Skip to the end for the short version.
I enjoyed the truck for a day with AC before something else popped up. My truck has not been the easiest to cold start for a while. It would start and run all day without issue so I never paid much attention to it. Driving home the other day, I was sitting at a stop light. Light turns green, I give it gas, and the truck hesitates and shudders. Very slightly. Not extremely noticeable. Next light, same thing but this time I thought the truck might die.
So I get home, pull the air cleaner off. Inspect the injector spray pattern. Looks good. Check the air filter. It's dirty and clogged up. It's not that old either. So I picked up both a new air filter and fuel filter today knowing they needed to be replaced and hoping it would fix my issue. Didn't work. I research the problem a little and decided to look into tps, egr, and vacuum leaks. Fast forward to last night....
Sitting in a drive trough I noticed my idle was a little worse than usual (the truck has idled rougher than it should for a while) and my SES light comes on. I replaced plugs/cap/rotor around 40,000 miles ago I believe. It didn't fix my rough idle but like the shudder I mentioned earlier, it wasn't that bad and the truck ran fine so it didn't really concern me. It was barely noticeable.
I get home and pull the codes and get a code 44 : "Oxygen Sensor Error - Lean Condition Indicated". So I start doing some more research and it seems a weak fuel pump is a very common cause for these issues. I'm going to snag a fuel pressure gauge and see what I'm getting. TBI is like 9-13 psi or something like that correct? If it's low, which I'm assuming it is, I'll be replacing the fuel pump.
On an unrelated topic, while test driving the truck after the air and fuel filters, I noticed some more weird noises coming from my left rear drum. Nothing new. I pull the wheel off and the parking brake lever came off the shoe and brought the adjuster with it. So those two things were loose inside my drum and the shoes lost all ability to hold adjustment. I've said it before, but I mean it this time. I'm done with drum brakes. I cannot win lmao! I'll be saving for a rear disc kit. At least those are easier to take apart and put back together.
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If you were too lazy to read all of that, I don't blame you one bit! Long story short.... I think the truck needs a fuel pump now and will hopefully be getting a disc brake kit in the future lol!
