2000 SR5 Check Engine

[mr.ellison]

I bought my 2000 Tundra about 8 months ago, and the "Check Engine" light has come on twice. 1st time was a day or 2 after hauling a large load, the second was after driving 500 miles in a day (it has 63300 mi now).

When it goes on, throttle response goes away. If I put the pedal to the floor I can get it to rev up, otherwise it just idles (but idles normally). If I let it sit for a couple of hours, the light goes off, and you would never know there was a problem.

Any ideas on what's causing this? I would take it in to get diagnostics done, but the light always goes off before I can get it in to the shop.

[arkie6]

Originally Posted by mr.ellison

I bought my 2000 Tundra about 8 months ago, and the "Check Engine" light has come on twice. 1st time was a day or 2 after hauling a large load, the second was after driving 500 miles in a day (it has 63300 mi now).

When it goes on, throttle response goes away. If I put the pedal to the floor I can get it to rev up, otherwise it just idles (but idles normally). If I let it sit for a couple of hours, the light goes off, and you would never know there was a problem.

Any ideas on what's causing this? I would take it in to get diagnostics done, but the light always goes off before I can get it in to the shop.

If you have an AutoZone nearby, you can take your truck there and they will run a free OBD II diagnostic check (at least they do here). Once the Check Engine Light (CEL) comes on, OBD II stores the code so that you can look it up later and see what caused the CEL regardless if the light is still on or not.

FYI, OBD II = On-Board Diagnostics and the II refers to version 2 which was federally mandated beginning with 1996 model vehicles.

As far as what is causing your CEL, it could possibly be a faulty throttle position sensor (TPS) signal from the sounds of your symptoms. Pulling the stored OBD II codes should be able to confirm or deny this.

Probably the most common cause for a CEL on Tundras is the oxygen sensor heater circuit failure, but this won't cause the symptoms that you have described.

[stryker_20]

Sounds like you need to check the muffler bearing, or top off the blinker fluid. This probably isn't the problem, but check your fuel cap. This is a common cause for the check engine light to come on. If the cap isn't tight or is faulty, the computer can detect small leaks in the fuel evap system and will throw a code which turns on the check engine light. This happened to my 2003 with less than 200 miles on it. Your problem sounds more involved than that. If I were you, I would try to get it to come on and drive it strait to your ASE mechanic or a Toyota dealership and explain the urgency of them scanning your truck right now while it is still running and while the light is still on. These type of come and go problems are among mechanics worst nightmares and are very hard to trace down especially if no one else is having the same problem and if the check engine light is not on at the time the vehicle is scanned. Any mechanic with a Snap-On scan tool with year 2000+ OBD-II connectors should be able to scan it and extract a code.
my 0.02$ worth

Originally Posted by mr.ellison

I bought my 2000 Tundra about 8 months ago, and the "Check Engine" light has come on twice. 1st time was a day or 2 after hauling a large load, the second was after driving 500 miles in a day (it has 63300 mi now).

When it goes on, throttle response goes away. If I put the pedal to the floor I can get it to rev up, otherwise it just idles (but idles normally). If I let it sit for a couple of hours, the light goes off, and you would never know there was a problem.

Any ideas on what's causing this? I would take it in to get diagnostics done, but the light always goes off before I can get it in to the shop.

[uracowman]

this is a unbelievably common problem that 2000 tundras have i wish they would have a factory recall but they dont.its the oxygen sensors on your headers.its insane.so many people complain about the problem and toyota doesnt call it a defect.they aer fairly easy to fix just go to a local hardware store and get a o2 sensor remover and go to a trd shop and get 2 sensors.takes about 15 minutes to change