brand new after market cap had micro cracks from being poorly manufactured. The ignition voltage leaks through these cracks under load causing the ignition spark to jump to the path of least resistance, which in my case was the next spark plug wire post thus causing the engine to sputter upon acceleration. I would recommend only using an OEM cap and rotor as a replacement. Hope this helps.

 

Make sure you use oem plugs. I skimped and my issues changed. These toyo motors are picky bitches. Check fuel pressure, ever change the filter?