2003 Tacoma died while driving, won't restart

Today while driving home from work, my '03 Tacoma just died while cruising along at 65 MPH. No noise, or other noticeable problems - it just died, and I coasted to a stop as quickly as I could to the shoulder. It has the 3.4 V6 engine in it, and automatic trans with 4WD trans case.

Thinking the worst, I took the top of the timing belt cover loose, but as far as I can tell it's ok. Checked for CEL codes, and there were no errors codes current, or otherwise. Did a little side of the road Googling, and was thinking maybe fuel pump and/or fuel filter ot maybe fuel pump fuse and relay. Had my wife get both, and a can of starting fluid and bring them to me. Tried a shot of starting fluid in the intake, and still nothing. I'm still going to replace both due to age and mileage, but since the starting fluid did not work, I think I can rule out fuel problem. Still need to check fuse and relay, but again - starter fluid didn't work, so I think ok here. I've got a strong crank, but nothing more. Gas was recently filled, and still about 80% full.

Voltage at the time was 12.5 volts, measured at the battery. I have a K&N oil air filter, and it was recently cleaned, and re-oiled. The MAF may need cleaned, but can't see how it would keep it from starting without throwing a code. The truck has 405K on it, and has had great maintenance - Pennzoil Platinum and Fram filter every 20K to 25K miles. Engine didn't have any lifter noise at all, ran like a well tuned clock. I'm due on the timing belt (I change at roughly 100K instead of the 125K recommended interval), so I think I'm good there.

A/T Temp light was also on, but not sure if that is related. AT has nice red fluid, at proper level, engine oil is a tad black (time for a change), and antifreeze looks ok too (even though it was a little low).

I'm new on this forum, but not new to working on cars/trucks. I've searched the forum, and if there is another similar post, I didn't see it. I'm low on time and cash to get this fixed, so any advice would be welcomed.

 

Checked for spark?

 

Going to be the first thing I check in the AM. Any ideas on what could have gone wrong so suddenly to kill any spark from happening? Not the kind of thing that would just let go is it?

 

I had an 85 Bronco I took for a joyride once when I was a teenager, about halfway home it died while driving and almost put me into a tree.

Had to push it back to the driveway and then wake my parents, face the music. Turned out that the shaft of the distributor decided to split into like 3 pieces.

Who knew!


On the bright side, it was so late at night that 13 year old me didn’t get a paddlin’.

 

Fuel delivery is my suspect as well, they are hard to test due to the lines, but a quick red-neck check is to someone bang the gas tank while cranking. This can sometimes jump the motor in the pump enough to get it going, which would further confirm if it starts up.

You can have someone listen to see if the pump comes on with key on as well.

 

Tried that on the side of the road as well. I'll give it another go in the AM. Was hard to listen for fuel pump noise on the side of a 4 lane interstate. Thanks for the idea!

 

Another possibility is broken timing belt/teeth missing. Super easy to check, just unbolt the top half of the timing cover and peak inside to see if it turns the cam shafts.

 

Good idea - I took a look while waiting for my wife to bring fuel pump and filter. However, with the engine hot I could not take it fully off, and I could not see if the teeth were gone. Another thing to check in the AM. Thanks.

 

Well the answer is .... timing belt. Old girl shredded it so fine it looked like a whole school of mice had made a nest at the level the heads meet the block. All I could do was peek inside the top of the timing belt cover on the side of the road as the engine was just too damn hot to take the upper radiator hose off, and the lower left bolt by the power steering pump was also a hot spot that I could not get to. So from the side of the road it looked like the belt might have been ok. Nope - she's toast!

If anyone knows who the lead engineer was on the 5VE-FE engine, I'd love to know - cause I owe that someone a case of beer for not making the engine an interference type!

So this is going to turn into a quick project to get it running again - I've got people to do and things to see this upcoming weekend. And since I was already starting to do the fix / replace engine vs. new truck calculations, I'm going to spend a little on the old girl to see if I can get another 405K miles out of her. It's not going to be cheap, but way cheaper than any alternatives, and doing the work myself, it won't really be that bad. And she will still be paid for - no payments which is always nice!

1) Obviously new timing belt to be installed.

and the, "well while you've got the timing belt off" items

2) New timing belt tensioner
3) New idler roller
4) New water pump

Since the radiator and fan shroud had to come out to get to the front of the engine a couple more, "maybe items" if I have time / budget

5) Finish draining the automatic transmission fluid, and refill. Maybe not, might just top it up after replacing the radiator and the transmission lines.
6) Finish draining / flush the engine of antifreeze and refill, however, it is still at a good mix - so maybe not.

