New guy, new cruiser, old problem?

[Portland]

Hello to everyone!

As of last week, I am the new owner of a 99 Land Cruiser with 220k. I am a Subaru guy who has always wanted a Land Cruiser and I finally got one. I picked this guy up knowing I would have to do a little work to get it into tip-top shape. I have taken care of a couple things but I am still not sure what is going on so I come to you all knowing your experience may be just what I need.

When I start it up, it will idle really low (between 200 and 400 rpm) or just die. If I get it running at that low idle, I can drive it and it and the engine sounds great and it drives well until I come back down to idle and it will die. It has died as I was coming to a stop resulting in to power steering which has made me aware how heavy these guys are.

Through some minor tinkering around (I'm no mechanic but I can get under the hood and check for vacuum leaks or things that seem strange) I found what seems to me to be a strange work around to get this thing running well for the moment: If I disconnect the battery for a short time and then reconnect it, it will start perfect, idle perfect, drive perfect. Everything thing is great. Then if I shut it off and turn it back on without disconnecting and reconnecting the battery, it will idle low and stall again. This work around has been 100%. I enjoy driving the cruiser so I have been disconnecting and reconnecting the battery this whole week so I can drive to work and even got to take it out to the snow today to play around a bit. I love the thing but really want to sort out this issue.

Is this an old issue? A common problem? I am not to Toyota so I am needing some wisdom.

Thanks in advance!

 

[jLB]

You may want to see what obd2 codes you can pull before disconnecting the battery. You may want to do a search for "low idle" or "stall" and see if others have had similar issues and what their resolution was...

A few examples:

Low idle sometimes stalls

Help with my 2000 Land cruiser

What have you done to your 100 Series this week?

Live Help - Voltage Drop while stopped, nearly stalls - on Cross Country Road Trip

Need some help!

 

[AMGAndrew]

Try cleaning the throttle body butterfly. It can get a little bit of gunk built up and cause havoc. The ecu will learn to adjust the idle over time and eventually just cant do it anymore and cause your symtoms. By disconnecting the battery, youre killing the self learned idle and reverting back to the factory setting.

Also, get a can of MAF cleaner and give it a few squirts while you have the intake tube off.

 

[Portland]

Try cleaning the throttle body butterfly. It can get a little bit of gunk built up and cause havoc. The ecu will learn to adjust the idle over time and eventually just cant do it anymore and cause your symtoms. By disconnecting the battery, youre killing the self learned idle and reverting back to the factory setting.

Also, get a can of MAF cleaner and give it a few squirts while you have the intake tube off.

When cleaning the throttle body, do I need to remove it? I may be wrong but I believe it is an electronically controlled throttle body which I have heard you need to be careful messing around with it. What do I need to know when cleaning it? Thanks!

 

[nissanh]

^^^ No, Just remove the air intake hose (best to lift it off with the air cleaner top housing)
Don't use any metal or abrasive cloths the clean the butterfly valve. Just use a soft cloth and remove the gunk.
How is the air filter? Make sure to get an OEM filter.

Did you check the spark plugs and PCV valve? If not, check all those too.

 

[AMGAndrew]

No need to remove. Just pull the intake elbow off, a rag and solvent of your choice and give everything a good wipe. The edges around the butterfly itself and around the housing where the butterfly meets metal. A little junk makes a big difference so don't be surprised if it doesn't seem that bad. Disconnect the battery before you start the process and hook it back up after you are finished. It will more than likely idle like crap again but drive it around for 20 minutes doing a lot of stop and go so the ecu can learn the new and improved airflow through the throttlebody. Iirc, mine took a day or two to completely smooth out.

 

[WaterCruiser]

I've not had to do this on my '100 and offer the following without doing any other research. YMMV!

I've had this sort of idle stall on several other vehicles, including 4Runners, RAVs, M-Benz, etc and was usually able to get things working properly and without spending any money by *simply* cleaning the guts inside the Idle Air Control Valve. cleaning process is pretty basic, you're just trying to remove baked-on engine deposits that accumulate over time. there's a little piston in there that regulates airflow at idle: IIRC the piston position is regulated via the ECU which commands a proportional electric solenoid; or maybe it's a thermostatic thing, i forget... at any rate if the piston gets stuck (or experiences stiction) due to the accumulated gunk it can't do it's job and the engine can't maintain or regulate airflow at idle

the IACV parts are usually aluminum and can be cleaned to like-new using acetone and a wire brush. beer also helps

HOWEVER

the process of getting to & removing the IACV may be challenging on the 100

Welcome to 'Mud and ownership... Good Luck!

 

[ponytl]

on your 99 you are fly by wire but you still do have a throttle cable that controls your fly by wire... go figure... anyway you can in fact adjust this cable to increase your idle speed ...