Hi all, been mostly a lurker here for a bit, but finally starting my own intro thread. Story time incoming.
I'm a long-time import car guy. My wife and I had our 15 minutes of fame several years ago coming from the Nissan Z world. I owned a highly modified 2009 Nissan 370Z and my wife owned a full resto-mod 1978 Datsun 280Z. Had import car magazine covers / website features etc.. Did lots of car shows in the Chicago area. We were known as the "Z couple" if you want to do some google searching. We got out of that scene 6-7 years ago. (we got old lol). More recently owned a 04 LS430 and 5th Gen 4Runner, current daily is a 2018 Tundra Platinum.
After searching for a long time, I picked up this 1996 Land Cruiser from BaT. Yes I know I paid a lot.
bringatrailer.com
Despite the price, I felt like I got pretty lucky finding a southern owned, sub 100K mile car that didn't have a lot of rust. Post auction BaT shipping was a s***show and they spent 3 weeks trying to find a driver before I gave up. My Dad who is retired but still very healthy/active offered to fly down to Florida and drive the truck up the east coast to our current home in New Hampshire.
3 hours into the drive I get the call I was dreading... "Hey I've got a CEL" The car was running fine, all gauges looked normal. He stopped in at an Autozone and pulled a p0171 code. He also mentioned that on a gas fill up there was extreme pressure in the gas tank, the "PSSSHHH" was loud enough that I could hear it while i was on the phone with him. For the p0171, advised to buy some MAF cleaner and send it down towards the MAF to see if it helped, otherwise just keep on truckin...
Next day I get a call that after stopping for gas, the engine is stumbling / surging and has no power. Shutting it off for a minute and restarting seemed to help a little, enough for him to get on the highway and set the cruise to 60 and make the slow trek up I-95. This continued to happen throughout the duration of the trip where he'd suddenly lose power after stopping, has no power to merge onto the highway, He had a couple close calls on the shoulder to get it running enough to get going.
3 Days of driving a questionable car, somehow he made it.
After getting the car, I started to look it over a little more closely. Body / paint was in great shape, interior was a little rougher than the pics lead on to. Lots of small random s*** broken, driver door speaker, driver and passenger power seats not all functions working, hood latch sticks, driver door card vinyl torn. The listing did mention the sunroof was inoperable but didn't mention the trim around it was broken. All those are minor things IMO though and i'll eventually get to.
Turning to engine bay. Wanted to immediately address the gas tank pressure issue, tested the canister according to the FSM and sure enough it was clogged. Replaced with the recommended Duralast VC120. Thinking that stumbling / no power issue might be fuel related, also replaced the fuel filter, as the one there looked original. Also replaced spark plugs because it was an easy thing to try.
Looking closer though, its becoming apparent someone was "in there" over the years. Finding lots of wiring harnesses / relays that are not clipped in to their locations. A wiring harness over the trans dangling loose, another one rubbing on the driveshaft. One of the 2 breathers from the tranny dipstick (that goes to the top of the bellhousing) is just hanging there. Missing the blanket under the hood, missing the wheel well splash shields. Missing a splash shield under the front bumper area. Also there's no Cats on this car, someone replaced with a straight pipe. I think I need to fix that to pass NH inspection (not sure yet).
One thing I noticed too was the Neg battery terminal was loose, which also makes me think it was for easy clearing codes while trying to sell the car...
Seeing all these things, it makes me think the engine/trans was out of this car at one point. Trying not to be a conspiracy theorist here, but is there a way to verify that the engine in this car matches the VIN?
I can see lots of new parts, starter, alternator, all radiator hoses replaced. Brakes were done recently as well as knuckle rebuilds (although it still looks a little greasy around there). Carfax says EGR was serviced last year.
I knew going into this car it would still take some work on the little s*** that's broken. but the engine issue has got me feeling discouraged and not sure how to troubleshoot the stumbling / loss of power issue.