And the items getting taken care of in a week or two

7) New fuel pump - never been replaced, and if nothing else, I'm sure the tank screen on the fuel pump needs replaceing
8) New fuel pump filter
9) New main fuel filter

And the "while your doing fuel lines" items (or maybe the next paycheck - 132$ each for injectors - and that is not even from the stealership!!!)

10) New or rebuilt fuel injectors. I know I have a problem with at least one sticking open. If I leave the ignition on with the truck off, at least one cylinder will fill with gas and try to hydro-lock the engine. I've been very careful to avoid this, and has been on my "to do" list for some time. Well it's that time now.
11) Fuel pressure gauge installed in line with the fuel rails where I can see it. On the side of the road, when I broke down, I noticed that it was almost impossible to get to the fuel line fittings without a lot of hassle. So while I've got the intake off, it seems like that would be a nice thing to install as well.

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions!

Brian

 

Well, it's been a very trying day!

I'm not sure who the last owner of the truck had to replace the last timing belt, but man that "mechanic" must not own a torque wrench. I think the "mechanic" must compete in professional strongman competitions, and have no idea what a torque wrench is!


It's the only explanation for what I have found so far.
Let me elaborate :

1) I had to use the "hold the crank pulley bolt with a long breaker bar, and set it above the frame, then use the starter motor to bump the engine" technique to loosen the bolt.
2) I think they put red Loctite when they installed both the crank pulley and the crank timing gear. I stretched the bolts on a Snap-On harmonic balancer puller set, (and broke one) when trying to remove the crank pulley.
3) I had to resort to heat to the center of the crank pulley, and using new bolts and the puller at the same time. (After very carefully drilling out the grade 12 broken bolt with a carbide drill, then cleaning up the threads to M8x1.5)
4) Went to remove the camshaft timing pulleys next. After bending the "arms" on a rented "pulley holder speciality tool", I made my own tool to hold the timing pulley so i could break the bolt free. I then proceeded to break a 3/8" Snap-On breaker bar while the holding tool was braced on the crankshaft. Ok, lesson learned - use the 1/2" breaker bar this time. I then used the same holding tool (as it was still hanging in there with just a little bend in it), and I went at it with the 1/2" breaker bar - nothing but more bending in the handle of my pulley holding tool. Time for powered tools! I attacked the bolt with my standard duty air impact wrench. Just made a lot of noise, and heated up the socket (and just a tad more bending to the pulley tool). About upset now, I pulled out the torch again, and heated up the bolt a couple hundred degrees and hit it again with the air impact. Nothing. I tried one last time with my newly acquired 3/4" Snap-On breaker bar (and the same home made pulley holder), and after bending the handle some more on my pulley holder, the bolt finally came free with a satisfying metal screeching sound when a stuck fastener comes loose. Just as the bolt broke loose, my pulley holding tool fell from the pulley, and some part of it squarely hit
the crank timing pulley, and broke off 4 teeth from it! Hell it's only money - now I've got to go to the stealership or junk yard to get another crank pulley. (50 to 80$ from the dealer - part 13521-62031 for those playing along at home).

5) So moving on, I guess. I cut, straighten, and re-weld up my holding tool. Go to attack the passenger side cam timing pulley bolt. Same as the driver side above, but I have not broken anything else yet. Been through all the steps above, and nothing - nada. Quite upset, I stop working on that pulley for awhile.

6) Move back down to the now broken crank timing pulley. The threaded bolt holes in the pulley are too narrow for my Snap-On puller kit, so I again go to my metal scrap stash, and pull out a couple gallon tin cans of misc nuts and bolts. I fabricated a smaller, lighter duty puller from a 1/2 threaded rod coupler, a couple pieces of 3/4" tall x 1/8" thick tool steel I had left over from a carving knife project. A couple long bolts that fit the holes in the timing gear, along with a couple thick fender washers and it's ready to try out. After putting more pull than I should have, I notice I'm stretching both bolts! Using the last 2 long bolts I had on hand, I brought out the flame again to this time heat the pulley. After about 10 mins of slowly bringing the gear up to temp, and with the puller straining as hard as I dare, it breaks free with a loud bang.

Ok 2 pulleys off, one to go.

7) Again, I made repairs to my pulley holder. Went back to step 4 above and gave it my all. Nada again. Just more damage to the pulley tool. It's getting late now, I've been working in the heat all day, worked through lunch, and I lost it. I slung the pulley tool as far as I could into the woods beside the shop at my house. Didn't even care where it went. Tomorrow I build a Mark II version of the pulley holder, and I attack the pulley bold again. This time, I'm upping the bets, and heading off to Harbor freight to get one of their "Earthquake" impact guns - supposed to have 980 foot pounds of torque for the 1/2" version . If that doesn't do it, I'll go back and get the 3/4" version - supposed to 1700 foot pounds of torque . If that doesn't do it - well anyone have a good deal on a passenger side head?

