From: mcdonaldjc@verizon.net   
      
   My 1997 4Runner with 203,000 miles has begun exhibiting a strange problem   
   that seems to be electrical.  While driving the engine stumbles, the brake   
   light on the dash comes on, then in most cases the engine catches again, the   
   brake light goes out and I drive on.  So far it has never actually stalled   
   the engine entirely, but I've lost power to a dangerous extent.  Often this   
   happens two, three, as many as six times in succession before it seems to   
   clear.  I've noticed a high-pitched small motor bearing noise from under the   
   hood at about the same time, as though a bearing in perhaps an alternator or   
   other similar sized unit is wearing out.  Ok, I understand it is an old   
   enough truck that any of these things could be normal wear and tear, but it   
   is Christmas, and a long weekend till I might get a chance to have diag   
   codes read.  I'm not even sure anything will have registered.  I am most   
   puzzled by the clear connection between the brake light and the apparent   
   electrical problem.   
      
   Any ideas I might look at tomorrow, any hope that the brake light indicator   
   is just an indicator that some code is being logged?   
      
   Thanks,   
   Jere   
      
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