I have a 93 4Runner that recently has been having a strong gas smell in and outside of the truck. I can not find a leak anywhere nor has my gas mileage decreased. It is now difficult to start after sitting for a few hours or when trying to start in the morning. It will turn over apporximately 10 times and then it will start. If I turn it off right then it will start back up immediately. Could any of you guys give me some kind of help as to what might be going on here? I have been told that I may need to replace my fuel injectors, but I really dont know. Thanks for your help!

 

My first inclination would be that the fuel filter is clogged.

The old Corolla I have (non-EFI) starts smelling like gas everytime the filter starts plugging up.

That could also explain the hard starting. I'll bet your gas mileage has been suffering and it's getting more sluggish. Don't bother changing the filter yourself, it's a pain in the butt. Just take it to a reputable shop because the banjo fittings are easy to strip out.

 

I have already changed the fuel filter about 1 year ago so I dont think that would be the problem, but I could be wrong.

 

Here's my idea, and it's only an idea. It sounds to me that you do have a fuel leak. Whenever your truck sits for a while, the fuel pressure leaks down to the point where you have to really crank on it to make it start. It sounds like you are cranking it as much as I did whenever I replaced my fuel filter because there was no fuel pressure in the system.

I would check the fittings on the fuel filter. They aren't too hard to see and you could touch them to see if they are wet. For some weird reason they could have started leaking. Then I would move up to the motor and look at the fittings on the fuel rails. I'm sure there is more fittings to check but I don't know exactly where they are.

I hope this is some help.

Good Luck

 

It's your charcoal canister. I believe the canister stores gas fumes and releases it back to the engine to be burned for better emmissions control. Check it out, but I don't know how to diagnose it, what it looks like or where it is. For some reason I want to say that it's the round thing in the passenger side wheel well, but I'm not sure of that.

 

Coty: Your truck is experiencing a fuel system leak down through the injectors. My truck did it at around 50k miles. What happens is that your fuel system is pressurized and when you turn off the truck after driving, the heat of the motor 'soaks' into the injectors causing the spring in it to expand and 'leak' the fuel into the cylinders. Thus, if you let it sit for an hour or two and then you try and restart there is an extended cranking period ( and I mean extendeed....like you say 10 times),where your fuel pump runs to repressurize the fuel system.....once this happens the truck starts right up. If you then turn off the truck at that time, the fuel system is now primed/full and the truck will start immediately when you turn the key. Since the truck is cold, the fuel system stays pressurized and will start immdeiately everytime you shut it off and restart....until the motor heats up to a temperature that will cause the injectors to go through 'heat soak' again. I ended up replacing my injectors ($200 each) and the problem was fixed.....I got Toyota to replace them though a BBB arbitration because I had a Toyota Extra Care Warranty good up to 100kand they did want to make good on the Warranty and fix the problem. I had a friend of mine who is a BOSCH injector expert put a pressure gauge on the fuel system and you you could see the system bleed down in pressure, and then pressurize, hold pressure, and then leak down as the heat soaked in again. I used his testimony in the arbitration hearing with Toyota and won. Since yours is well outside of Warranty, you might want to work with an injector expert (the dealership ?) to try and locate the injector(s) that are bad and just replace those.

Hope this helps,
David

 

Oh yeah....the fuel that you smell is the fuel that went into the cylinders.......it escapes out of the open valve train (exhaust or intake) ports and you smell it.

 

Coty,
I had the exact same problem with my 91 pickup a few years ago. Whenever it would sit for more than a few hours it wouldn't start very easily, and I could smell gas.

Here's what the problem was with mine. This took me a little while to find but was easy to fix (although expensive) once I found it. At the very back of your engine, underneath the air intake chamber, there is a plastic insert (I think mine was a baby blue color) that fits into the bottom of the air intake chamber. It's next to a couple of other sensors and water bypass valves all attached to your intake chamber. Mine was cracked and was slowly leaking fuel. When the pressure was low it wouldn't leak, but after driving it for a while the pressure would build and then the fuel system would slowly depressurize over a few hours when sitting.

Get yourself a mirror and a flashlight and look back there to see if any fuel is coming out of it. It's something that would be quick to rule out.

To fix it just pull your intake chamber off and screw it out and screw in the new one.

Let me know if you need any more info.

E

 

That sounds like a cold start injector to me. I'm not sure whether our 3.0's have them or not.

 

Haha, there you go, 5 different answers! One of them should be right!

 

my buddies 3.0 had the strong gas smell thing happening (we thought it was a major leak due to the odor) and it turned out to be the fuel pulse dampner.

 

Yes the 3.0l does have a Cold Start Injector. See Corey's site to see the picture where he points out the injector.

http://www.pnw4runners.net/tech/V6_3...cold_start.jpg

The Cold Start injector is on the passenger side top of the motor....and it's not a the baby-blue-plastic-thing (jeez that sounds like a technical term ) on the back of the motor.

 

I vote for the fuel preasure dampner , located under the plenum passenger side rear. I've seen more than a few of these leak.Will bleed off fuel preasure making it hard to start

 

Thanks for all of the help guys. I guess I will go and try and figure out which of you is right. Thanks again for the help.

Coty

 

Well, you've got a lot of advice. I have the exact same problem in my 90 4Runner. Same exact symptoms. Couldn't find the gas leak anywhere. Finally found gas drip off my tranny... traced it up, and (luckily) spied a drip, drip, drip of gas somewhere towards the back of the block, under the plenum.

I bet even money my problem is that plastic plug the others have mentioned.

Run your car for a while, gas it hard for a couple blocks to get pressure up. Then park it. Crawl underneath by passenger door, look up the tranny towards the top of the back of the block... right above that exhaust crossover pipe. you might see a drip drip. Mine was actually dripping on that crossover pipe (man, what a fire hazard).

I'm considering pulling the plenum myself and fixing this.

Question to the group: I am mechanically inclined (rebuilt chevy motors, lash VFR750 valves)... pulling the plenum seems pretty straight forward. Is this correct? What are the gotchas?

I already plan to take pictures and document all the damn hoses.

thanks!

 

Boltman,
Getting the plenum off is no problem. Various length pliers help when trying to remove all the different hoses from the plenum. Some of the clamps on the hoses can be a pain to reach and get enough leverage to move them. Overall, a three-four hour jobs tops.

If I remember right when I went to the dealership the replacement fuel pressure damper was pretty pricey for what you get. Might want to see if you can find one in a junk yard.

E

 

I had that problem and me, being mechanically inclined had to take it to the mechanic to get it fixed. He told me that it was a broken fuel muffler (if that makes sense) Does it? :fireman:

 

Probably was referring to the fuel damper.

E