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Thread: Acceleration issue

  1. #1
    Administrator JDM VANMAN's Avatar
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    Acceleration issue

    So the other day I was driving to work and was getting on the express lanes, as I shifted thru the gears and was driving in 4th gear at 40mph I noticed the van wasn't speeding up?? I thought I was in the wrong gear but when I checked I was indeed in 4th gear, I proceeded to shift into 5th only for the van continue to lose speed so I pulled over onto the shoulder.

    As I took it out of gear and coasted over to the shoulder safely I noticed that the idle was at a steady 750-800rpm, no trembling, shimmying or hesitation, the needle was solid. I checked the vitals, temperature and oil seemed normal. I sat there for a few minutes to see if the idle would change but it was good. While in neutral I started to push down on the accelerator about half way but the engine would only rev up to 1900-2100 rpms and no more. It was just bouncing in that range vroom...vroom... vroom... And then I let off and it would go back to normal idle.

    I sat for 10 minutes repeating this and then it did start to go up to 4300 rpms but it struggled to get there, it only did this a couple of time before going back to the original problem. So I called AAA and they towed me to the shop. They finally came 3 hours later after I called them and chewed them out for leaving me stranded on the express lanes and the State Trooper told me kindly to move my dusty bucket off the freeway before they switched directions.

    I did take a video so I could show it to the guys at the shop cause I know from the past experience the van will act up with me but when I take it to the shop then all is fine and dandy!! They looked at the video and said as long as it's still acting up they'll be able to diagnose the issue. And of course they've had it for a week and it's running just fine.

    They've left the Van running for hours and took it on test drives between working on other cars and still nothing?? But there are 3 possible things they said could be the problem-
    1) air flow meter
    2) fuel filter
    3) fuel pump

    I asked them if it could be a vacuum leak, broken air intake tube, or bad TPS and they said more then likely not, but if it'll act up then they'll know for sure.

    Has anyone else experienced the same problem and what was the final resolution? Thank you for your time, knowledge and inputs in advance

  2. #2
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    Re: Acceleration issue

    Quote Originally Posted by JDM VANMAN View Post
    They've left the Van running for hours and took it on test drives between working on other cars and still nothing?? But there are 3 possible things they said could be the problem-
    1) air flow meter
    2) fuel filter
    3) fuel pump
    If you haven't already, I would IMMEDIATELY replace the Fuel Pulsation Damper, or at the very least verify that it isn't leaking. Flounder has a write up on it -http://www.toyotavantech.com/forum/s...lsation-damper

    I went on a road trip on my van awhile back, and a couple miles from the house my van started to sputter around 2k-2.5k RPM's. It went away after warming up completely so I thought little of it, and babied it the rest of the way. Spent 2 days in Payson and on the way back the stumbling and jerking at freeway speeds was frightening. I pulled over at an Orielly's still 15 miles from home and immediately smelled GAS. I placed my hand under the FPD and it was SPEWING gas out of the weep hole at the bottom. It's a miracle that I'm not dead/my van isn't burned to the ground. I spent a good 5-6 hours in that parking lot trying to figure out a way home. I ended up screwing a machine screw with a hex head and a copper washer into the hole, and jb qwik welded it to make sure nothing leaked. It held up well enough to get me home. (I WOULD NOT ADVISE THIS REPAIR; BUY THE PART OEM/EQUIVALENT OR BE SORRY).

    I ordered an Airtex/Wells unit and it has held up fine.

    Also check your injector connectors. During my initial head gasket replacement/necromancing of my van, I was impatient and broke the brittle 30 year old injector connectors. They don't lock down any more, but they function well enough. Occasionally (once a month or so) my van will have NO power and sound like a lawn mower, often out of nowhere. I have to pop the seat up and push the #1/#2 injector connector back into place and it solves the problem.

    Good luck!

