Help away from home with Gas engine trouble

[Tollster]

I am away working and during my commute to work,my gas engine in my 02 toyota tacoma develped a serious miss. It is a distributorless 6 cylinder with 100k.
The check engine light started to blink intermittently, then stayed on continously. The weather has been in the 40s-50' with the exception of last night when it got into the mid 20's. I did notice upon starting it this morn that is seemed to run a little rough,but no miss. The miss devolped after about 10 miles and was warmed up at that time. The engine does not stall, but seems to be running on 4 or 5 cylinders, no power, it aslso seems to surge at low RPM with steady throttle.
I hadmy O2 sensors rplaced last fall as the check engine light was on then,but no signs of trouble such as missing etc.
There is also no signs of a blown head gasket, no rotten egg smell, no moisture from exhaust, nor bubbling upthrough the radiator.
The gas guage is at 3/4 full, I arived here sunday after using 1/2 tank from my local town gas station where I have always purchased fuel, I topped off here on monday morning which would be 1/2tank, I added another 1/4 tank from a different local station on tuesday.
I did not experience any issues until today,and everyhting seems tight under the hood,no loose fittings nor vacuum lines, no loose plug leads nor are they crossd as the separators are in good shape.
I added 3 cans of gas HEAT to my tank leaving work, drove 24 miles with no improvement as i believe it may be water in the gas, but now I am not sure.
I am wondering if I burnt an exhaust valve now, its ruff at idle but seems fine at 2k RPM, I also held a piece of paper over the exhaust and it seems as if there is some intermittent suction, but its hard to tell. Under hard accelleration off idle it will backfire through the intake.

Any suggestions?

 

[tcartwri]

Are the plugs original? New vehicles will run without any perceived performance issues, until the plugs are absolutely finished. Then they will start to miss and run rough within a very short period.

 

[dex3361]

Check the plugs and plug wires. I always wait till its dark then look under the hood with the engine running and if you see lots of arcing then change the wires. I would get the codes checked. Most of the Advance auto parts will check it for free. This can let you know if you have a sensor or injector issue. Check the air and fuel filters.

 

[clemsonfor]

Do yourself a favor and buy a cheap $20 code reader off ebay. That way you can pull the codes and google the odbII codes and actually know where to go, to trouble shoot, instead of just guessing as to what it is, like you assumed the O2 sensors were bad. They prolly were the first time.

My saturn had a skip that i knew was a miss. I waited till the light went on and sure enough it told me code XXXX looked it up and it was #2. So i knew it was either a bad plug or a bad coil, but it was on ly on 1 cyl and the coils are 2 cyl coils. Anyway i pulled the plug and it was a hair line crack with carbon checking on it. This vehicle also has other diveability issues connected to an O2 sensor and a throttle position and coolant sensor so this was in addition to it, but was an easy fix with my scan tool, which i really paid to much for from HF at $40.

 

[Argosy]

I agree read the code, it's got a sensor that's bad or finding something wrong.

 

[number two]

How about posting in the Parts/Repairs Forum to reach more "gearheads".Agree on the code check or scan.Misfire monitor
could point to a specific cylinder,giving you a place to
start.At least the check engine light isn't flashing-that's
bad news and the vehicle should not be driven.Got towing
insurance?Hope you don't need it.Good Luck-really!

 

[LD1]

Count me as another who agrees that you need to get the code read.

Thats the beauty of all the hightech computers, obdII etc. It wont tell you exactally what is wrong, but it will give you a darned good place to look.

A rough running/missing driveability could literally be caused by hundreds of things. Until you get the code read, you are just guessing and wasting time and money.

 

[crazyal]

With out checking the code you are just wasting your time guessing unless you can look under the hood and see a problem like a loose wire. AutoZone will read the code for you for free but unless it's a code that directly points to a particular part don't buy any parts until you do a little research. Often things like O2 sensors get replaced because they are just reporting a problem and the code points towards them.

With O2 sensors the generic versions are much cheaper. They usually are the same sensor but don't have the correct connector or no connector so you have to reuse the connector from the old sensor. Secondly the way the O2 sensors work is a tiny amount of air needs to get to the sensor. It travels in between the braided wire so you need to crimp, soldering it will seal the wire and cause problems, on the old connector.

 

[fbson395]

Yes! Codes must be checked. Two of my cars had almost the same trouble. Checked the codes and found a bad coil.Also Possible bad injector or plug. Might not hurt to replace the spark plug wires since the car has 100K on it.My wife's car needed plug wires.Get a code reader.Good Luck and happy hunting! :thumbsup:

 

[DEWFPO]

Places like Autozone, Checker, O'reilly, etc... will read the codes for you for free.

DEWFPO