"chugging" 4runner

[Tennessee Jed]

My daughter's 95 4Runner was supposedly "chugging" and lurching after driving through some horrendous puddles during the flooding we've been getting in the south.

To me, it now drives perfectly, but she swears that the acceleration is much more sluggish than usual even after the lurching has apparently stopped. I told her that stock motor is not a really peppy engine but she says it's different.

What's the most likely cause of the irregular, lurching acceleration? Where could water have gotten in to cause a problem? Any way to prevent it?

Thanks.

 

[hardontoyotas]

check the distributor cap and rotorfor water. check the plug wires and check for moisture near the plugs. check the air box make sure the mass air flow sensor doesn't have any miosture in it.

 

[corax]

^ what he said - check for water in/around the ignition system

 

[cruiser88]

Funny......well not really but I ahve been hearing more and more about cat. converters........when you drive through water sometimes they automaticly do something to harden. Not sure what? I have heard it about 8 times in the last month...all around the same years. Toys, chevyblazers, jeeps etc.

 

[toy4xfun]

first off tell your daughter to stay out of deep water, you might think it is a puddle but that can turn out so bad. also i have had a truck in the Shenandoah river when it was low i was deep enough that water got in my trans and never had a problem with how the engine run so she hit the water pretty fast, so water could have seeped into just about anything. .chris mentioned the cat i have never heard of this but i do know jeep and a few other car makers used double wall exaust pipe and if hot when it hit cold water the inner pipe would shrink closing off the exhaust. and a lot of people thought it was there cats because it would have the same symptoms