Not Starting and I have spark

[4EAT4ME]

A little background 94 DX 4A-FE, 192k...it's the GF's car. She drove it fine this a.m. and went to start it 30 minutes later...it started then sputtered and died.

When I went to check it all fuses were good, it cranks and has spark. I'm leaning towards fuel pump as I don't hear it prime. I've searched around a bit and it seems others have this problem. I'm going to grab a fuel pressure gauge and a buddy. I think I read somewhere around 40 psi? Is that right?

If it's not getting pressure it's likely safe to assume pump and go ahead and replace it? Just pop the back seat to gain access to the panel?

Thanks and any tips or wisdom are appreciated.

[Suprawillis]

Yeah check that fuel pump. Remove the back seat and there are a few screws holding the fuel pump assembly plate in place, and remove the plate. Disconnect the two fuel lines and unclip the harness and it will pull out.

If you have a battery charger, you can do the redneck test by hooking up two wires to the positive side, as well as negative side of the charger and touch the other ends to the fuel pump harness clip and see if it "pumps" or operates. Just make sure that it is dry of fuel otherwise you'll be on fire!

If you don't have a battery charger you can always do the same thing with a battery from a drill. Just get two wires, attach some female ends to them and connect them onto the battery, then touch the other ends with the fuel pump.

Then if it works, next check the fuel filter. This is under the EGR cannister. Remove it and see how clogged it is.

Then if it still doesn't start, check your ignitor. This is internal inside the 4AFE distributor. You can find one at a local junk yard for 20 bucks because they are almost 200 bones elsewhere. And if you should happen to find yourself doing this, check and see if your distributor cap has any cracks or corrosion, as well as your rotor.

Then if that doesn't work then start going to the last resorts such as the crank position sensor. If this is bad then the car will crank over, but not start. It is on the upper left hand corner if you are facing the crank pulley. Undo the one 10mm nut holding it in, then geeeeently pry it out with a small flathead.

[ganda1f]

Don't EVER run your fuel pump dry. It will seize in a few seconds. The pump is lubricated by fuel.

[Steelballz]

I was always under the impression that only diesel pumps were lubricated by the fuel and depended on it more so than petrol pumps?

[ganda1f]

Mechanical, i.e. non-electrical petrol pumps do not have that problem. As for diesel pumps, running out of fuel causes an additional problem of air getting into the system. Meaning that one has to bleed the fuel system. Just filling up the tank and cranking for a while is not enough. The bleeding process is usually quite cumbersome.

I can imagine that there exist electrical fuel pumps that do not suffer instantaneous failure if run dry, but the ones that are submerged in the fuel tank usually do seize immediately. When I took out my pump, while changing the fuel tank, I spotted something that may have been a sensor that just cuts the power to the pump if the fuel gets way too low. Or perhaps it was the sensor to the low fuel warning light. I am not sure.

[4EAT4ME]

Ok - Seems as though I had a weepy valve cover gasket and over time it fouled the plugs enough to not get conistant spark. I threw in a new set of plugs and it fired right up...

Now...I pulled the plugs 2 days later and they were dry and clean. So it's not a large weep. Anyway, now I have a second issue.

It goes as follows...when the car is idling in park it idles fine, and when in D it will idle fine sometimes. If I come to a stop at a stop light it will idle for a second and then cut-out and die. After it's warm and I put it in D it will idle then cut out and die. It's not the IACV, I cleaned my battery contacts and tightened everything down. Checked the plugs again and they are dry.

What the hell? Gonna try new wires today, and then maybe new cap and dist. Seems like a spark issue. But only at fully warm idle rpms, because if I put it in N at the light after a stop to bump the idle up it won't cut out.

Any ideas? Really really need this issues resolved in the next 2 weeks!!! Thanks for any ideas!

[4EAT4ME]

Originally Posted by Suprawillis

Yeah check that fuel pump. Remove the back seat and there are a few screws holding the fuel pump assembly plate in place, and remove the plate. Disconnect the two fuel lines and unclip the harness and it will pull out.

If you have a battery charger, you can do the redneck test by hooking up two wires to the positive side, as well as negative side of the charger and touch the other ends to the fuel pump harness clip and see if it "pumps" or operates. Just make sure that it is dry of fuel otherwise you'll be on fire!

If you don't have a battery charger you can always do the same thing with a battery from a drill. Just get two wires, attach some female ends to them and connect them onto the battery, then touch the other ends with the fuel pump.

Then if it works, next check the fuel filter. This is under the EGR cannister. Remove it and see how clogged it is.

