Uneven Running Rav4

[cashsteve]

i have recently purchased an older Rav4 2.0GS (1994) for the wife and I have found that when it is cold the "choke" seems to staying on far too long e.g the heater is pumping out hot air and the temp gauge is almost to the middle. In addition when driving (after the "choke" has gone off) it seems to be purging ( like a missfire ) and it is using an enormous ammount of fuel. I have very little experience of fuel injection and ecu' s as I last worked on a car that had points etc. I appreciate it could be a number of things but if someone could point me in the general direction of where to look I dont mind getting my hands dirty. Thanks in advance for any help.

[anchorman]

Welcome to the club Steve

Those 3FSE engines are prone to idle control valves sticking.

Have a look at this from the US RAV4 World site as the RAV with the same engine is popular over there;

http://rav4world.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11555

[cashsteve]

Welcome to the club Steve

Those 3FSE engines are prone to idle control valves sticking.

Have a look at this from the US RAV4 World site as the RAV with the same engine is popular over there;

http://rav4world.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11555

Thanks very much for the quick reply, Ill give it a go as soon as i get a chance and let you know what happens.

[bothwell_buyer]

congrats on a wise purchase!! Just back from a weeks 'holiday' in Tenerife where the rain was worse than a months rain in Scotland - warm mind. Let us know how you get on.

[cashsteve]

Hi, Thanks for the advice. Sorry I have taken so long to reply. I tried to clean the valve as you have suggested but it seems to have had little effect so i will try again. Prior to this fault appearing I had the car into a local garage to have a replacement timing belt fitted (Ive had one break before) and also for a faulty fuel gauge. The garage said that the fuel gauge was not faulty and that the reason i could get no more fuel into the tank was because the filler and breather pipes had corroded, They changed the filler pipe which has allowed me to fill the tank properly. It is since then that the car started to run unevenly. I took it back to them today and they said that there was no problem with their work but they had done an emmisions test which showed the car is running very rich! They stated that this was the reason for the poor running and extremley excessive use of petrol. Could this still be the valve as you have suggested or do i need to look further. They did not offer to put it on a diagnostic unless I was willing to pay extra on top of the already high bill, perhaps I expect too much but I would have thought they might have done so to prove it was not related to anything they had done i.e this is the problem here. Any further advise would be welcomed as the car is really nice to drive when it runs properly and you would not think it was as old as it actually is. My wife is unhappy as she has wanted a RAV for years and it does look the business but the running costs are crippling (approx 20 mpg at the most) much worse than the Vitara I sold to buy this.

Thanks in advance for any help offered.

[anchorman]

The next cheap solution is to clean and test the MAF. You should be able to search for more info but if not give me a shout as I'm off to work now. One of the others might find something for you.

[mrbilly]

What condition are the ht leads in. How old are they also the spark plugs or even the coil packs.

but seems as it running rich it might be the lambda sensor on the way out or lazy

Does it seem like its lacking power is the timing belt off by one tooth as that can give poor performance among other things

Oh yeah our versions don't have a maf sensor from what I know so you can't clean that

Its ravs from 2000 onwards

[cashsteve]

What condition are the ht leads in. How old are they also the spark plugs or even the coil packs.

but seems as it running rich it might be the lambda sensor on the way out or lazy

Does it seem like its lacking power is the timing belt off by one tooth as that can give poor performance among other things

Oh yeah our versions don't have a maf sensor from what I know so you can't clean that

Its ravs from 2000 onwards

[cashsteve]

Hi Thanks for the advice. The garage said that there was no problem with the fitting of the Cam Belt and it does perform well which I expect it would not if the timing was out. I have had another go at the IAC valve and I also cleaned the EGR valve ( Things I can get to easy) The plugs look as new as do the HT leads. The car seems to be running much better since so I'm going to get the fault Codes checked to see if it shows anything up. E.G Lambada sensor etc. Hopefully this will help me to reduce the amount of fuel it likes to drink. The wife is much happier as it is more driveable and better for me to get to the petrol station in. Thanks for all the advice and I will let you know what I find out.

[mrbilly]

you could have a read of the attachment and see if it help

bit of bedtime reading for you

h27.pdf

[cashsteve]

you could have a read of the attachment and see if it help

bit of bedtime reading for you

Wow the attachment was interesting to say the least. Ive had the fault codes checked and nothing was showing but, it did when a sensor was unplugged so it seems as tho most things are ok. I dont know if this included a lambda check but since ive cleaned the iac valve again it seems to be doing a bit better fuel wise. Im now going to have the emmisions checked again to see if they have fallen and im going to check for fuel leaks as soon as the weather is good enough for me to get underneath etc.

Thanks again for the help given so far and apoligies for it dragging on so long.

[mrbilly]

had another few thing to try

valve clearance which affects fuel consumption

check cylinder pressures are within 15 psi either way of each cylinder

but to be honest i would change the lambda which should make the ecu happy again.

i used to have a punto and when i first got it when it was under load on the motorway it was go from 70 to 50 and a warning light came on

took it to fiat payed for diag and it showed nothing so i thought about it a bit changed the lambda and it was like a new car and had no other problems in its 2 year 55,000 mile time that i owned it