2.7 stumbles and bucks under load (solved)

Thanks for the info been searching for a used distributor but no luck might have to get one from the dealer

 

I just wanted to thank everyone for the help. I found a used distributor on eBay. I swapped coils out to see if that was the problem. It turns out it was the new coil from Napa. Thanks again

 

just wanted to thank drz and somdtaco. i have chased that same issue for a month. thanks. so far I have had 2 issues that did not throw a code. both have ended up being the distributor.
as the main one of our putter-boxes does upward of 100 thousand kilometers per year i am thinking I'm going to be adding a new dist to my service parts list for the 150k service. this thing and the domestic bliss element can be up to 1000kms away from home.. I hate long distance breakdowns. but it has never left her stranded yet and for that I'm very impressed with the 3rzfe 2.7.

cheers grumpy (Ian )
p.s. just after we purchased our first one it developed a wee issue. it started to misfire badly and had a serious drop in power. it still started hot or cold and being about 6oo miles from home i just told her to drive it until she got home or it self destructed as i had thoughts i was going to be replacing a motor. so she then drove it over 1000 miles.. yup didn't come straight home she decided to complete her outback run thus adding several hundred more miles to the journey home. when i got it home i started to test a few things,,, cyl 1 comp 158. 2 3 and 4 nil. yes zero even doing an oil on piston check still zero on 3 cyls.. what it ended up being.... cyl 4 had a burned out valve, plus a blown gasket between cyl 2 and 3. how this thing started i have no idea, yet it kept starting and did well over 1000 miles after coming home before i found a clean replacement.

thanks for having me and thanks for a wonderfull forum.

 

Hi,
I came to this forum after extensive research with a problem very similar to the ones described here, that I'm having with my 1999 Tacoma 3rz-fe 2.7L, or so I thought it was an fe, later I found out the truck now carries an E3rz-N73 2.7L. I purchased the vehicle after the previous owner had the engine replaced with a remanufactured engine, aswell as some other work done under hood. He made it clear the truck now had what he called an intermittent lugging issue, which his mechanic had chalked up to a problem with the EGR, and seen fit to leave the EGR disconnected claiming this "fixed" the issue. Thankfully I live in an area of Colorado where emmissions aren't required for registration, tho I would like to reconnect the EGR. I took the truck to my mechanic after purchase, and he said the truck was in great condition, not showing any signs of a problem/misfire/need of parts replaced at the time. Clearly a problem still exsist, so I'll describe exactly what I'm experiencing while driving.
Around 1900-2900 rpms, when heated up and accelerating in any gear, the truck will randomly stutter or hesitate which feels like a misfire, there doesnt seem to be a consistent pattern to it other then the rpm range and acceleration. From a cold start, the truck wont do this until its been running for a good 10+ minutes and is clearly warmed up. Also when killing the engine warm, and then turning it back on while still hot, it'll crank a few extra times before turning over, about 5-7 times compared to 2-3 times when cold. The idle sounds completely fine, and I havent had any issues with it dieing on me yet.
Now I'm not the most mechanically inclined individual, but I'm happy to learn about this truck, absolutely loving it so far despite this issue and want to see it run another 200k. I felt it was time to do my own digging when two independent mechanics both couldn't diagnose the issue. Upon finding this thread I felt ready to get the right distributor in place and call it a day, but this is where my issue arose. The replaced engine E3rz-N73 uses dual coil packs instead of a distributor, and now im a little stumped, seeing as I dont know the entire difference this makes. Attached are photos of the previous owners write up of the issue, as well as what the dual coil packs look like. Information I can find on the E3rz-N73 seems to be limited, most of what I've found claim its a rarer engine. Any information or help would be greatly appreciated! Also @DrZ since it seems hes an absolute wellspring of information.

 

All I know is the Toyota distributors around this era can cause these weird hesitation and stumbling problems and aftermarket coils and distributors can be bad brand new. The distributors were only used on 96 and maybe 97 4-cylinders in Tacomas, but they were used in 93-97 Corollas and there were a lot more Corollas built, so I heard more about the issues on those models.

It sounds like your engine is actually a 3RZ-FE. The other number is just a revision number. Toyota went from a distributor with cam sensor built in to coil packs where the distributor was and a cam sensor mounted by the intake between 2 & 3 cylinder, then maybe later the coil packs were relocated (?). It seems your engine is a normal Tacoma engine, you just need to find out what year it was from.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/e3rz-n73-vs-3rz-fe.415468/

You could have a weak spark for whatever reason. The only way I see the EGR causing the problem is if it were stuck open or opening too soon or opening too much. Maybe it has the wrong modulator. It seems odd that disconnecting it fixes the problem. I can't wait to see what the fix is.

 

See this is where I'm at a loss with this issue. Since the ignition is run through dual coil packs instead of a distributor, im wondering if they could be causeing a similar issue that the distributors do, seeing as my engine trouble seems identical to those described in this thread. And the EGR is still disconnected as of right now, my ideal is that it would worsen the problem or make the bucking/stuttering more frequent, I'm not sure tho since I haven't drove the truck with it connected, and thats why the mechanic saw the problem as fixed with it disconnected since the interval of the bucking probably become unnoticeable after doing so. As it stands its not even consistent enough to say it happens every time I'm running gears in the 1900-2900 rpm range, just kind of randomly a few small stutters or bucks, 2-3 times then the engine will run great for 5-30 minutes then it'll happen again, and always in said rpm range. I can almost force it to happen more fequently by keeping the engine around 2200-2500 rpm. Do you think replacing the coil packs with new OEM ones could have the same affect as changing the distributor did for others?

 

I’m gonna guess ignition module or engine coolant temp sensor

 

And Toyota calls the ignition module the "igniter".

Several different things can cause it. A weak crank or cam position sensor signal. If the ECU doesn't get those signals it will stop firing the spark plugs. It could be the coils or one of them or even one of the spark plug wires. If you have a tachometer and see the needle drop momentarily lower than the actual engine speed that could indicate a problem with the ignition because the tachometer is reading the IG- signal from the igniter which is getting that signal from the coils. If they are aftermarket coils that could be a problem. The aftermarket electronic parts (especially ignition coils) never seem to work correctly in this era of Toyota models. Without trying to explain how the coils generate the high voltage spike for the spark plugs I'll just say if the aftermarket manufacturer doesn't get it right it may not spark correctly through the entire range of RPMs. I hate to see you spend money on new coils if that's not the problem. I'm not sure how easy it is to find used original Toyota coils. The coil inside the distributor was used on many models, so they are easier to find.

 

Here a follow up.

My truck started having terrible performance sporadically. It was different this time than last time. Would run fine sometimes, then other times fall flat on its face trying to come from a stop. Idle would be all over the place then sputter out and stall. I'd have to keep it reved high at red lights. It was bad. Last time I fixed it I used a junk yard distributor from another 96, so I figured maybe it has just gone bad again. Well, I took a look at the coil and it had a huge crack. I bought a brand new OEM coil from Toyota and put it in. Don't even have to remove the whole distributor, just take off the cap, rotor, and protection cover. It's plug and play for the new coil.

The new coil immediately solved my issue. Running better than maybe it ever has. Amazing. During this round of troubleshooting I found this great link with tons of information relating to bad coils/distributors on Toyota corrolas. See, Tacomas only had a distributor for the 95's and 96's. So there's not a lot of operating experience on them when you have an issue. The corrolas had the same style coil/distributor for quite a few years so there's a lot more information to pull from. Linked below.

https://www.toyotanation.com/threads/list-of-confirmed-distributor-at-fault-issues.1239322