While driving at highway speeds, my 4 cyl, manual transmission, 2002 Tacoma suddenly started to lose power. I tried 3rd, 4th and 5th gear and at each gear there was no acknowledgement from the engine when I pressed the gas pedal. When the car finally came to a stop, the engine cut off. I was able to turn it back on and drive it, but I am scared since the circumstance under which this incident occurred was very dangerous and I’m concerned I could hurt myself or someone else if it happened again. It’s now been 4 days and the incident has not repeated. It’s up on all of its scheduled maintenance and has about 110k miles on it. This is the first time I’ve had any issues at all since I purchased the truck new. I?d like to understand the problem as much as I can before talking to a mechanic so I?ve asked some mechanically inclined friends. Some folks think it could be the fuel pump, others think maybe the alternator. Is there anything else I should look at and how can I narrow it down?
Did all the dashboard warning lights come on when this happened? Did the radio cut out? The the clock reset to 12:00?
This kind of thing is usually electrical, and could be as simple as a faulty ignition switch assembly that turned things off. Do you have a big, heavy bunch of keys and stuff on your keychain?
No, none of the warning lights came on until the car completely turned off. And no other electicals were impacted. The only symptoms were the lack of acceleration and the fact that there was no rev’ing of the engine when I hit the gas pedal.