So, on my way home, the truck started up fine, drove a couple miles and it just died. Like instantly, no sputtering, bucking, nothing - running fine, then not.

Battery connections are all tight. It has gas. No check engine light (which makes me wonder what the damn thing is for).

It cranks good, but won't start. I can "drive" it on the clutch-start-cancel. Tried bump starting it to no avail.

Oh - and how would I check those things, hopefully without tearing the engine apart?

The only things I can think of are ECU died or timing belt broke.

 

Check all your fuses

 

Don't know how much this helps, but the ECU died in my fiance's car, and it shut off in the middle of the street. She put it in park and it started back up, just ran like crap. Thankfully, she was in front of the Toyota dealership. (BTW, car is a 2007 Corolla S with 30000 miles and have already taken it to the dealership for 3 different repairs; might as well have bought a Chevy

 

Start with the 3 basics: Spark, Fuel, and Mechanical.
Spark: has it got spark at the plugs, if not, back track to find why not.
Fuel: are the cyl really getting fuel, can you hear/feel the injector "click", is the plug getting wet with fuel(if you crank it and it does not fire)
Mechanical: an engine is just a "air pump", Is its getting air in and out ok. Is it supplying fuel and spark at the correct time?

Thats a really simple breakdown of it, figure out which one of the 3 areas it is and track it from there. PS: ALWAYS check the fuses. Good luck.

 

Back when I ran around in an old subaru and paid attention to one of their boards I'd read about timing belts breaking all the time or the rotor coming off of the distributor. take off the disty cap and see if its loose and then have a friend crank it to see if it turns. I'm pretty sure that the 3vz-fe is a non-interference engine so breaking a timing belt just means realigning the cam gears and crank shaft and slapping on a new timing belt and possibly a water pump since you have it apart. Valves won't hit anything or bend if your timing is 180* out! Thats one of those easy to check things...

 

Fuel pump maybe. Get out and have some crank away will you hit the tank with a hammer...

Friends pos mitsubishi had this issue, he could drive by cranking it over and over bc it has no neutral saftey switch. turns out his primary fuel injector fell off.

 

A timing belt gone would result in a different sounding engine when it went to start (the sound of the crank spinning without the cams).

 

mine did somehting VERY similar, check to see if you get a Code 14 for the Ignitor.

my thread - https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...e-14-a-131241/

 

The ECU 15 amp fuse keeps blowing. We swapped it out, he was able to drive almost home and it blew again. We swapped it out... and it blew again right away.

(Oh also plenty of gas, no sputtering - as in gas or fuel filter) We think- It has to be electrical.

Good news is our resident Toyota Tech (We have 4 in our club in colorado) came back with this:

Interestingly enough Troy had mentioned that the wire to the 02 sensor looked smoked a bit back. That would create a short and keep blowing the ECU fuses... We are hoping this is it.... We'll let you know!

 

Diagnosed one that did the same thing, but would restart and only run in reverse. Found the crank position wire was shorting out on the PS hose, passenger side near the pulleys. Have a look-see.

 

it sounds like the coil either the wire is slightly off or the ignitor needs to be replaced but check the wire first

 

Sounds like my brothers 22re. The o2 sensor was shorting out (had 250k miles on it) and the wires were worn down pretty good and it would randomly die like what you said. He could crank it forever and it would not start. Then with the fuse in (not blown) it would start right up. So, he bought an OEM one from the dealership and hasn't had a problem since.

 

I can't say for certain that this is your problem, but mine did this about 100 or so miles after I bought it. It ended up being the timing belt. Mine left me stranded in Avon, CO for two days before I could get a friend (the guy who sold me the Runner) to tow me back to Denver to get it fixed. Basically a nightmare. Good luck...

 

Yeah, sounds like it's the O2 sensor wiring. It had gotten too close to the exhaust some time and burned through the insulation, I taped everything up, but maybe that didn't work ...

 

Spark and fuel dude. I'd start troubleshooting that way. Maybe pull a plug, keep it in the sleeve and have someone crank the engine while you hold the electrode near the manifold. If each plug arcs to the engine....you have spark. After that, I'd check the fuel pump like someone else suggested. Pull the line where it meets the intake and see if you get gas flow while cranking the engine. BE REALLY CAREFUL if you do this. Gas can spew everywhere.

No engine codes?

 

Glad to hear this problem sounds electrical.

Rob

 

Does anyone know if you can splice the O2 sensor wires? Isn't one of them "power" to heat the sensor?

 

Sure you can. Mine is all hacked together since I have a swap. If you have a 4 wire sensor there is power, ground, and 2 heater wires. I'm not sure of the colors for the 3.0. I would think it will be in the FSM.

Rob

 

Well, I just need to cut out the melted part and solder it back together, should be easy to keep straight which goes to which.

 

3.0 is NOT interference...

Sounds like you had some good luck on an easy fix. I certainly wouldn't have guessed that! So is it running alright now that you figured that out? As in, that IS definitely what the problem was???