troubleshooting the family truckster

[naturalbornmudder]

2001 Toyota Sequoia.
4.7L V-8

Will not start.

- Checked all fuses in fuse box
- Listened for fuel pump in tank on key-on position. No sound.
- Pulled fuel line and turned over motor. No fuel comes out at all.
- Pulled fuel pump relay and used jumper wire to try the key check again. Pump still not working.
- Talked to Becky at the College rd Schucks. She said that she did not think Toyota would allow the use of jumper wire to function fuel pump. Called Toyota service manager, no answer.

What next?

[Ronster]

Order fuel pump from Ebay :yes:

[naturalbornmudder]

on the to-do list:
order fuel pump from EBAY
apply for rank promotion from ROS
save pennies, recycle aluminum cans.......................................................................................................................................................

[sevenslats]

Just a stupid thought, but it there a safety shut-off onthe fuel pump, incase of accident? My Exploder had one near the floorboard and it got kicked a few times and set off.

[naturalbornmudder]

reading about it online, from what I gather, the Toy has one internally that can be reset by turnign the ignition off and back on, inherently doing it automatically.

[SHoppe715]

If jumping at the relay plug doesn't work, what about running the pump directly off the battery with some slightly longer jumpers, only for a few seconds if it does run. Did it just do it all of a sudden when it got cold? Maybe some moisture in the pump froze and fried the pump motor when it tried to turn.

[akdsmer]

Just a stupid thought, but it there a safety shut-off onthe fuel pump, incase of accident? My Exploder had one near the floorboard and it got kicked a few times and set off.

Fords are about the only one that uses a impact switch. Most manufacturers think if you have a vehicle fire, you'll turn off the engine. Ford owners are so clear-thinking...:pacifier:

[ajpthng]

My nissan did this, never could figure it out. I hotwired the fuel pump to a swich thinking that would work, I would get fuel but there was no spark. It would happen all the time, I would be driving down the road and it would just shut down and it would take forever before it would start again.

[naturalbornmudder]

NBM scratches his head, cautiously get in the Sequoia, and drives to work...:confused:

[TJVigilante]

ROFL...


probably the same problem Steve had with his LJ...condensation where there shouldn't have been any.

[naturalbornmudder]

I pushed the Sekkie into the garage and cranked the heat yesterday to dry up the water on the floor so when I dropped the tank to change the pump, I wouldn't be laying in water.
I go out this morning to listen for the fuel pump, which once again I cannot hear, and I kick it over and it fires up.
I left it idle for 20 minutes after dumping a bottle of HEET into the tank. Drive it a bit, bring it back home and shut it off. Fire it back up and drive to work.

Odd.

I am wary so I may spend the next few days testing it out and such before I pass it back over to it's rightful owner.

[SHoppe715]

A lot of gas tanks (at least the one's I've seen) aren't totally smooth across the bottom. There's the little dimple well where the pickup sits at the lowest point, but there are other low spots where water can pool up and hide, make the air in the tank humid, and cause frost in the tank when it gets cold. Hopefully you have this cheap and easy issue (hopefully me too).

Another possibility. I've noticed electric motors act funny when they start going bad. They'll work for a while, then they won't, then they will, so on, so forth, then they eventually die completely. Megan's old Grand Am had a fuel pump starting to go bad before she traded it in and it was acting up intermittently just like you're talking about. I don't know the technical name, but the guy at the craft shop hooked up a super duper tester tool thingy to it while it was running, showed me a screen that looked like a heartbeat on an EKG, and we saw the pump wasn't working exactly right.

[naturalbornmudder]

ya Steve, I do not think I am out of the woods just yet. After talkign with Kelly, I don't really see how a fuel line would freeze up at +18 degrees. I am not sure what caused it, so I am wary to just ignore it as an isolated incident.

[ajpthng]

my buddys blazer is doing the same thing right now.

[akdsmer]

If only someone could electrically inspect the circuit and look for commutators that could lead to the dreaded "occasional no-start". :whistle:

Maybe if I get motivated, I'll show you the difference between a "good" and a good fuel pump.

[naturalbornmudder]

NBM, motivated but dense; standing by for instruction.

I have taken a few courses in Shaws Electronic Academy and have been pretty successful thus far. Does it make you feel any better that I had to DICTIONARY.COM one of your words?


2 dictionary results for: commutators
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

com·mu·ta·tor (kŏm'yə-tā'tər) Pronunciation Key
n.

1. A cylindrical arrangement of insulated metal bars connected to the coils of a direct-current electric motor or generator, providing a unidirectional current from the generator or a reversal of current into the coils of the motor.
   
2. [I]Mathematics In a commutative or noncommutative group, an element of the form ghg-1h-1 where g and h are elements of the group. If g and h commute, the commutator is the identity element.
   

[/I]

[akdsmer]

Most fuel pumps have 6 or 8 segments. By scoping not only can you see fuel pump rpm, but you can also see if you have a bad spot in your pump. Landing on these bad spots can create the no-start problem, especially when conditions (cold) helps to create a larger counter-electromotive force that will prevent the pump from spinning initially.

I'm not saying that's your problem, but it could be...