(Cross-posted on toyotadiesel.com)

Truck won't start unless plugged in!

I think I'm having some glow plug issues & I'm not quite sure where to start {no pun intended }

Seems like my glow plugs are not kicking it at all...... here are the symptoms.

When I go to start my rig I turn the key to on.

The glow plug light cycles like it should, but the (glow plug relay) keeps clicking on and of over and over.

As I try to start the truck, the engine turns over repeatedly, and the relay keeps clicking on and off. Every time that the relay clicks on and off I seem to have less and less juice at the batteries. Once the truck starts, the clicking goes away & the truck runs great!

This weekend I was putting in a new windshield washer pump and when testing the pump (ignition in the ON position, relay clicking over and over, but not attempting to start the truck) I could actually here the pump getting less and less power with every cycle of the 'clicking relay'

Winter is here In Canada & I don't want to get stuck on the side of the road. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Jeff

 

Relay is toast?

 

Do you think it could be just a faulty relay? I'm from the toyotadiesel.com site too but I didn't see your problem there. Could the contacts in the relay be really dirty or screwed up? Too bad you weren't in this area. I would let you try out my relay and see if it worked. On mine it kicks on when you turn the key on and stays on for about 30 seconds or so and then you can hear it click off. Never comes back on again. It would make sense that relay might be bad. Don't know where you would come across one. But if they are drawing juice out your battery then something must be happening when it clicks on and off. You might be able to find someone out there in BC and swap relays. I hope its a nice simple problem like that. Don't know if the relay would be the same as any other ones on your truck. I have no problems at all starting my truck in the cold. It was -30 last night and it started without a plug in. Might be the glow plugs aren't staying on long enough to do anything but are still drawing juice intermittantly.

 

Up until this summer, that is exactly how mine would operate! Clicks on once, clicks off once, truck starts great. I guess the first step is to start looking for a new relay to swap out..... then go from there. Any other ideas anyone?

-jeff

 

it may have a timer on the glowplug relay, see if you have 12v at the gp, if you do every thing up to that point is ok, you may need glowplugs, if not, work backwards from there, is there power to the relay? , is there power from the timer? bad connections?

 

I don't know Toyota diesels but have worked on GM and VWs. I know some vehicals have some timing electronics that cycle the glow plugs when the engine is running, or just started for a while. If you have some kind of timing modual in the Toy then you might have a temperature sensor problem causing the cycling of the relay.