Here's my most recent experience. That p0171 code got cleared when the battery died on me and has not returned.
After replacing the fuel pump, I thought the problem had gone away. A couple drives around the neighborhood seemed promising. The other day I took a 25 minute drive down the highway to Home Depot and got the engine up to temp. On the way there things seemed good. Didn't have any stumbling at all and engine seemed strong.
My amazon bluetooth OBDII adaptor (Veepeak or some s***) talking to the Torque App on my phone showed Engine temp in the 165 range. Other notable things the Torque app is telling me, Short-term fuel trim is like +19ish. I'm not getting a reading at all for Long term fuel trim. Both O2 sensors are bouncing voltage ~.1 to .8 every second, which according to the FSM says they are good. I've got 25~ on Vacuum, and MAF is giving good readings. Catalyst reading is obviously not ready as there's none there...
Things seemed fine on the way there. When I got back in the car 15 mins later, it ran like s***. Like no power and wanting to die when i try to accelerate. I literally have to put the pedal to the floor to get it to stumble up to 3-4k RPM and then it will surge and start to move.
Interestingly, the Torque app when I'm having the stumbling problem, shows 0's for ShortTerm fuel trim and both o2 sensors. I had a hell of a time getting it back home, and it eventually threw p0125 and p0130 codes, but that sounds like a result of the zero readings from the o2 sensors and maybe not the cause?
I've dug thru threads about those codes, some mention ECT sensor, but those threads talk mostly about bad gas mileage and don't mention engine stumbling, more like annoyance codes. Others talk about replacing o2 sensors but when the engine is running good, they were showing good readings.
So... Any help? Some recent thread searching had me thinking about fuel pump sock, but ruled that out as it seems like only an issue after turning off / on the car after the engine was hot. Maybe the sock is "deflating" when I turn the car off? Other than that maybe next thing was to check fuel pump relay? Not sure if that would cause this kind of trouble?
Thanks all.
I'm a long-time import car guy. My wife and I had our 15 minutes of fame several years ago coming from the Nissan Z world. I owned a highly modified 2009 Nissan 370Z and my wife owned a full resto-mod 1978 Datsun 280Z. Had import car magazine covers / website features etc.. Did lots of car shows in the Chicago area. We were known as the "Z couple" if you want to do some google searching. We got out of that scene 6-7 years ago. (we got old lol). More recently owned a 04 LS430 and 5th Gen 4Runner, current daily is a 2018 Tundra Platinum.
After searching for a long time, I picked up this 1996 Land Cruiser from BaT. Yes I know I paid a lot.
1996 Toyota Land Cruiser FZJ80
Bid for the chance to own a 1996 Toyota Land Cruiser FZJ80 at auction with Bring a Trailer, the home of the best vintage and classic cars online. Lot #188,840.
bringatrailer.com
Despite the price, I felt like I got pretty lucky finding a southern owned, sub 100K mile car that didn't have a lot of rust. Post auction BaT shipping was a s***show and they spent 3 weeks trying to find a driver before I gave up. My Dad who is retired but still very healthy/active offered to fly down to Florida and drive the truck up the east coast to our current home in New Hampshire.
3 hours into the drive I get the call I was dreading... "Hey I've got a CEL" The car was running fine, all gauges looked normal. He stopped in at an Autozone and pulled a p0171 code. He also mentioned that on a gas fill up there was extreme pressure in the gas tank, the "PSSSHHH" was loud enough that I could hear it while i was on the phone with him. For the p0171, advised to buy some MAF cleaner and send it down towards the MAF to see if it helped, otherwise just keep on truckin...
Next day I get a call that after stopping for gas, the engine is stumbling / surging and has no power. Shutting it off for a minute and restarting seemed to help a little, enough for him to get on the highway and set the cruise to 60 and make the slow trek up I-95. This continued to happen throughout the duration of the trip where he'd suddenly lose power after stopping, has no power to merge onto the highway, He had a couple close calls on the shoulder to get it running enough to get going.
