After 281k miles, my Tacoma left me stranded...

[BurnItDwn]

My first car was a Ford, transmission died at 80k, rebuild trans, trans failed again at 85K and was rebuilt again, then at 95K trans died again .. this was a 1991 ford and it was year 2000. I sold it to tow truck guy for $50 since it was going to need replacement transmission to get running.

My second car was a Pontiac, ran well to about 90k. At 101K I traded it in, had issues, AC dead, power windows dead, engine noise...

My 3rd car was Chrysler, It ran pretty well to 100k, but had electrical issues. Also had AC problems. After 2 years of 2K+ annual spent at mechanics to keep car running, I sold it and bought my 4th car.

The person who bought the Chrysler from me got 3 more years out of it with no other problem besides a damn replacement rim because they ran over a curb.


Anyhow, my 4th car is my Forester (N/A), its now at 99.6K miles, and drives like new.

 

[jlee]

Fuel pressure, I haz none!

A new Denso pump will be here tomorrow.

/fix

 

[njmodi]

Fuel pressure, I haz none!

A new Denso pump will be here tomorrow.

/fix

:thumbsup:

 

[tortillasoup]

Fuel pressure, I haz none!

A new Denso pump will be here tomorrow.

/fix

don't forget to clean the grounds less you want to replace this pump as well.

 

[sontakke]

OK, so you have no fuel pressure. Do you have 12V being delivered to the fuel pump?

However, to be frank, this is exactly what I would do too given the mileage on the vehicle. It certainly can use a new fuel pump whether it needs it or not and by the time I access the fuel pump to check if it is getting the power, I would want to replace it anyway.

This obviously would get criticism from the "diagnosis it first and then order the part" guys though.

 

[WilliamM2]

In the last two years (bought with ~268k) I've replaced a starter (had to roll start a couple times) and an alternator (drove home with the dash voltage light on), and my roommate had a battery cable fail (re-crimped and is good to go), but it's always got me home. I suppose the record hasn't been broken yet! 😀

So it's actually after 13K miles it left you stranded, and broke a few other times.

Doesn't seem too amazing to me, and I drive a Toyota.

 

[jlee]

So it's actually after 13K miles it left you stranded, and broke a few other times.

Doesn't seem too amazing to me, and I drive a Toyota.

My MR2 spends about half of its time broken. Now that is amazing. 😛

OK, so you have no fuel pressure. Do you have 12V being delivered to the fuel pump?

However, to be frank, this is exactly what I would do too given the mileage on the vehicle. It certainly can use a new fuel pump whether it needs it or not and by the time I access the fuel pump to check if it is getting the power, I would want to replace it anyway.

This obviously would get criticism from the "diagnosis it first and then order the part" guys though.

The EFI fuse is good - that's as far as I went. I'll take a $75 gamble and replace a part I want to replace anyway. I may do a preemptive replacement on the Lexus eventually as well, so I don't have it die when I'm in the middle of nowhere in the desert.

 

[sontakke]

What does bother me little bit about this is that generally fuel pump gives some warning before quitting completely on you. At 281K miles, it does not owe you anything. Since all of my vehicles have 200K+ on them, I really would like to believe that I would be able to get some warning sign of any failure which has possibility of leaving me stranded but your example suggests that might not be true.

Fuel pump is inside the tank on this vehicle, right? If it were external, you could try banging it to see if it springs back to life.

 

[jlee]

What does bother me little bit about this is that generally fuel pump gives some warning before quitting completely on you. At 281K miles, it does not owe you anything. Since all of my vehicles have 200K+ on them, I really would like to believe that I would be able to get some warning sign of any failure which has possibility of leaving me stranded but your example suggests that might not be true.

Fuel pump is inside the tank on this vehicle, right? If it were external, you could try banging it to see if it springs back to life.

Yeah, it's in-tank. I got a few drips of fuel leaking past the fuel pressure gauge when went to key-on (it didn't seal very well), but it didn't move the needle at all.

I had no warning at all - I drove to work, home for lunch, back to work, back home, and then went to leave that evening and it didn't start. There's still some (small) possibility that it's a relay or something, but even if that's the case, I'll be more comfortable with 0-mile Denso pump in there to troubleshoot with. 🙂

 

[jlee]

Pump's replaced and she runs great now. I'll put the bed back on tomorrow when more people are around (took it off with two people, but lining it up over the filler neck will be a little more tricky than taking it off).

 

[jlee]

Aaand all back together, good to go!

 

[LTC8K6]

Now pat it and tell it you'll pretend it never happened. 🙂

 

[tortillasoup]

OP, have you had your valve lash adjustment done yet? It's a bit more involved on this vehicle but if you're hitting 300K miles and haven't adjusted the valves yet, you're risking burning a valve or two. Expect a nice performance improvement after your valve lash adjustment.

 

[jlee]

OP, have you had your valve lash adjustment done yet? It's a bit more involved on this vehicle but if you're hitting 300K miles and haven't adjusted the valves yet, you're risking burning a valve or two. Expect a nice performance improvement after your valve lash adjustment.

It has the same setup as the MR2 (shim over bucket). I haven't done it yet, but I do need valve cover gaskets so I'll probably knock them both out at the same time.

There's also about a half inch of play in my driveshaft carrier bearing, which I found when I was under the truck earlier. 😱 I'm tempted to proactively replace all of my u-joints when I have the driveshaft out, but it's probably unnecessary.