I think this has been coming on for awhile. In the last few weeks, I thought I was feeling a slight loss of power, then everything went back to normal. I figured the air conditioning was kicking in because it's been hot here the last month and I've been using the A/C.
Today, I was driving down the road, the car lost power and did not regain it as before. I looked out the rear view mirror and saw black smoke coming from the tailpipe so I pulled over. The check engine light
did not come on and the lamp is good. When I popped the hood, I was hit with a blast of heat and the engine seems pretty warm although the dash temperature gauge didn't indicate anything out of the ordinary. I restarted and again I saw black smoke, not a huge amount, but it was there. I noticed the engine was idling high; about 1200 RPM then slowly returning to normal. I turned it off and let the engine cool while I did some shopping.
I limped the Rodeo home and I did not want to burn out the catalytic converter so I turned off the engine and coasted a lot.
I checked the fuel pressure regulator vacuum hose for fuel and did not find any. The check engine light has not come on at any time. I haven't jumped the diagnostic connector to read codes but I doubt there are any since the check engine light did not come on.
A friend who owns a newer Toyota said his engine was blowing black smoke and the exhaust manifold was glowing until he replaced the oxygen sensor. I didn't think the O2 sensor had that much of an effect on the air / fuel mixture. Hmmm.
I searched this forum and found 2 other Rodeos that had a similar problem, but there were no followups by the owners that indicated what the trouble was.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Dale
When the problem is fixed, I will post the solution.