2008 Tacoma V6 (Auto) Going to Idle on Highway

First time poster on here but I have a 2008 Toyota Tacoma 4dr TRD V6 with an automatic transmission and about 175000 miles on it. I bought it new and it's always been a well behaved truck.

Lately it's developed a quirk; driving down the highway at about 60 mph (cruise control off) it suddenly goes to idle. It doesn't quit, just drops off to idle until you either advance the gas pedal (sometimes that works) or get off the gas pedal and then get back on to it (that always works). It has no "check engine" light, it doesn't quit, it just goes to idle. If you engage the cruise control everything works fine until you hit any reasonable kind of bump on the road and then... the cruise disconnects just as though you had gently tapped the brake pedal. And last night it developed a new quirk: my command start shuts down the truck after it runs for 24 minutes. Last night I started it and then started putting my gear in the truck and when I closed the front passenger door the truck turned off by itself after running for only about five minutes. I was thinking gas pedal or possibly throttle body sensor until the truck shut down from command start last night after only five minutes, but now I don't know what to think. Anybody seen this before?

 

Sounds like maybe the brake light switch is getting flaky or needs adjustment.
If it does it consistently try holding the brake pedal up with your foot and see if it still does it.

 

Maybe I have two separate issues. Hmmm....

 

What is command start?

Since these are drive-by-wire, I'd guess that the accelerator pedal might be the culprit. Since moving it seems to "wake it up" and cruise tends to work, it could be that it is losing signal occasionally.

 

The brake switch can cause all the issues your stating.

A brake signal will disconnect the cruise.

The PCM has what it called brake override which will cut the throttle if it detects a brake and throttle signal at the same time.

Alot if remote starts will shut down if they detect a brake signal when they are active.

 

Hey, thanx. That makes sense to me, and yes, the slightest tap of the brake pedal with the key not in the ignition and not in the "on" position will cause my engine to shutdown from a remote start. I'll get into it here in the next couple of days and report back. I don't imagine you'd have a part number for that handy, would you? I'm showing that an SLS-305 is a compatible part.

 

I've experienced this a couple times and it was the brake switch that got bumped somehow. I realigned it and it is fine. It's not held in there as well as I'd expect for how important it is.

 

This was indeed my problem. I changed the switch ($69) and ten minutes later it was good as new. Thanks everybody for your input.

Dan