I own a 2000 toyota 4runner and I was wondering if you guys could provide some insight into an issue I'm having

I own a 2000 toyota 4runner and I was wondering if you guys could provide some insight into an issue I'm having

So i drove the car tonight and I noticed that going past 50 mph, the car shakes pretty hard. I have a CEL on for the cat but lately it's been flashing here and then at high speeds. But tonight it was bad. Everytime I kept my foot on the gas it would not stop shaking. Probably had the cel flash maybe twice. When I got off the highway and stopped at a light, the idle was pretty rough. Keep in mind the steering wheel was NOT shaking or vibrating whatsoever so i'm kinda worried here.

Basically what I'm wondering is how fucked am I right now? What's going to happen if I keep driving the car this way?

Pic related

Rough idle can be caused by dirty throtle body, its fairly easy to clean. The shaking may be due to bad tie rods

check for codes

I guess what I'm mainly wondering is, is it dangerous to drive the car this way? I know tie rods are an issue. I've had a bad tie rod in the past but it wasn't causing this shake.

a CEL flashing means STOP PLS THE ENGINE IS ABOUT TO JUST ITSELF

buy a fucking scanner and read the code, you fucking nigger. I am legitimately mad. That poor 4Runner, in agony, and here you are HURRR Veeky Forums MY CAR IS SHAKING VIOLENTLY LIKE WAT DO

Why are you "legitimately" mad over how someone else treats their car? It's a 18 year old car that was a rusted lemon when i brought it. if I were to fix every single thing that's wrong with it I would be out thousands. Stop being such a cuck.

bump

a flashing engine light on a car just means that the computer has logged an incidednt. there will be a code in a file when you scan it that is for intermittent codes. It has nothing to do with severity.

No it does not sound dangerous in the sense that you will die. The engine on the other hand could be damaged from this. sounds like your misfiring pretty badly and the cold is probably not helping

Is the entire engine at risk of getting fucked here? I've never had it misfire this bad before. Normally it would misfire here and there but it was constant this time. What's the worse case scenario?

Yes the entire engine is at risk. There is a reason that misfires trigger the CEL.

Worst case is you blow out a piston rod or break a valve from excessive force at the wrong time.It can also fuck the cat badly.

More likely, it will annoy you to burning the car down before that. Just go get the codes checked and check the easy stuff that can cause misfires (wet coil packs, clogged air filter, fuel filter, fouled plugs) and throw some high PEA fuel system cleaner in it to clean out the injectors and rebind some of the ethanol that hangs out at the bottom of the gastank.

(cont)

if this is an all of the sudden thing, I would bet that you just ran your gastank all the way to the bottom and sucked some of the crap at the bottom which has clogged your fuel filter. I would look there first and plugs second.

I've had misfires here and there, but not constant to the point where I cant give it gas without misfiring. Anyway i'll look into it thanks.

Buy a code reader. They pay for themselves pretty quickly. Without knowing the code it is hard to figure out what is wrong.

Often when people shake at highway speeds it is snow in the wheels this time of year, but if the light flashes you need to check it.

Jesus christ you are fucking retarded. A flashing cel means that it is misfiring so badly that you may damage the engine or emissions components. Shut the fuck up and quit giving advice.

Uh no. no it doesn't. go home user, your drunk.

i literally have the same shit box as OP
does it run good when its cold?
mine has a fucked injector and i literally drove it for 5 hours with a dead cylinder

it does tho, a simple google search will say so

It says it does in the manual of every car I've ever owned. Solid CEL is a normal code, flashing means urgent and possibly damaging to components.

sure but if it flashes then stays out, it just goes into an intermittent code file and is not a problem unless it keeps happening in which case it will become a permanently lit CEL and should be fixed asap.

>t. just had this issue in my dads VW. Took 3 incidents of it flashing over the course of a week for the engine to set it as a permanent CEL.

flashing usually means misfire and you're dumping raw fuel into the cats, which will eventually plug them up and probably cost more to replace than what is malfunctioning, and dumping raw fuel down the cylinder isn't doing the pistons/bore any favors either.

It's not "pull over now" like low oil pressure or overheating, but it needs to get looked at sooner rather than later.

It's fine in the cold honesty. I think what's going on is bad spark plugs. It's a consistent cel flash but ive had a code for the o2 sensor for awhile. Really bums me out. To be frank I'm sick of driving this shitbox and have been for awhile now

>spark plugs
>o2 sensor
>"I'm sick of driving this thing"
t.faggot who fouled his spark plugs by not changing a simple o2 sensor then comes here to complain about his "unreliable" car

tires are imbalanced
need to take them to tire shop

I never said it was unreliable you illiterate ape
I'm pretty sure thats not it

Definitely grab a code reader. I got mine at harbor freight for ~$50 before I went buckwild guessing what it was. Saved me more than that the first day I had it.

>ape
change your damn o2 sensor you lazy ape
literally a 10 min job unless it's an upstream sensor

yes, tire imbalance is 100% your problem

that is exactly what happens.
your tires have weights, and a machines tells the person where to put the weights

they go out of wack usually at 50+ mph, douche

I had the cat AND o2 sensors replaced when I brought the car. I'm not gonna go through all of that again for an issue that may or may not come back.
How would that cause the cel to flash then?

the cel is unrelated
shit like this happens all the time

did you use OEM (Denso) sensors?

tell me about your shitbox and why you're tired of it, looking at getting one

It's your u-joint
common problem on those gen 4runners
thank me later

>Worst case is you blow out a piston rod or break a valve from excessive force at the wrong time.It can also fuck the cat badly.

This happen to my 2009 4runner. Take the damn car into the shop and hopefully you won't need a new engine like I did.