7MGTE starting issues --- Again...

[Negative Boost]

Hey guys, this is a very long shot but might aswell.

Car will not start to put it simply. Its got spark and fuel and as far as i can tell, everything else is okay. But obviously its not.

Had a wheel allignment done and i watched the mechanic drive it around to the front and park it, he turned the engine off and i tried to start it just 20 seconds later and it would not start. Had to tow it home...

Similair thing happened the day before but that turned out to be a blown fuse (presumably the fuel pump fuse, had no diagram) in the engine bay.

Can't get ecu codes either becuase for some reason it just wouldn't work when i wired it up. ISCV doesn't work either but i've just learned to live with it.

So, any ideas?? I'm stumped and sick of this car.

Sam

[Jin~Jah]

have you disconnected battery then tried again a bit later?

mine occasionally does that... go to start it, and it just dies in the arse... nothing, even the fuel pump stops. take off negative battery terminal, make sure it's seated properly, then it seems ok.

I did have a problem with the crappy isolater i've got on the positive terminal, where it would stop powering the important things at rather inopportune times, and the symptoms were just as you described.

do you have some wierdo immobliser that's interfering?

when you say you can't get ecu codes, how do you mean it just wouldn't work... is there no diagnostics connector or something

[Negative Boost]

I have disconnected the battery a few times to no avail. I can hear the fuel pump working.

I do have an immobliser but its just a cheapie i think. It was on the car when i bought it.

I wired up the CEL properly but nothing happened. It simply just didn't work. Tried a few things to get it to work and gave up in the end.

I'll try disconnecting the battery again once this dam windy rainy weather stops.

[Jin~Jah]

checked globe in CEL?


might also be worth checking some connector plugs around the place.... I had a wierd missing issue, and it turned out to be the contacts in a plug were slowly working their way out, so it would randomly lose the connection. just so happened that it was one out of the ignitor, so the car would not receive a trigger to spark.

the metal bits seem to be held into the plastic connector with some sort of glue or something, and that has deteriorated over time

thread is here http://www.toymods.net/forums/showthread.php?t=27218

the afternoon where it gave up the ghost, it woudln't start at all, just kept cranking.

[ra65]

Have a read of that - http://www.supramania.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52217

I remembered I had bookmarked it the other day. Starting to wish I had tried this before spending money on coilpacks.

[Devils]

Hi mate, there was a good point made when bringing up the immobilizer, i personally hate the damn things... and i install them for a living!!!

Normally... i.e. when the car is working, What would happen if you tried to start your car without dis-arming the immobilizer? For example, the dash light might not come on, fuel pump might not prime, starter motor wont kick over!?

Now, with the car not starting are any of the symptoms similar, i.e. dash lights not coming on (hence no ignition)? Also would be why the consult or what ever your using wont work!

If you want to eliminate the immobilizer as a possible cause then PM me and i'll instruct you on how to temporarily bypass it!

[Negative Boost]

First off, thanks to everyone for helping! I didn't expect so many ideas to come forward.

I switched the ECU over for a known good one and on about the 3rd try the engine fired up to life. I then warmed it up, took it around the block, turned the engine off and started it again to make sure it wasnt a fluke start but everything was good. I then switched the ECU back to my old one and it started fine again no problems. So maybe the ECU just needed resetting a couple times or something...

RA65, thanks for the link! I had forgotten the address to that forum. I did that ignitor grounding after i got the engine running and i think it did smooth out the idle a bit like the others were saying in that thread! So i was happy with that. The other grounds are okay but probably could do with upgrading/re-doing all of them.

Devils, thanks for the offer but thankfully its fixed. I hate immobilizers too. My mates Celica's immobilizer messed up on him one day and the fuel pump wasnt getting power. I think they took it to a sparky to get it fixed...

Thanks again guys!
Sam

[Jin~Jah]

good to hear it's going again

mine's off the road for a few days, and one of the things i want to do is open up the ecu and check the caps... i know the 1j ones cark it, but havent heard either way for 7m ones

[Negative Boost]

Well exactly 2 weeks later it did it again. The car didn't get driven inbetween though, only up and down the drive way and started the engine up a couple of times (let it warm up) and that was it. So drove it around for a couple hours today doing some stuff and stopped at a mates place and then it decided it wasn't going to work again (its not Bob Jane fever like last time ). I did get it started eventually though. The story goes...

