engine miss at idle speed

[northern cruiser]

My 2001 LC has 155K miles on it and approx. 2 months ago began to miss when idleing or at slower engine speeds. Several times it has actually quit running when I pull up to a stop sign but does start back up OK. It does not appear that having the AC on or off makes a difference. It seems that the hot weather makes this condition worse/more prevalent.

My check engine light came on a few weeks ago and the OBD2 said "Idle circuit malfuction". I Had the check engine light tuned off/reset and it came on again a few days ago (was flashing on & off for several seconds while engine was missing as I was going down a hill). The check engine light stayed on for 2 days and then suddenly disappeared and has not been back on.

My service garage that does my service work says they cleaned the throttle body and they can find nothing else wrong with the engine. They said if it keeps happening they will replace the throttle body iteself (approx. a $1,400 repair).

I plan to drive the cruiser until it stops running altogether as I don't want to spend $1,400.00 and not know 100% if this will fix the problem.

Does anyone have any suggestions/prior experience with this problem?

Thanks for your help !!!!

[i4c4lo]

Northern Cruiser,


It might be a coil that is going bad. This happened to me a while ago - it would miss once in a while then it would go away. I had the local dealer check it and they also wanted to change the throttle body, I just drove away.

Then it just came back one day and was idling bad - check engine light was on - pulled the code and it was cylinder 3. I hope you diagnose it properly and soon. Just have your AAA card ready just in case.


Good luck

[NMuzj100]

Could be a variation on the TPS/APPS problem. Read the FAQ on it and see if it fits. That would be fixed with a new throttle body but could be fixed much cheaper.

Hope for the coil pack though.