  3. #3
    Administrator JDM VANMAN's Avatar
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    Re: Acceleration issue

    Megadysart,

    thanks for the reply, but it didn't turn out to be what suggested. The Van seems to be running fine with no issues found at this time or I should say unable to duplicate the problem. I think I'll be picking up sometime this week not unless it miraculously acts up again.
    Last edited by JDM VANMAN; 11-17-2015 at 08:02 AM.

  4. #4
    Administrator timsrv's Avatar
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    Re: Acceleration issue

    I had this problem once but before I could diagnose it stopped on it's own. It only happened once and it was years ago. I suspected the air flow meter was hanging up, but who really knows. I seriously doubt it could be a fuel filter or a fuel pump. I would suspect a fuel filter if the problem persisted, but filters don't "magically" unplug themselves. If it were a fuel pump it would likely stop altogether and the van would stall. There's also a small chance it could be a glitch with the ECU or something else electronic like the coil or igniter.........but all these things are "shots it the dark" and can never be proven (unless the problem can be duplicated for testing). Hopefully it was just a fluke and it will not return. If it does return, hopefully it will remain until the issue can be properly diagnosed. Tim

  5. #5
    Administrator JDM VANMAN's Avatar
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    Re: Acceleration issue

    Thanks Tim,

    yeah I'm hoping it's not serious, when stalled on the freeway I couldn't get it to go above the 1900-2100 rpm range and when it did, it was struggling. The shop said they fired it right up and started driving it around and it drove pretty nice for an "old girl"

    They've been busy this week and I haven't gone in to check with them but I'll stop in today to get an update and take it home.

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    Re: Acceleration issue - hesitation

    Not sure should put this in a different thread but I had a similar problem recently with hesitation and my neighbor who's a long time mechanic asked if I used cheap gas recently and I started thinking(uh oh!) Yes I had and my other car(Volvo 240) has been running pretty crappy too. I went to a more standard gas station than the Space Age and put in the Plus and a bottle of that fuel cleaner(name?) and haven't had hesitation since! Woohoo gotta love easy solutions!
    Moral of my story-I won't be buying cheap gas again.

  7. #7
    Administrator JDM VANMAN's Avatar
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    Re: Acceleration issue

    For me it hasn't been a fuel, fuel filter, AFM issues, it has happened again but these few times it was when it was raining and with out fail if I happened to drive thru a puddle of water and the water sprayed up under the van, and then I will loose acceleration almost instantaneously and have to pull over sputtering and putting to the side.

    Once stopped in a safe location the idle will be rock solid at 750-800 rpm's but when I put it in gear it'll just sputter and put put with no acceleration, and when I leave it in neutral and push the accelerator The RPM gauge will never pass 1900-2200 rpms and will just jump up and down in that range. I'll sit in the van for about 10-15 minutes just holding the accelerator steady until it finally decides to start working like normal again. And then I drive away like nothing happened??

    I'm thinking the water that sprays under the van goes somewhere causing this problem but not sure where?

  8. #8
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    Re: Acceleration issue

    I'd say check the distributor gasket or New cap. And plug wires-maybe water gets in there- But I'm just guessing.
    Last edited by djshimon; 12-16-2016 at 12:30 AM.

  9. #9
    Administrator llamavan's Avatar
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    Re: Acceleration issue



    Gwen
    1985 5-speed window cargo van set up for llama haulin'; 345K ("Trustyvan")
    1989 4WD 5-speed DLX; 410K and an odd sense of humor ("Skylervan")

  10. #10
    Administrator JDM VANMAN's Avatar
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    Re: Acceleration issue

    Nice thanks for the heads up

  11. #11
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    Re: Acceleration issue

    VERY likely the distributor cap. It's a common problem on old Mini Coopers because the disty is right behind the grill. A lot of guys wrap their disty in a plastic bag when it rains.