So what a day. I've had dinner, and working on a couple hard earned cold ones. I'd like to find the last "mechanic" who worked on my truck, and wring his bionic neck! Then beat him half dead with a 1/2" torque wrench, and shove a torque tightening guide someplace dark and smelly. There were 2 cross threaded bolts holding the radiator on, both the 10MM head bolts holding the power cable were missing (at the front of the block, between the lower part of the block and the oil pan), and the 10 MM allen bolt holding the tensioner pulley was about half unthreaded. But hay, the hard part is almost over, putting it back together is a snap!

 

In the off chance anyone is following my saga, here is the next installment:

Today was much like yesterday - not a single thing was easy

Started off the day making a Harbor Freight run. Got an 1/2" drive Earthquake XT (on sale - yeah!), among other things to hopefully make things go easier (Remember that word - easier).

As I ended the day yesterday chunking my first cam timing gear holding jig into the woods, I thought maybe I should go another direction for Mk II. I got a vice grip style pliers from HF that has a chain that is intended to hold hard round items like metal pipe for cutting, grinding or welding on it. I welded a cheap round pry bar to the fixed side of the pliers. I took a piece of the destroyed timing belt and wrapped the cam timing pulley 2 times with it. I put the chain from the pliers and wrapped it around the rubber timing belt (that is around the pulley), and clamped it down tight. Now I could have one person hold the pry bar extension (or as no one was around to help, I braced it on the water pump pulley. It really held that cam timing pulley good, until I grabbed the 3/4" breaker bar, and a 3' piece of pipe for a cheater bar. Then the clamping part of the pliers spread apart, the chain came loose, the breaker bar / cheater bar go crashing down, I skin several knuckels on each hand. (To jump ahead in time a bit, I think that chain vice grip plier idea has some real promise, and with a few simple modifications would be the ideal holder for those stubborn bolts on the cam timing pulleys - If interest is there, I might make a write up on how I think it should be modified).

So while I was practicing my French, and again vowing to somehow track down the last barbarian who worked on the truck and send him back to the stone age (or a deep covered hole in the middle of the woods someplace), my neighbor came wandering over with my Mk I cam pulley rig. Seems he was walking in the woods when his dog ran off, and found it. After asking what it was for, and starting to show him, he asks if I would like him to hold it, while I tried stage 2 of my plan. So I added an air fitting to the new 1/2" Earthquake XT, added some air tool oil, got my handy 17mm impact socket, and gave it a shot. A lot of noise, a hot socket, and a pair of surprised noticed the bolt was still hanging in there, and not moving. Neighbor mentions his brother who lives close to us has a 3/4" Ingersoll Rand Titanium series impact gun and would I like to give that a shot? So off he goes, and returns - oil it up, add a socket, and again attack the bolt. After about 5 minutes of solid hammering on it, it breaks free! So I guess the lesson learned is don't freaking tighten the cam timing belt gear bolt to over 1700 ft-pounds of torque (or use red loctite) or whatever the last moron did to it, and if the last guy did - just go for the big guns first and save yourself some time!

Glory be! Time for a beer! But that can't be all the fun I had today could it?

No - way! Last item to remove before I get to the water pump is the timing belt tensioner. Only 2 bolts, how hard can it be? Front bolt, no sweat. Now that back bolt - not so easy. Toyota manual calls for removing the AC pump, and the AC pump to engine bracket. However, I've done my homework! I watched a YouTube video where this guy shows a trick using a long 3/8" extension, a swivel adaptor, and a short 6 point 12mm socket to sneak up between the oil pan and the back side of the AC bracket, on the back side of the front cross brace. This should be EASY (remember I told you that you would see that word again). He even mentions in a second follow up, how using a 1/4" setup would fit even easier and be less of a headache to sneak into place. I ignore the part about using the 1/4" and give the 3/8" version a shot. After 45 mins of fiddling around I finally get the socket to align up to the damn tensioner bolt head. The fit sure was hard to get on, in fact it felt like the socket was going to have to be driven on the bolt head. As my arms are starting to cramp up, and now that all the oily grime that has collected under the engine is now covering my face, I decide I want a better look at this bolt head before I proceed. I went inside got a cheap "bore-a-scope" type camera I bought for inspecting things in tight spaces just like this (it's cool - it attaches to my cell phone for a screen, and has it's own light built in). The head of the bolt is rounded off pretty bad.

It's either going to work, or round off completely. I hammer it on till I feel the socket is fully on the bolt head, then give a mighty heave on the socket wrench. Bolt head fully rounds over, wrench breaks free, and I skin even more flesh from my fingers. That reminds me, I'm going to need restock my band-aid supply after this is over!

