Flashing check engine light. Shaking while driving. Sputtering at idle.

Hey I have a 2000 prerunner v6. 140000 miles. Just this morning started to shake real bad off and on while driving. Feels like driving over reflector bumps in middle of the road. When it shakes the check engine light will flash rapidly then stop. At idle it sputters and sounds more like a little boat engine to me. Had all spark plugs replaced about 3 weeks ago. Any ideas? PleaSe help

 

Whenever the check light is flashing, it means damage is being done to the catalytic converter. You probably have a bad misfire. Since the plugs were just replaced, one might have backed out. I would start there.

 

my truck does the same thing when im driving, ill be cruzin but then randomly while in low RPMs it'll shake really bad but in anything above 2500 RPMs its all good. i have a 2010 any ideas?

 

i thought flashing cel means bad coil pack so one of the cyliders might not be working properly.?

 

but i guess bad miss fireing would harm the cat due to the unburnt gas/fumes....it may be plug wires/coil pack/ or sparkplug that are bad. get a code reader on it.

 

Flashing CEL means the ecu is picking up a misfire count over 50% misfire that high can cause a rich enough mixture to damage the cat if you can get a scan tool that will show data list you can see which cylinder is misfiring and have an idea of where to start looking for you problem

 

I have a theory
if the plug intaller didnt change the wires its possible that the wires could have separated internally at the boot contact when they got pulled, it could have been fine for a while, spark jumping the gap , then corrosion/erosion could be causing intermittent spark as it tries to jump , now showing up now as a misfire

I say that because you didnt say plugs AND plugwires replaced. I always replace plugs and wires as a set because typically, its so hard to get them off without ripping one and by the time the plugs go the wires are usually getting pretty jumpy too

 

Hey guys... Need help with this one.

I was driving down the road and the truck started shaking the same and the first post. Vibrating like I was driving over a rippled road.

Half way down the drive the CEL came on flashed a few times, and turned off.

I came to a parking lot where I let the truck run while at inspected the engine in came some came loose. I could see anything.

I have an Ultra Gauge, so I plugged it in and it shows no Trouble Codes.

About 5 mins later the truck started idling normally.

Did the original poster apinion33 figure out the issue.

Anyone have any ideas what it could be?

I replaced the sparkplugs about 3 years ago, but it was only about 12k miles because the truck doesn't get driven often.

Any help would be appreciated. Don't know why I didn't get a code on the US. Maybe I need a different reader.

Thanks in advance.

 

Did you ever figure out what the issue was? My 98 did the exact same thing this am on the way to work. Appreciate any input.

 

Yes. Fuel injector 5 was bad.

 

odd thing about this is when I take it out of drive to neutral--it revs right up--put it back in gear it shakes sputters and the check engine light blinks--I would think if it was an injector it would not change

 

It's a spark plug, coil pack, or an injector.

As the Tech at Toyota said, 9/10 times, with my kind of mileage, it the injector. Sure enough it was.

 

Ugh--Happy Thanksgiving to me--I'm going to see if I can pull a code tonight and go from there--thanks

 

If it gives you the 300 all cylinder misfire, and a specific cylinder I.e. 305 for cylinder 5, or 302 for cylinder 2, its the spark plug or fuel injector on that cylinder.

All easy fixes. You got this.

 

Thanks for the codes -- been all over with this truck, could not imagine life without it.

 

I hate it when you come to a forum, and once the issue was resolved, nobody posts anything--so here goes--pulled the codes off the OBD II port--showed a P304 code--this narrowed search to a misfire at #4 cylinder--checked coil output and was good--checked spark plug wire--all good no breaks--pulled spark plug--No spark, end was all carboned up--bad--plugs only have about 10K on them. BUT--motor has hit 191k. Using Bosch Iridium Plugs, so using a fine wire brush cleaned up plug and reinstalled. Pulled remaining plugs, cleaning them and checking wires just to be sure. With everything put back together it has run fine ever since . Thanks for the insight

 

Glad I was able help. And glad you were able to figure it out.

Misfires will usually be one of the three. Good too see it was a simple plug.

 

Just curious, was only that plug really bad or were all of them getting to be bad?

On a side note a buddy of mine was having similar problems as the OP in his F150. Took it to a local shop here and he ended up getting a $1,200 bill for changing the spark plugs, which did fix it, but ouch. It didn't throw any codes and they had to look around for the problem.

 

Hey guys got head scratcher, I've read most of the post on ck eng lite & eng miss. Have code for #4 misfire & when I drive it also has code for random misfire with #3 miss. Have changed all plugs & wires & #4 coil pack. Have 12volt to coil also have swapped coil packs around still same. Some have changed Inj. from what I've read & with my spark tester I have spark any ideas ? 3.4 liter

 

I just had this exact problem, pulled over looked underneath, my muffler has a big hole in it (i think i got caught up on something) and my truck had no power, shuddered when idling, and it felt fine over 2500Rpm, i drove it for a little while to get it to the main road, turned it off and waited a few mins and started it up, and everything was fine, all back to normal other then the hole in my exhaust, anyone have any ideas of what this could be? if the light went away with a restart, and so did the shuddering, and i have all my power back, doesnt bog or anything and drives 100% fine, im not sure if i should be worried or not

anything helps thanks