Saying farewell to the Toyota FJ Cruiser
- Thread starter dogg57
- Start date
I am guessing no check engine light on, right Bob? If the light is on you have a hard fault code that will lead you down the path to the repair. If there is no 'CEL" illuminated my first guess would be fuel pressure bleed off, meaning the system has a pressure regulator either in the injector rail or in the fuel pump in the tank (sometimes both) that maintains a certain pressue for startup, if the diapragagm goes bad it will allow the heat of the engine to vaporize the fuel or depressurization from bleedback meaning fuel draining back from the injectors casuing a hard start when hot. If the regulator is in the tank, it has a valve that maintains fuel line pressue for starting, if it goes bad it will allow the fuel to bleed back to the tank and the pump will need to re pressurize the lines before it will start correctly. This is generally speaking for most fuel injected vehicles, not sure what type your yota is. I know the older 22RE rngines have the regulator in the rail. The next time you park it for the length of time you mentioned that causes the no start, cycle the key on and off a few times before attempting to start it, if it starts normally it is a fuel pressure issue. If your no start still remains, let me know either here or PM, I do this stuff for a living.
Damn good point about the check engine light. Bad sensor should trip that on.
in the one instance you are correct Ben, in the others I described it is just plainly out of fuel until the pump catches up and fills up the lines agaain.
Having had both, the FJ on-road is just so far more comfortable than the Jeep. I just traded my FJ for a great deal on a Wrangler Unlimited that I couldn't pass up. Rough on the tush though
Thanks Joe, and thanks for that tip. I did not have a check engine light for this problem, you are correct. I got one when I disconnected some of the electrical connections to clean them, but the light went out by itself after 50 miles or so.
I will try what you suggest next summer. You want me to energize the fuel pump by cycling the key to the "on" position several times, but not all the way to start. It makes sense. And, since it always eventually starts when I do crank it over, maybe it's just waiting for the fuel to come back up.
That is exactly right Bob, by cycling the key you are effectively re-pressuizing and refilling the fuel lines. The condition may become evident in the cooler weather also IF the regulator gets worse as time goes by. An easy way for a shop to check is to put a fuel pressure gauge on it, start it and check the pressure reading for accuracy, then shut it down and monitor the drop in pressure via the gauge. Some pressure drop is normal as the fuel tank pressure vents, etc. but what you describle should sho a significant drop or a "zero" within a certain amount of time.
I have a similar problem with my TJ. After sitting for awhile it will crank and crank until it finally starts, maybe 10 seconds but it makes me nervous when I'm alone out by Jemima Mount. I discovered that by turning the ignition to ON and waiting for 15 sec it fires right up.
exactly the same thing Ed, that is a common issue with Jeeps, also the crank position sensor can casue a hard start on the jeep 4.0
Oh the overall utility of the design is absurd. The stupid suicide doors, the low windshield (with three wipers!), the cave-like rear compartment, lack of any storage whatsoever, the laughably useless stock roof rack, the even more laughably useless stock aluminum skidplate that you can bend with your hands... I could go on. But it all sits on top of an awesome platform and it will climb trees. I don't necessarily agree about the sfa by the way. I think it was a good design choice. The independent front suspensions handles and corners much better than any wrangler will ever aspire to, and there's really no terrain other than rock hopping on which the sfa has a serious advantage. If you need that much suspension travel, then yeah sfa is the way to go.
Btw, just got her back with the new 32" Goodrich Rugged Terrains (I think I said 33" before, mistake). Nice ride. I'm impressed.
Do you know how the Rugged Terrains compare to the Rugged Trails? I have the latter on my 2007 Tacoma, but will need new tires before winter probably.
Bringing back this old post. I wrote my brother back in 2014 and told him about this. He wrote me tonight, 7 years later, with this.
I have been checking out the new way of starting the car by putting the ignition in the on position and waiting 15 seconds before starting the car like you emailed. Frankly, I did not think this would work. I was wrong!!!!!!. It does work.
I am amazed. I have not had a problem starting the car since I starting using this new method. Over 20 years of a problem solved so simply.
Huge thanks to that guy who mentioned it on Ben’s site. I remember reading the email years ago but I thought it was a bunch of hoey so I never tried it. Big Mistake!!!!!. If you ever get a chance to thank that guy please do so.
On my 96 Tacoma, when it was hot out you would not start if you turned the key for longer than 1 second. You had to just turn it enough to connect with the juice and quickly let go so the key backed off immediately while it started.
Last year I was hardly using my car (2017 VW Tiguan) at all, would go for days without even starting it. I noticed something similar, after it was warm it often wouldn't start easily. I tried waiting awhile after turning the key and that always worked. So that's become my standard procedure now, always wait a bit before pressing the starter and all is fine.
And here's another strange one, on a hot day the touchscreen radio wouldn't work. It would turn on and play whatever channel was already selected but none of the touchscreen buttons would respond and the physical buttons didn't even work. But I could still use a button on the steering wheel to change channels. The bizarre thing is, about a week ago it mysteriously "fixed itself" and works perfectly now, even on these very hot days. Perhaps a spider or other kind of insect inside the radio that finally died?
And here's another strange one, on a hot day the touchscreen radio wouldn't work. It would turn on and play whatever channel was already selected but none of the touchscreen buttons would respond and the physical buttons didn't even work. But I could still use a button on the steering wheel to change channels. The bizarre thing is, about a week ago it mysteriously "fixed itself" and works perfectly now, even on these very hot days. Perhaps a spider or other kind of insect inside the radio that finally died?
Had a spider inside the speedometer on my Sportster. He finally died but his remains are still in there.. Perhaps a spider or other kind of insect inside the radio that finally died?