So it cranked, started, idled for a split second and died. Tried starting it again and the engine started to crank and then stopped like it was hydro locked. At the time i thought that something was jaming the piston. Thought that wasn't good at all so i let it sit and checked fuses, disconnected the battery for 30secs. Tried cranking it again couple minutes later and luckily it spun freely. I walked around the car and noticed fuel dripping from a join in the exhaust, there was a puddle 30cm across of fuel on the ground. Thats ALOT of fuel to be in the exhaust... Maybe the fuel caused the hydro lock?

Pulled the EFI and MAIN fuses to reset the ECU. Still didn't start so i got a spare ecu and tried that an hour later. Still nothing, pulled that out straight away and plugged the original back in and wollah it un-happily started with a bit of white and then black smoke blowing out the exhaust which quickly cleared. Let it idle upto warm and drove it home, stoped it and started again with no quarms. Which leaves me stumped yet again.

Umm Help?

Sam

[Kedderz]

wow thats one hell of a conundrum.
open the cover to your ECU see if theres any buldging caps or any corroded pathways/parts as that sounds like very weird behaviour.

also ur plugs will definately be fouled now, give em a clean with a wire brush!

[Negative Boost]

Yeh it is odd...

I'll swap the spare ecu in and go for a drive round about the place and see if it does it becuase every time its done it, it has been with the original ecu. I had the original ecu opened up a few months ago and there were a couple dry solders but got them re-soldered up. Anyways i'll give the spare ecu a go sometime soon and see how that works.

[Kedderz]

it could be that your afm is on the way out too. i was thinking last night that when i had my SAFC hooked up in my z20 and needed to take it out for a roadworthy the car ran VERY VERY VERY rich.
If you have a replacement/spare AFM give that a try the next time it does this.

[wilbo666]

Just a note on the Check Engine light, have you checked / confirmed the following conditions are true while trying to pull the codes!?

*Battery above 11V
*Throttle valve fully closed (TPS IDL switch closed)
*Transmission in neutral
*AC off (TSRM says accessories off...)

http://www.cygnusx1.net/Supra/Librar.../FI/FI_023.gif

Cheers
Wilbo

[Negative Boost]

Battery, check
IDL, check. I get ~20 ohms, not k ohms, just ohms, then as soon as i crack it, it goes continous. I presume this is correct?
Transmission. The car is manual but the ECU and Engine was Auto. I have shorted the auto plugs 2 and 3. But the wierd thing is, it starts without these shorted anyways?????
AC, isn't hooked up (even the light on the button dosnt work) and all accessories are off. I even disconnected the AC pin out of the ECU plug but to no avail. Stereo, heater, lights, demisters, all off. Anything im forgetting? Door lights, they were on...

I have the LED spliced into the Grey-Green trace wire coming out of the ECU (positive end of the LED) and then the -ve grounding on the chassis. The LED does work and the grounding spot works too.

The light just wont come on when the key is at the ON position.

Kedders, AFM has been suggested but finding another spare one down here might be an issue. I'll have to find a spare one from the mainland.

[RA35GT]

You got the LED hooked up the wrong way mate. The ECU grounds its pin when it wants to flash the CEL.

What you need to do is Connect the positive leg of the LED to +12V and connect the negative leg to the ECU Pin. (Im assuming you dont need an external dropping resistor for this particular LED?)

-----EDITED-----
http://www.cygnusx1.net/Supra/Librar....aspx?S=D&P=34

You can see the check engine light on this page.

One side connects to the ECU and the other side connects to the Gauge fuse.
http://www.cygnusx1.net/Supra/Librar...l.aspx?S=D&P=7
Follow the connections on the gauge fuse here to here
http://www.cygnusx1.net/Supra/Librar...l.aspx?S=D&P=9

The gauge fuse is powered of Bus Line H, which goes to the ignition and is a switch on with ignition.
-----EDITED-----

Rudi