  12. #12
    Van Addict AD2101's Avatar
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    Re: Acceleration issue

    Could be the gasket (or lack thereof) between the distributor and distributor cap. Mine does the same thing the 3 times a year it rains heavy out here.

    http://www.toyotavantech.com/forum/s...p?2552-Snorkel

  13. #13
    Administrator JDM VANMAN's Avatar
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    Re: Acceleration issue

    Quote Originally Posted by AD2101 View Post
    Could be the gasket (or lack thereof) between the distributor and distributor cap. Mine does the same thing the 3 times a year it rains heavy out here.

    http://www.toyotavantech.com/forum/s...p?2552-Snorkel
    Nice thank you for the redirect for the gasket part numbers and the confirmation of having a similar issue as mine!!

    I ordered both gaskets that were listed by Tim in the 2nd posting of that thread.

    Thank you

    JDM

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    Re: Acceleration issue

    JDM I'm still having the same issue as you were and it's when I hit a puddle-van runs like crap for 2-3 minutes. I'm wondering if it's the fusible link that's behind the driver's wheel? When I checked it today it was wet at the bolt connections so I put some dielectric grease on it and wrapped it in a plastic bag and taped it-if this seems to help I may end up moving the link or sealing it better. I don't get the engine flash(throwing a code) when this issue appears which is might help to narrow things downs, somehow. Pretty frustrating this problem but at least it's mostly narrowed down to wet days.
    Also, I have the new gasket and cap on my distributor but maybe I'll wrap it in a plastic bag if this continues just to try it.

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    Re: Acceleration issue

    I have finally diagnosed my acceleration/hesitation issue and it is definitely wet distributor related. I sprayed some water on the distributor and it hesitated and was very unhappy-keep in mind I changed both gaskets on the distributor, cap and rotor <6 months ago and it ran much better but would still choke and hesitate after driving through puddles or on heavy rains.
    I thought about sealing up the distributor cap and the weep hole on the bottom with silicone but then read that ozone builds up inside if sealed=bad. Instead I put a bunch of dielectric grease around the seal which helped even more but did not totally get rid of the problem completely.
    Next will try a new o-ring for the distributor shaft and will update if that works.
    Maybe the plastic bag trick too.
    Otherwise I might have to try a 12volt air pump into a hole on the dizzy which will then make it able to ford streams!
    Otherwise I don't know any other options.

  16. #16
    Administrator timsrv's Avatar
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    Re: Acceleration issue

    Did you ever change the distributor cap and wires? Sometimes contaminants can get on the cap/wires and cause on-going issues. I had once gotten antifreeze on/in my cap & wires when a hose blew. After that the van would give me trouble in high humidity conditions. It's because the antifreeze residue would attract moisture and recreate problems every time humidity was high. Problem completely disappeared when I changed the cap and wires. Tim

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    Re: Acceleration issue

    I did the cap, rotor and both dizzy gaskets a few months ago and the problem was less but still happens on puddles and heavy rain. The wires are 2 years old and I put dielectric grease where they connect to the cap and the spark plugs. Hoping the distributor shaft gasket helps.

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    Re: Acceleration issue

    had this exact problem with the van i purchased approx 6 months ago: started and ran rough when it was wet. got worse and worse. would run fine after running a hairdryer on the cap for 5 minutes so i knew it was allowing moisture inside. i did new distributor cap, rotor, dist gasket, spark plugs and plug wires. everything runs great now even in pouring rain.

    i got the OEM dist gasket and it didn't exactly match the new dist cap i purchased from auto parts store. just to be safe i added a very tiny bead of blue RTV around the edge of the cap to be sure it was sealed well

    definitely cover your fusible link! it gets very wet when the roads are rainy. i used a foil to-go container from the dollar store to make a sheath. works real well for a temporary fix.

  19. #19
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    Re: Acceleration issue

    Thanks Tim and PNWvan. I'll continue to work on this one. Now that it's just about summer here I have some time to play with.
    I also wanted to put it out there in case other people are having this problem. It didn't show any codes so was a pain to figure out.

  20. #20
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    Re: Acceleration issue

    Update, I’ve replaced the distributor gaskets but still having the acceleration in the rain, still can’t nail it down. I’m hoping that I’m using the correct terminology in this thread so I’m posting a video-

    https://youtu.be/V-MdzSdvS8Q

    thank you

    JDM

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