Toyota Rav 4 Issues

[iamdarkyoshi]

I have a '97 Toyota Rav 4. It is a stick shift, 4 door, 2 wheel drive.... thingy.

 

I had the idiot light come on quite a while back and it was an "O2 Sensor Readings Slow" fault. I noticed quite a fair bit of bucking at certain engine loads and it felt like I was stomping on the throttle and releasing it. I though this might be because the sensors were giving false readings and the vehicle's confuser was overcompensating on something like the air/fuel mixture. It is not a clutch problem as I get decent aceleration if I stomp on it. It only happens at about 20-50% throttle position. 

 

So I have replaced BOTH O2 sensors (the upstream and downstream ones) and I haven't gotten an idiot light yet, but in the past, it usually took a couple days to come back after resetting it. I still have the bucking issues though. Any ideas? I am nearing 200K miles on the poor thing.

[givingtnt]

I have a '97 Toyota Rav 4. It is a stick shift, 4 door, 2 wheel drive.... thingy.

 Use the car tilk you can get another one ?

I had the idiot light come on quite a while back and it was an "O2 Sensor Readings Slow" fault. I noticed quite a fair bit of bucking at certain engine loads and it felt like I was stomping on the throttle and releasing it. I though this might be because the sensors were giving false readings and the vehicle's confuser was overcompensating on something like the air/fuel mixture. It is not a clutch problem as I get decent aceleration if I stomp on it. It only happens at about 20-50% throttle position. 

 

So I have replaced BOTH O2 sensors (the upstream and downstream ones) and I haven't gotten an idiot light yet, but in the past, it usually took a couple days to come back after resetting it. I still have the bucking issues too. Any ideas? I am nearing 200K miles on the poor thing.

[Coombzy]

I'd ask a car forum to be honest but somebody here might be able to help.

[iamdarkyoshi]

 

I have a '97 Toyota Rav 4. It is a stick shift, 4 door, 2 wheel drive.... thingy.

 Use the car tilk you can get another one ?

I had the idiot light come on quite a while back and it was an "O2 Sensor Readings Slow" fault. I noticed quite a fair bit of bucking at certain engine loads and it felt like I was stomping on the throttle and releasing it. I though this might be because the sensors were giving false readings and the vehicle's confuser was overcompensating on something like the air/fuel mixture. It is not a clutch problem as I get decent aceleration if I stomp on it. It only happens at about 20-50% throttle position. 

 

So I have replaced BOTH O2 sensors (the upstream and downstream ones) and I haven't gotten an idiot light yet, but in the past, it usually took a couple days to come back after resetting it. I still have the bucking issues too. Any ideas? I am nearing 200K miles on the poor thing.

 

I am not getting another one anytime soon. I will run this poor girl till she dies completely. I dont feel like moving my Sony CDX U8000 and GTQ240 and JBL GT series speakers for nostalgic reasons.

[samcool55]

Maybe a filter is full of junk? A fuel filter or something, and if the engine is warmed up, floor it a couple of times (not just stomping, really flooring it in 2nd or 3rd close to it's redline)

It's probably a diesel and they need that.

If you leave a black cloud, that's good, that means it's working. After a couple of times the black cloud should get less dense.

[iamdarkyoshi]

I'd ask a car forum to be honest but somebody here might be able to help.

It seems like the off topic section here is more popular than other topics usually, and there are PLENTY of people here, so why not

[Real_PhillBert]

Hmm. If I was going to take a stab at it, I would clean or replace your Mass Airflow Sensor. If that is giving bad readings to the ECU about air quality, it could cause your throttle to adjust according to the bad info. 

[roastduck]

if you're having to stomp on the accelerator, you might need to check the fuel system. Are any cylinders not firing?

[iamdarkyoshi]

Maybe a filter is full of junk? A fuel filter or something, and if the engine is warmed up, floor it a couple of times (not just stomping, really flooring it in 2nd or 3rd close to it's redline)

It's probably a diesel and they need that.

I have done this before to try to clear things up, and to see if I could gearskip from first to fifth without redlining or going under 1000 RPM. I can.

[Burusutazu]

Should have replaced them as soon as the light came on, they are not that expensive. Not replacing them can lead to quite a few different problems, some being very expensive. (although I wouldn't be able to tell you what) Your best bet is to take it to a mechanic for a checkup.

[iamdarkyoshi]

if you're having to stomp on the accelerator, you might need to check the fuel system. Are any cylinders not firing?

Nope. they all work fine. I can acelerate normally with the throttle, its just that at certain engine loads and certain throttle positions it starts to do this. and it does it cold or warm.

[iamdarkyoshi]

Should have replaced them as soon as the light came on, they are not that expensive. Not replacing them can lead to quite a few different problems, some being very expensive. (although I wouldn't be able to tell you what) Your best bet is to take it to a mechanic for a checkup.

