96 hiace hiccups

[96 hiace]

Hello there, newbie here. I have an excellent 1996 Hiace (ex Telstra) 2.4 petrol efi that generally drives very well. I could not find out about its history, but with 260,000 on the clock and the oil always very clean (never goes dark black), I wondered if it was a recon engine or just good Telstra maintenance.

Anyway, several months ago, there was a bit of a stutter, when accelerating after slowing down for a roundabout for instance and going up some hills in 2nd or 3rd gear. If you back off on the accelerator, the problem gets better. A mechanic said it sounded like plugs so we put some new ones in and it helped a bit. But lately it has got worse again and I wondering what it could be. I originally said to the mechanic that it felt like fuel feed or something like that. So these are the possibilities I am speculating about:

1. Fuel feed/fuel injection system.

2. Spark plugs and/or plug leads.

3. Cam belt - have no idea when it was last done - no history on the car.

4. Fuel filter.

I get a consistent 8.3 kms per litre with this car since owning it for 4 months - with aircon on or off - does not seem to impact on fuel consumption. I have had other Toyota vans though and I am sure from memory that they ran alot leaner, around 10k's/litre.

One other query, can anyone recommend the best place for reasonably priced spares on the Sunshine Coast, Qld. And a good mechanic for Hiaces?

Thanks for your attention!

[Steve]

I would say its one of the following that you suggested and you should do these to eliminate

1. Fuel Filter

2. Leads and dizzy cap / rotor arm

3. Fuel pump

4. injectors (i assume its an injection and not carbs?)

5. Air Sensors (not sure on this vehicle what sensors you have)

[96 hiace]

thanks for that, much appreciated!

[CROCO]

Sounds to me to be the fuel pump, our 1994 hiace had similar symptons, it would stutter and *****, the main problem was there was a lag in power when excellerating when you put your foot down, similar to turbo lag, it got worse as time went on, then it aventualy just stoped,If it is the fuel pump, dont make the same mistake as we did and put a cheap after market one in,the replacment pump only lasted 12 months and it was stuffed, but before I would get the fuel pump checked I would put a new fuel filter in and see if it improves, that might be all it is.

The 2.4 im pretty sure has a timing chain, so you dont have change any timing belts, the timing chains pretty much last the life of the engine, in general the 2.4,22r is a pretty bullet proof engine, so its not uncommon for them to reach 400000kms and never had any major engine work, your sounds to be in good nick.so it should only need a bit of TLC and it will run for good while yet.

[96 hiace]

thanks for the excellent feedback, I was waiting to narrow the options of what to look at first. So fuel filter first then look at fuel pump if that does not work. Good news about the timing chain too!