Topic: 98 tacoma loosing power and now backfiring

[98yota]

my truck last week had no power in 5th it was decelerate and i would have to drop to 4th it started getting progressivly worse and today it was back firing when i started it up and when i tried to drive it sputtered real bad through all the gear well atleast through third and sounded nasty. what could this be?

[CJ3B]

I was having the same trouble about a 2 weeks ago.  Went to Schucks (Oreillys) and had them hook up the reader and found out my #3 cylinder was dead (Plug went bad)  Did a basic tune up and things are back to normal. 

[98yota [OP]]

thats good to hear that its not something major. i think mine can be fixed with the same tlc because it was running like a champ before this. my buddy is going to hook it up tonight or tomorrow so we can see what it says but if your was doing the same thing then it shouldnt be that big of a deal. thanks for the reply

[-Matt-]

ya ive had the same problem before, not on my tacoma. but i ended up burning a plug wire (or a bad spark plug will do it to)

other things would be to clean the MAF, most likely not but also could be TPS, also could be a plugged cat, giving it way to much back pressure.

id definitely go with the spark plugs first. if you haven't changed them in days might as well just buy new ones and do it anyways.

[98yota [OP]]

yeah thats what im starting with today. thanks for the tips guys