I've got a problem
11-09-2003, 01:50 AM
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I've got a problem
Ok, so I'm up in the mountains tonight with some friends and my truck just dies. No warning at all, just dies. So, I go to crank it over and in cranks just fine, but doesn't fire. I'm almost 100% sure that it's something to do with the ignition, but I have no idea what it could be. Anyways, I had to get towed back to campus by a jeep, yes a jeep. It's sad, but he's a good guy. So, any suggestions as to what it could be? Do the coils go bad on these trucks? I know it isn't the wires, or the spark plugs because I replaced them all along with the cap and rotor. Connectons are fine, grounds are connected, no split wires. Plus, it took about 2 hours to get back, negotiating fire service type roads with no power steering, no power breaks, and halfway through, no lights due to the battery quitting. On top of it all, it's a nice warm NEGATIVE 5 out. Time for a beer.
11-09-2003, 02:26 AM
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I know the feeling.
When i bought my runner a few years back it failed on me the first day. Actually on the trip home from the dealer. No electric power whatsoever and it took me three days to locate. Turned out to be a loose connector. Unfortunately it was the wire for the ECU and ignition.:pat:
Have you tried reading the ECU diagnostic code?
When i bought my runner a few years back it failed on me the first day. Actually on the trip home from the dealer. No electric power whatsoever and it took me three days to locate. Turned out to be a loose connector. Unfortunately it was the wire for the ECU and ignition.:pat:
Have you tried reading the ECU diagnostic code?
11-09-2003, 10:48 AM
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I havn't tried the diagnostic codes yet. It was a little late as you can see from my previous post. I'm going to look at my truck in a little bit and try and figure out what's going on with it. It's only the inginton that isn't working, all the lights and stuff like that works. None of the fuses are blown either.
11-09-2003, 01:45 PM
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Oly before you totally conclude it's electrical I would pull a plug out and ground it and crank it over and have someone look to see if it's sparking. An engine needs fuel and spark to run. I had a car just quite one time just like you described turns out the fuel pump died and the engine was dry. Any easy way to check that is to pull off a fuel line and crank it over. Fuel will spray out like mad of the pump is working right.. Good luck man hope you get it fixed!
11-09-2003, 01:45 PM
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do you have spark at the wire?
maybe your timing belt broke, does it crank fast?
---what a great place for it to die, good job man gettin her home!
maybe your timing belt broke, does it crank fast?
---what a great place for it to die, good job man gettin her home!
Last edited by 4Legz; 11-09-2003 at 01:46 PM.
11-09-2003, 02:40 PM
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Ok, so here's my great story. Got up this morning and went out to make sure that all the wires/grounds are connected every where. Every thing was fine. So I then went a bought a new battery $99 for a optima red top at costco. With that done, I then went to napa to buy a coil because I wasn't getting any spark. $75 bucks later I went to my truck and threw in the new battery and coil. Guess what, it won't start. At that point I began to cuss like no other, and probably scaring the crap out of every one in the parking lot. Took out the plug again and no spark. Definetly fuel though. I then checked the cap and rotor, fine. All grounds, fine. So, I have a 700 mile, each way, trip coming up for thanksgiving. Not really looking forward to that. So, any suggestions? Oh, and the kicker of it all, Napa doesn't accept returns on any elecrical items.
11-09-2003, 02:54 PM
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Originally posted by 4Legz
maybe your timing belt broke, does it crank fast?
---what a great place for it to die, good job man gettin her home!
maybe your timing belt broke, does it crank fast?
---what a great place for it to die, good job man gettin her home!
I like this one. Karma seems to work opposite for me. The guy in the jeep and I see this car off the road, we figure that we'd be nice and pull it out for him. The person wasn't there, but we wrote down the licence plate number and told the police to contact him and tell him that his car is out of the ditch so he doesn't have to pay for a tow truck.
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11-09-2003, 03:00 PM
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Dude you guys just pulled some car on the side of the road out of the ditch.. Nice gesture but I would be careful doing stuff like that.. People are sue happy... that guy could find something wrong that happened when he was a moron and slid off the road then try and say it happened when you pulled him out. In any case it was nice of you guys to do... We once pulled a drunk guys car about half a mile down the road from in front of the bar. It was in gear but there was snow so it just slid.... the look on his face was priceless when he came out the bar.. he was so wasted he thought he had parked it there...
11-09-2003, 03:46 PM
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Well, I thought about that, but the car has a student parking pass on its bumper. Plus there's beads hanging from the rear view mirror so we think it's a chick. Hopefully a good looking one too! 
11-09-2003, 06:30 PM
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Hate to throw this post back to the original track, but I'm know you want to get the truck running. Anyway, the only time my truck has just plain quit on me was when my EFI relay went bad. Check everything under the dash & in/around the fuse block.
11-09-2003, 07:30 PM
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Originally posted by mtnfreak
Hate to throw this post back to the original track, but I'm know you want to get the truck running. Anyway, the only time my truck has just plain quit on me was when my EFI relay went bad. Check everything under the dash & in/around the fuse block.
Hate to throw this post back to the original track, but I'm know you want to get the truck running. Anyway, the only time my truck has just plain quit on me was when my EFI relay went bad. Check everything under the dash & in/around the fuse block.
If it still doesn't start, it may be a time for a trip to the Dealer of Death
.Good Luck
11-09-2003, 07:44 PM
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Well, I made sure to check all the fuses, none were bad. I'd check the efi relay, but I don't have the ohm meter to check it. I was told that the rotor could have burnt. It was a cheapo cap and rotor so I'll check that tomorrow. Then if that doesn't work, then I'll check the relay. If that doesn't work, I'm in a little trouble.
11-09-2003, 07:48 PM
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Sounds similiar to what happened to me. Driving south to Florida from Charleston S.C. the truck just died, luckily i coasted into a gas station. Tried to crank it over for about 30 minutes but no luck, I had a tow truck take me back to Charleston to a Toyota dealership, Turned out to be the Mass Air Sensor, hope yours is a quick fix......
11-09-2003, 08:34 PM
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You don't need and OHM meter, all you need is a cheep 12v test light. These could be purchased for 5 bucks or so at the local auto parts store. I have even seen one at the 99 cent store. You could make one with a tail light and two old pieces of wire.