So, with no way to be able to get anything in at a solid angle to try anything else, we resort to what the shop manual suggested - we remove the AC compressor and bracket. Here is a helpful hint - remove the passenger front tire to get good (easy is no longer in my vocabulary!) access to those bolts. Now off to buy more tools! We'll skip an hr or so here - and only mention what I actually ended up using.

My neighbor has an old set of IRWIN bolt-grip extractor set from Lowe's - and it's in metric. Only problem is that the kit skips from 10mm to 13mm. The 13mm goes all the way over the head of the bolt (that is 12mm to start with), and the 10mm is too small to even hammer onto the bolt head. Since he is not cool with me grinding the 13mm a couple of mm off the "grippy" end (the grippers spiral in, but also get smaller in diameter deeper in the socket). So I go to Lowe's and grab a set, and noticed it's packaged different than his, but don't think any more about it till I get home. I grab the second smallest in the kit and was about to go grind on it, and take a good bolt to check to see how much I might need to grind off to make it work for my 12mm bolt. And it fit!! The size of the extractor is for 1/2", not 13mm as my neighbors kit has lasered on it.

I get a short 4" extension add the extractor, and a small but heavy brass hammer and drive the thing on the bolt head. Got the socket wrench, and a short cheater bar, and give a grunt - and the damn thing came loose!

As it was now 11PM, and the nats and the mosquito's were fighting amoung themselves to see they were going to drain me dry on the spot while I worked, or just carry me off to the rest of the colony to finish me off there, I decided to call it a night after making quick work of removing both the cam seals, and the crank seal. Nothing left to do now, is remove the water pump, and reinstall everything - and that should be EASY! (That damn word again - I sure hope tomorrow turns out better than the last 2 days!)

 

Better then having the truck brought to you with the crank bolt and cam bolts all broken off.

You have not yet threatened to drag the truck far enough so no collateral damage will occur and experiment with flammable liquids

 

Well tonight's update will be short. Been in the heat too long today, and I'm whipped!

Water pump off, no worries there. Cleaned up the old gasket. Cleaned the studs that came out when I removed the thermostat housing. Blue loctite to hold them in better, and re-installed. New water pump installed. New thermostat and gasket installed. Check that off the to-do list.

Installed new seals - 2 for cams, and the crank. Check!

Cleaned the metal back to the timing belt cover, and installed. Check!

Cam timing pulleys - Check!

Installed new crank timing belt pulley - Check!

Timing belt tensioner pulley. Oh boy! You might remember way back where I mentioned it was loose when I was taking everything apart - I even removed it without tools, just grabbed the end of the bolt and unscrewed it. Now I know why it was loose - Mr. Pro Mechanic - the barbarian - in his great "use a freaking impact gun to tighten everything" mentality, stripped the aluminum threads out of the oil pump housing. Great!

I spent the next 3 hrs calling around to anyone I could think of who would have a 10mmx1.25 Helicoil kit in stock. Only place that had the kit (I needed the tap too, or I could have just bought the thread inserts), wanted 50$ plus tax. Ouch! And it didn't even come with the 13/32" drill bit! I have the drill bit, and get my drill. Damn, it wont fit the space between the AC coil and the hole! I call around trying to find a machinist stubby drill, but can only get it in carbide - for almost 100$!! I cut my drill off with an angle grinder and get to work drilling the hole as straight as I can. Insert Helicoil, and put pulley on. It's binding now - but how? I measure the new pulley, the old pulley, the length of the step part of the bolt. It should all fit! Mess with this for over an hr, till I realize, I probably have the hole just slightly angled! I fret and stress over it, till I decide that if I can tighten it just a little more, it will pull flat against the oil pump housing and the washer would stop binding on the pulley itself. And I was right. Flops around like it should.

Only things on the list for tomorrow is the new tensioner, the timing belt, and then reinstall all the aux components that were removed to make space to work. Until something else happens, and then I might just blow up the truck, and collect the insurance money and buy another one!

I've been working on cars since I was 13. Drive my car to high school, threw a rod doing donuts in the parking lot. Got it towed home - pulled the motor with transmission, rebuilt motor and replaced the clutch assembly, reinstalled everything, got cleaned up and still had time to pick up my date in the same car for dinner before the prom that night. That was when I was 17, and I'm 50 now - so lots more experience as the years rolled by. So not slow, or new to working on my own cars. But in all those years, I've never had a timing belt take so damn long to install, or have so many problems along the way!

Night folks - Glad I'm doing this in my own time, and not working in a shop getting paid by the job - I'd starve to death with everything that went wrong with this one.