Petrol Starvation

Our car has just developed the exciting feature of not restarting if you have driven for a bit and then stopped for five minutes or so. If you waited a few hours it would start again, but now it's not even doing that.

Yesterday It broke down and the recovery mechanic squirted (eye witness reported it said 'brake cleaner' on the can) an aerosol into the air intake and the engine fired up. He then released the nut at the end of the injector housing and said that petrol was not getting up there.

He thought the problem was either the fuel shut of valve (which it turns out this car does not have) or the fuel pump.

Since its an old corolla (1994 GLi 1.3, 4E-FE engine) and it does not seem to have any diagnostic system connection [at least nothing is mentioned about it in the Haynes manual] what would likely be the cheapest and easiest course of action for a novice to take.

Is fitting a new fuel pump a specialist job and is it likely to be anything else that is playing up?

Is this really a job for a Toyota specialist? I would likely to have to remorgage the house to take it to a Toyota dealer. I live in north west London, near Finchley Central. Grateful for any advice, thanks.

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Reply to
john hamilton
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when was the fuel filter last changed?

Reply to
Mrcheerful

Sorry forgot to mention that was changed very recently.

Reply to
john hamilton

"john hamilton" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Or anything in the power supply to the pump - injection ECU, pump relay, wiring, connectors.

No, any competent garage should be able to sort it. It's going to be trial-and-error with a multimeter.

Might be worth changing it again, then - it's not beyond the realms of possibility for a new one to get blocked due to a manufacturing issue. But check that there's power getting to the pump first.

Reply to
Adrian

generally fuel pumps fail and stay failed. testing fuel pump delivery is easily done in the workshop, usually I would power the pump directly and check the delivery pressure. if it will start (with assistance of something sprayed in) and keep running then the pump is working. in this case I would look first for an air leak.

the data link connection is under the bonnet and it can be accessed with a couple of bits of wire to make the MIL lamp on the dashboard read out the codes.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

Sounds like an air leak, check the tank end 1st.

Reply to
Duncan Wood

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