Hi all,
Totally new here and new owner of a '97 FZJ80, and in the spirit of full disclosure, a complete girly girl and clueless about cars (aside from learning to change the oil in my dad's '82 Mercedes before he'd let me get a driver's license lol).
Recently moved to Denver and decided I needed a bigger and more reliable mountain adventure-mobile than my money pit of an '06 VW Touareg. Researched exhaustively and found a guy selling the FZJ in Chicago for a great deal. Low (115k) miles, complete service records, hardly any rust, so I snatched it up. The owner did mention an exhaust leak and a few cosmetic issues, but for the price I couldn't walk away from it.
Drove it to Denver last month without any issues and am already madly in love with it. Had my mechanic here check out the exhaust leak...turns out there were just a few missing bolts somewhere causing things to rattle. Everything else checked out, aside from a few small engine oil leaks and old hoses that he said were typical for an almost 20 year old car and didn't need immediate attention. Changed oil, new air filter, coolant, replaced some cracked hoses, etc.
Come time to get emissions tested to register in CO (it passed in IL when I had Toyota dealership check it out pre-purchase) and I cannot get the thing to pass!
Check engine light came on, code P0401 for exhaust gas recirculation, and high Co and NOx readings.
Back to mechanic (he's not a dedicated Toyota guy, but I absolutely trust him and his expertise) who gave me two options that MAY fix it, but both would be pricey and couldn't guarantee that either would be the fix:
1) checked EGR system and said all the components tested correctly...but diagnosed intermittent fault with EGR vacuum switching valve(#2) and/or EGR valve when vehicle was hot.
2) faulty catalytic converter causing elevated levels.
He cleaned off a bunch of stuff, cleared the codes, and recommended I drive the car hard for a couple of days to see if codes come back/if it passes emissions one more time before trying either option.
Enter problem #2...
Just took it on a drive up to the mountains and noticed that once I started going up any kind of incline, it completely lost all power to make it up the hill. Odometer never went above 30000rpm, and even while flooring it I couldn't get above 50mph. It's never been great at accelerating quickly or being able to pass cars, but I just chalked it up to switching from a zippy new V8 to an old and heavy Cruiser. This was my first trip with it to the mountains and getting passed by 18 wheelers on a 3% grade, however, seems like a problem.
So, long (very long, I know) story short...I'm wondering if the two issues could be related? I began cruising forums on here about loss of power going up hills and noticed a few people made mention of problems with the exhaust system.
I love my mechanic, but wanted to check with a bunch of Toyota nuts to see if y'all had any thoughts before I take it back to him.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this...any insight or suggestions you may have would be greatly appreciated!
Totally new here and new owner of a '97 FZJ80, and in the spirit of full disclosure, a complete girly girl and clueless about cars (aside from learning to change the oil in my dad's '82 Mercedes before he'd let me get a driver's license lol).
Recently moved to Denver and decided I needed a bigger and more reliable mountain adventure-mobile than my money pit of an '06 VW Touareg. Researched exhaustively and found a guy selling the FZJ in Chicago for a great deal. Low (115k) miles, complete service records, hardly any rust, so I snatched it up. The owner did mention an exhaust leak and a few cosmetic issues, but for the price I couldn't walk away from it.
Drove it to Denver last month without any issues and am already madly in love with it. Had my mechanic here check out the exhaust leak...turns out there were just a few missing bolts somewhere causing things to rattle. Everything else checked out, aside from a few small engine oil leaks and old hoses that he said were typical for an almost 20 year old car and didn't need immediate attention. Changed oil, new air filter, coolant, replaced some cracked hoses, etc.
Come time to get emissions tested to register in CO (it passed in IL when I had Toyota dealership check it out pre-purchase) and I cannot get the thing to pass!
Check engine light came on, code P0401 for exhaust gas recirculation, and high Co and NOx readings.
Back to mechanic (he's not a dedicated Toyota guy, but I absolutely trust him and his expertise) who gave me two options that MAY fix it, but both would be pricey and couldn't guarantee that either would be the fix:
1) checked EGR system and said all the components tested correctly...but diagnosed intermittent fault with EGR vacuum switching valve(#2) and/or EGR valve when vehicle was hot.
2) faulty catalytic converter causing elevated levels.
He cleaned off a bunch of stuff, cleared the codes, and recommended I drive the car hard for a couple of days to see if codes come back/if it passes emissions one more time before trying either option.
Enter problem #2...
Just took it on a drive up to the mountains and noticed that once I started going up any kind of incline, it completely lost all power to make it up the hill. Odometer never went above 30000rpm, and even while flooring it I couldn't get above 50mph. It's never been great at accelerating quickly or being able to pass cars, but I just chalked it up to switching from a zippy new V8 to an old and heavy Cruiser. This was my first trip with it to the mountains and getting passed by 18 wheelers on a 3% grade, however, seems like a problem.
So, long (very long, I know) story short...I'm wondering if the two issues could be related? I began cruising forums on here about loss of power going up hills and noticed a few people made mention of problems with the exhaust system.
I love my mechanic, but wanted to check with a bunch of Toyota nuts to see if y'all had any thoughts before I take it back to him.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this...any insight or suggestions you may have would be greatly appreciated!