The stealership?? NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

 

We had it in for an exhast gasket and manifold replacement, oil pump replacement, some other gasket and a couple other things. It had been doing this when we bought it over 100K miles ago. They didnt say there were any other issues that they could see. It used to burn and leak oil really bad, as well as exhaust from the front of the vehicle, so thats when we got that stuff fixed

[Real_PhillBert]

Nope. they all work fine. I can acelerate normally with the throttle, its just that at certain engine loads and certain throttle positions it starts to do this. and it does it cold or warm.

 

Throttle position sensor?

[samcool55]

I have done this before to try to clear things up, and to see if I could gearskip from first to fifth without redlining or going under 1000 RPM. I can.

lol haven't tried that with my car!

Maybe the fuel pump isn't that great anymore? Or there might be a damaged wire or something.

[iamdarkyoshi]

Throttle position sensor?

I am not sure if it uses a potentiometer or a physical cable for the throttle. I might look into that and maybe spray my contact cleaner into a potentiometer if it uses one.

[FuzzyYellow]

Maybe a filter is full of junk? A fuel filter or something, and if the engine is warmed up, floor it a couple of times (not just stomping, really flooring it in 2nd or 3rd close to it's redline)

It's probably a diesel and they need that.

If you leave a black cloud, that's good, that means it's working. After a couple of times the black cloud should get less dense.

it's a rav4. it's not a diesel.

[iamdarkyoshi]

lol haven't tried that with my car!

Maybe the fuel pump isn't that great anymore? Or there might be a damaged wire or something.

Actually, I had issues in the past where it would simply not start, as if the fuel pump had failed. I found the fuse for the fuel pump and I put an ammeter in its place so if the pump wasnt going, I would see no current flow. The simple act of monitoring this fixed it, so I put the fuse back in and it hasnt given me trouble with that since. Must have just been a corroded connection.

[FuzzyYellow]

we've had the check engine light on our '02 tundra for probably 30k miles without issues. my dad had it in to get the O2 sensor replaced (that was the issue) and the mechanic replaced the wrong one.  so it's been on for 3 years or more.

[iamdarkyoshi]

we've had the check engine light on our '02 tundra for probably 30k miles without issues. my dad had it in to get the O2 sensor replaced (that was the issue) and the mechanic replaced the wrong one.  so it's been on for 3 years or more.

and we bought the wrong one to the one we pulled out to look at. But it turns out the one we ordered was actually the other sensor, so we just replaced both. They were pretty... bad....

[FireFox]

I have a '97 Toyota Rav 4. It is a stick shift, 4 door, 2 wheel drive.... thingy.

 

I had the idiot light come on quite a while back and it was an "O2 Sensor Readings Slow" fault. I noticed quite a fair bit of bucking at certain engine loads and it felt like I was stomping on the throttle and releasing it. I though this might be because the sensors were giving false readings and the vehicle's confuser was overcompensating on something like the air/fuel mixture. It is not a clutch problem as I get decent aceleration if I stomp on it. It only happens at about 20-50% throttle position. 

 

So I have replaced BOTH O2 sensors (the upstream and downstream ones) and I haven't gotten an idiot light yet, but in the past, it usually took a couple days to come back after resetting it. I still have the bucking issues though. Any ideas? I am nearing 200K miles on the poor thing.

 

On some cars even though the problem is rectified you will still need to get the light turned off at a garage. I would get it to the garage because obviously the oxygen sensors weren't the problem.

[Burusutazu]

and we bought the wrong one to the one we pulled out to look at. But it turns out the one we ordered was actually the other sensor, so we just replaced both. They were pretty... bad....

Well on the up side you should get better gas mileage.

[iamdarkyoshi]

On some cars even though the problem is rectified you will still need to get the light turned off at a garage. I would get it to the garage because obviously the oxygen sensors weren't the problem.

I own a code scanner. I reset it and I havent gotten the light yet, but the bucking persists.

[iamdarkyoshi]

Well on the up side you should get better gas mileage.

I used to get over 30mpg until I had the timing belt replaced. It dropped to 20-25. Dafuq.

[FireFox]

I own a code scanner. I reset it and I havent gotten the light yet, but the bucking persists.

 

Could be your injectors mate, sometimes they could have clogged up a little but regardless I would still book it into a reputable garage.

 

Faulty injectors that could be over-fuelling could throw up an O2 fault code even if the O2 sensors are perfectly fine.

[johnt]

I'm having this issue with my wive's Corolla. We replaced both oxygen sensors, catalytic converter, and cleaned the mass airflow sensor. The light is still on with three different OBD2 codes. At this point I think it's a crack in the exhaust manifold. It passed smog two months ago so I'm just letting it go for now. If I start smelling fuel vapors, then I will do something about it. I use it for about 1 to 2 miles of driving a day, so it's not critical.