3 Days of driving a questionable car, somehow he made it.
After getting the car, I started to look it over a little more closely. Body / paint was in great shape, interior was a little rougher than the pics lead on to. Lots of small random s*** broken, driver door speaker, driver and passenger power seats not all functions working, hood latch sticks, driver door card vinyl torn. The listing did mention the sunroof was inoperable but didn't mention the trim around it was broken. All those are minor things IMO though and i'll eventually get to.
Turning to engine bay. Wanted to immediately address the gas tank pressure issue, tested the canister according to the FSM and sure enough it was clogged. Replaced with the recommended Duralast VC120. Thinking that stumbling / no power issue might be fuel related, also replaced the fuel filter, as the one there looked original. Also replaced spark plugs because it was an easy thing to try.
Looking closer though, its becoming apparent someone was "in there" over the years. Finding lots of wiring harnesses / relays that are not clipped in to their locations. A wiring harness over the trans dangling loose, another one rubbing on the driveshaft. One of the 2 breathers from the tranny dipstick (that goes to the top of the bellhousing) is just hanging there. Missing the blanket under the hood, missing the wheel well splash shields. Missing a splash shield under the front bumper area. Also there's no Cats on this car, someone replaced with a straight pipe. I think I need to fix that to pass NH inspection (not sure yet).
One thing I noticed too was the Neg battery terminal was loose, which also makes me think it was for easy clearing codes while trying to sell the car...
Seeing all these things, it makes me think the engine/trans was out of this car at one point. Trying not to be a conspiracy theorist here, but is there a way to verify that the engine in this car matches the VIN?
I can see lots of new parts, starter, alternator, all radiator hoses replaced. Brakes were done recently as well as knuckle rebuilds (although it still looks a little greasy around there). Carfax says EGR was serviced last year.
I knew going into this car it would still take some work on the little s*** that's broken. but the engine issue has got me feeling discouraged and not sure how to troubleshoot the stumbling / loss of power issue.
Here's my most recent experience. That p0171 code got cleared when the battery died on me and has not returned.
After replacing the fuel pump, I thought the problem had gone away. A couple drives around the neighborhood seemed promising. The other day I took a 25 minute drive down the highway to Home Depot and got the engine up to temp. On the way there things seemed good. Didn't have any stumbling at all and engine seemed strong.
My amazon bluetooth OBDII adaptor (Veepeak or some s***) talking to the Torque App on my phone showed Engine temp in the 165 range. Other notable things the Torque app is telling me, Short-term fuel trim is like +19ish. I'm not getting a reading at all for Long term fuel trim. Both O2 sensors are bouncing voltage ~.1 to .8 every second, which according to the FSM says they are good. I've got 25~ on Vacuum, and MAF is giving good readings. Catalyst reading is obviously not ready as there's none there...
Things seemed fine on the way there. When I got back in the car 15 mins later, it ran like s***. Like no power and wanting to die when i try to accelerate. I literally have to put the pedal to the floor to get it to stumble up to 3-4k RPM and then it will surge and start to move.
Interestingly, the Torque app when I'm having the stumbling problem, shows 0's for ShortTerm fuel trim and both o2 sensors. I had a hell of a time getting it back home, and it eventually threw p0125 and p0130 codes, but that sounds like a result of the zero readings from the o2 sensors and maybe not the cause?
I've dug thru threads about those codes, some mention ECT sensor, but those threads talk mostly about bad gas mileage and don't mention engine stumbling, more like annoyance codes. Others talk about replacing o2 sensors but when the engine is running good, they were showing good readings.
So... Any help? Some recent thread searching had me thinking about fuel pump sock, but ruled that out as it seems like only an issue after turning off / on the car after the engine was hot. Maybe the sock is "deflating" when I turn the car off? Other than that maybe next thing was to check fuel pump relay? Not sure if that would cause this kind of trouble?
Thanks all.
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