I hope for your sake it really was the fuel filter, but the symptoms you described don't add up. In particular,
- usually the engine sputters when the filter gets clogged; it doesn't just quit cold.
- It should have run briefly with starting fluid if that was the only problem.

I don't mean to be pessimistic, but I think there's a reasonable chance this is going to show up for you again before you get to the bottom of it.

Definitely I would test the filter to see if it is completely clogged, and cut it open to see what it looks like inside, to verify it really was the filter, and not just something you accidentally "fixed" while changing the filter.

 

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Sorry to hear the problem continues. It sounds like an intermittent connection somewhere, that you activated when you slammed on the brakes and hit the bumpy dirt road. You likely also "fixed" that same connection (temporarily) when you changed the fuel filter. Look around for things you might have bumped or moved when changing the filter.

Then go back and re-read my post #15, and meticulously go through things step by step. That's the only way you're going to figure this out.

 

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Temperature can affect loose wiring in a similar fashion to bumps and jarring. Expansion and contraction from heat and cool.

I would check everything, unfortunately it will only be worth while when it is not starting. Checking something that is working will check good.

 

92ehatch is right, you gotta check things when it's not working. Given the intermittent nature and seeming sensitivity either to temperature or mechanical jarring, I would suspect something electrical.

- Make sure you have spark at all 4 plugs, not just at the coil wire.
- Since it started running when you pulled the CSI, follow up on that. Pull the CSI and see what it's doing during starting attempts. Make sure you have Fp shorted to B+ in the diag connector when you're experimenting, just to get the VAFM switch out of the equation.
- Get a noid light and make sure the injectors are pulsing during cranking.

Good luck!

 

I don't mean to hijack thread but my little brother is having this same issue with his 1993 Toyota pickup. I think it's just a piece of junk and that he should sell it to me for $1500 so I can butcher up the wiring and convert it to carburetion.

 

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