Quick background: I recently bought a 1997 FZJ80 in Costa Rica. It is a 40th anniversary edition brought into Costa Rica in 2010 with roughly 200k miles on it. It now has 208k miles. In other words, it sat around for awhile. It has a safari turbo, dual batteries, reserve tank and other extras.
This car purred like a kitten when I checked it out and had incredible punch (thank you safari) so I bought it.
The car drove fine on several two hour return trips from the jungle to town and dozens of smaller forays in the backwoods near our farm. Now I am experiencing low speed shut downs. It seems to only happen when my foot is not on the gas. It eventually starts back up but can take as many as 40 attempts.
Sequence of events:
It generally starts just fine. But yesterday after a 20 minute climb from our supply town (1500ft) to a little store at 3000feet , it didn't. We stopped for drinks, I let it idle to cool down for a bit, then cut it off. When we came out with our Cokes it took 20 attempts and five minutes to get it started again. From the store to our house is another ten miles of bad gravel roads (fifty minutes total), and on that run it cut off three times. One of these cut offs was when I had rolled to a stop but the car was still in "D". The other two were while going downhill (ie, without the accelerator depressed). When I arrived home last night, I put it in park and let it idle in the driveway for ten minutes. It never kicked off.
More background:
My trip to town yesterday was to pick this car up from the shop she limped into five weeks ago. Long story short, five weeks ago I had the same problem of low speed shut off. Only it had just started to manifest itself. Another problem that cropped up - literally as I was coasting into the shop five weeks ago- was surging RPMs. The car was in the shop for five weeks because i was waiting for a friend to mule down a new IAC from the US. I assumed a new IAC would eliminate all of these problems - low speed shut off and surging RPM. Having driven it for an hour following install of the new IAC, I now see these two problems are separate issues. Or there is an electrical issue in the ECM or elsewhere that is crippling my IAC. (The IAC is a new Aisan part from Partsgeek. US$165).
When I put the new IAC in, it purred like a kitten and drove fine around town.
While the car was sitting around, I had the following done:
Injectors cleaned
A new TPS put in (it could be a new used part. A common scam here.)
The ECM has been visually inspected and looks fine.
Brand new Optima batteries
Rebuilt starter
I have not replaced the fuel filter. It was the first thing I tried to do along with an oil change after buying it but could not locate the part. I finally found one but have not put it in. (The shop was supposed to but they didn't. They only had five weeks...)
I have not changed spark plugs or cables.
I am using premium gas.
Any ideas? I will change the fuel filter out and hope it is that simple.
Thanks to everyone for all the work you put into the forum. It has been an incredible resource.
This car purred like a kitten when I checked it out and had incredible punch (thank you safari) so I bought it.
The car drove fine on several two hour return trips from the jungle to town and dozens of smaller forays in the backwoods near our farm. Now I am experiencing low speed shut downs. It seems to only happen when my foot is not on the gas. It eventually starts back up but can take as many as 40 attempts.
Sequence of events:
It generally starts just fine. But yesterday after a 20 minute climb from our supply town (1500ft) to a little store at 3000feet , it didn't. We stopped for drinks, I let it idle to cool down for a bit, then cut it off. When we came out with our Cokes it took 20 attempts and five minutes to get it started again. From the store to our house is another ten miles of bad gravel roads (fifty minutes total), and on that run it cut off three times. One of these cut offs was when I had rolled to a stop but the car was still in "D". The other two were while going downhill (ie, without the accelerator depressed). When I arrived home last night, I put it in park and let it idle in the driveway for ten minutes. It never kicked off.
More background:
My trip to town yesterday was to pick this car up from the shop she limped into five weeks ago. Long story short, five weeks ago I had the same problem of low speed shut off. Only it had just started to manifest itself. Another problem that cropped up - literally as I was coasting into the shop five weeks ago- was surging RPMs. The car was in the shop for five weeks because i was waiting for a friend to mule down a new IAC from the US. I assumed a new IAC would eliminate all of these problems - low speed shut off and surging RPM. Having driven it for an hour following install of the new IAC, I now see these two problems are separate issues. Or there is an electrical issue in the ECM or elsewhere that is crippling my IAC. (The IAC is a new Aisan part from Partsgeek. US$165).
When I put the new IAC in, it purred like a kitten and drove fine around town.
While the car was sitting around, I had the following done:
Injectors cleaned
A new TPS put in (it could be a new used part. A common scam here.)
The ECM has been visually inspected and looks fine.
Brand new Optima batteries
Rebuilt starter
I have not replaced the fuel filter. It was the first thing I tried to do along with an oil change after buying it but could not locate the part. I finally found one but have not put it in. (The shop was supposed to but they didn't. They only had five weeks...)
I have not changed spark plugs or cables.
I am using premium gas.
Any ideas? I will change the fuel filter out and hope it is that simple.
Thanks to everyone for all the work you put into the forum. It has been an incredible resource.