2001 Rav4 Stalling At Idle

April 6, 2009

2001 Rav4 started intermittent stalling at idle. Once every 3 days for 2 weeks the engine would run fine and then die at stop light or stop sign. Then stalling increased to 3 times per day for 4 days until it finally stopped and would not restart. Unfortunately it caused my wife to be stuck in traffic for 15 min until I could get there and pull her home on a friday.

When the stalling began I checked all vaccum hoses, cleaned the k&n air filter, changed the oil and checked/cleaned the pcv valve. I bought a Chilton manual and I found that this 2001 model does not have egr in the US, so no sticking egr valve to worry about. When it finally died pulled the codes and got 1300, 1305,1310, 1315 ignitor fail on coil 1, 2,3,4. I checked the wiring diagrams in the chilton manual and found a 15amp fuse in the coil circuit, this fuse labeled the IGN fuse and it was blown. The truck would now turn over and start right up but then sputter and die again! Well at least I got it running, but it would run 20sec to 5 min and then sputter and die and sometimes idle erratic then die.

I spent the rest of the day saturday checking the blogs on the net, changing the Battery, cleaning the map sensor, cleaning the idle air control valve, draining the tank via unplugging the starter and disconnecting the fuel rail, connecting fuel hose to a bucket outside the truck and operating the fuel pump with the ignition in the start position to eliminate water/contaminated gasoline. I then added 5 gal of fresh gas. Still, the truck would crank and run and sputter then die.

I then went back to the 15amp fuse that blew and how it was providing power to the coils in parallel. the circuit diagram shows a filter at the end of this circuit. I pulled the plug on the filter mounted on the cylinder head ( looks like a small black box with a black/white wire going to it) this didnot stop my problem.

I then unhooked the first coil wire from the first spark plug. The truck cranked and ran albiet rough from the unhooked cylinder 1 misfire, but the truck did not die or sputter out. I hooked one back up and pulled the coil on cylinder 2. The truck ran rough and misfired and died. I did this for 3 and 4. I found that coil 1 was defective and causing the truck to sputter and die. Coil one must have shorted so bad it blew the fuse on that friday, other times it would ground out enough to kill the ignition enough to stall the engine. One coil at autopart store $88 Orielly Autoparts on a Sunday night. Truck runs great. Hope this helps someone.

April 6, 2009

Welcome to the forum......and Good for you.

When I started reading it I thought of coil pack, and was pleasantly surprised when it was !! (Naw - really!)

I had similar on RAV number 2 running the MR2 engine....but on that its 1 coil pack and the thing had corroded. Replacement all in was nearer £200 but!