Then if it still doesn't start, check your ignitor. This is internal inside the 4AFE distributor. You can find one at a local junk yard for 20 bucks because they are almost 200 bones elsewhere. And if you should happen to find yourself doing this, check and see if your distributor cap has any cracks or corrosion, as well as your rotor.

Then if that doesn't work then start going to the last resorts such as the crank position sensor. If this is bad then the car will crank over, but not start. It is on the upper left hand corner if you are facing the crank pulley. Undo the one 10mm nut holding it in, then geeeeently pry it out with a small flathead.

Thanks for the awesome reply! I did just that and everything looked good. It appears the cap/dist unit is newer but the wires are original. I have a new problem posted above...do you think the wires may be attributed to this?

[Suprawillis]

Originally Posted by 4EAT4ME

Thanks for the awesome reply! I did just that and everything looked good. It appears the cap/dist unit is newer but the wires are original. I have a new problem posted above...do you think the wires may be attributed to this?

It could always be a tuning issue. However have you ever pulled the intake manifold off and cleaned the inside with gunk?

If not prepare to get real dirty. Some will say that you can run sea foam through the intake and that will clean it through. Be that as it may in most vehicles, if your corolla has 192k miles and never cleaned the inside of your intake manifold, trust me there is some thick black cake in there. Your entire EGR system could be clogged as well.

At times this may, or may not throw a CEL code, but I have almost 360k miles on my rorra, and it has never thrown a code for clogged up intake manifold. Okay so here we go. 1st, go to lowes or home depot and get one of those cheap paper painter's suits. Or just find raggety clothes. An get about 2 cans of chemtool, and 2 cans of brake parts cleaner from autozone.

Now. Remove your air filter box.
-Next I am trying to remember off the top of my head, remove the throttle body. Disconnect the cable by pulling the throttle all the way down with your thumb, and slide the cable end out of the throttle body. Undo the two 12mm bolts and the two 12mm nuts. Pull the water hose, and vacuum hoses out. Get masking tape, write with a sharpie on which hose goes to what port on the throttle body. Make sure you remember how the throttle body gasket goes on the intake.
-Next there is 4 allen head style bolts holding the top part of the intake manifold on. I thiiiiink there are also a few 12mm bolts/nuts holding it on.

-Pull the top of the intake manifold off. You should have to remove a few vacuum lines which are PCV, and the other is just an intake source. Also on the lefthand corner should be a fuel pressure regulator vacuum source. Pull that off.

-Mkay at this point if I hadn't listed everything, there shouldn't be much to do, lift the top of the intake manifold off and be very careful with the intake manifold gasket. Because if you bend it, it can be bended back together, but if it doesn't seal right, then your idle will be high.

-Now we should have cake!!! Thick heavy oily cake! Get a wire brush, BE SURE TO USE RUBBER GLOVES GOTDAMMIT!! Spray the chemtool and get it good. Black spatter will get all over you, all over your engine bay, just allllll over!! If you have a shop vacuum, Great! this would be handy to suck out access puddles of chemtool. WEAR EYE PROTECTION GOTDAMMIT!! Chemtool will burn holes in your skin. Ask me how I know.

-If you have access to an air compressor, grrrrreat! You could spray out access residue that got inside your valves, etc.

[Suprawillis]

-----------------------PART 2---------------------------

At this point things should be messy. Oh yeah!

-Next keep wire brushing you intake manifold until you get to the metal. Use small flat head screwdrivers to stab intake ports inside the manifold and free those of cake. Keep spraying with chemtool and get all that crap out.

-Now. This is a good time to clean your EGR system. On the lower bottom end of the intake manifold, the EGR thingee is helt on by two 12mm nuts. Remove those prease. Now the EGR valve is out. Clean the ports! Clean all the vacuum lines, clean everything EGR related!!

When all is done, put everything back together. Make sure you are careful when getting that intake manifold gasket back on. Chances are you may not seal it right the first time. You'll know this when you start the car because the idle will be very high.

If everything is back together, spray your engine bay down with simple green. Hell Spray the whole front of the car down with simple green.

Then....This would be a good time to get sea foam. The sea foam will clean out the extra cake that got down into the valves.

When all is said and done. Basically you just cleaned out the entire intake/egr system. The feeling described metaphorically would be like giving a chain smoker a new set of lungs.

This should be done every 100k miles.

And remove your heat shield on your exhaust manifold and make sure the manifold isn't cracked anywhere. Because if it is, then it will run rich causing the intake manifold to gunk up again over time.

Yes I have loads of time on my hands.