Suddenly Refused to Start

[Kolokotronis]

Hi Everyone. I am hoping that the collective wisdom of members here may be able to help with this problem. I have a VX 4.5 petrol model. Since I have owned it for 20 years now, this vehicle is like a member of the family and I don't want to give up on it! I parked up the other evening, went to start it the next morning and the engine turned but it would not start. I have established that there is fuel, spark and compression. That has brought me to the end of my mechanical expertise. A few points that may help: it is fitted with an LPG system; and the plugs are very wet after I have turned the engine over, as if there is excessive fuel going through. I have asked my local mechanic to have a look at it but he is also mystified, one issue being that I live in Greece and this model was not sold in Greece. So the mechanics here don't have any experience with the 4.5 petrol engine. It occurred to me that the problem may be something to do with the immobiliser, but would I still be getting fuel and spark if it had somehow immobilised itself? Any suggestions would be very welcome!

 

[Towpack]

If you have a spark and the plugs are wet with fuel then I'd guess it's either a fuel metering problem or the air flow into the engine is restricted. I'm not that familiar with the engine but I imagine there's some sort of butterfly valve in the throttle body metering the air flow. Everything, fuel metering, ignition and air flow will be controlled by the engine ECU. I would think that the immobiliser works by cutting the ignition and possibly disabling the starter circuit so if it turns over with a spark present I can't see that being the issue. You could try disconnecting and reconnecting the batteries in the off chance it will give some sort of reset to the ECU. Also make sure the batteries are fully charged.

 

[Kolokotronis]

Thanks - I will check all of this.

 

[Firewout]

Bad solenoïd so the engine gets both petrol and lpg ? (Wild guess)

 

[Kolokotronis]

Thanks - will check that out.

 

[Kolokotronis]

One strange thing is that the Check Engine lamp is not lighting up on the dash when I turn the ignition on. I imagine this means an ECU problem, or are there other possible reasons for this?

 

[Dave2000]

Do you live in town, or more rural areas?

Rodents often get into air filters, they use the air filter medium to make beds for nesting, the filter collapses and gets sucked into the air mass sensor.

I would turn the gas off at source, and then work with the OE fuel system first, this saves chasing your tail.

The fuel injection relay can be suspect on these models, they either don't work, or the contacts stick together, the result is fuel flooding the bores.

In the event that you cannot find the issue take it to a proper mechanic, not being 'familiar' with 'that' engine is no excuse.

Regards

Dave

 

[Kolokotronis]

Thanks a lot, Dave. I will try all of these. I live in a rural area and the truck spent the night in a field and then wouldn't start the next morning - so rodents could well be an issue!

 

[Kolokotronis]

Please forgive my ignorance but I often read on here about error codes. Would an error code help to solve this problem? If so, what do I plug into where to get the code? And then how do I find out what the code refers to?

 

[LandLocked93]

Was just about to ask when I saw your comment, "No CEL".
The truck will not run w/o that light on in the ACC or ON positions.
So start there. Get the light back on and your issues are solved as it sounds like everything else is working properly.
There are many many threads on t-shooting that condition on 1h8mud.com (don't mean to point to other sites, but mud simply has the largest repository of info on issues like this and more)

 

[Kolokotronis]

Thanks for this. Will check it out.

 

[Kolokotronis]

Well my beloved Landcruiser is finally back on the road. Thank you to the kind members of this forum who sent me their suggestions. After checking all the electrics, fuel supply, compression, timing chain etc and finding no problem, my mechanic, with no real hope of success but just a stab in the dark, thought he'd try changing the plugs, even though we had been getting a spark. I had fitted Denso 16TTs, so he changed them for the ones listed in the handbook, NGK BKR6EYA. Actually the handbook recommends NGK BKR5EYA, but I gather the 6 just means it's a bit colder. Anyway, with the new plugs it fired up immediately! I am delighted and relieved but still a bit mystified: the old Denso K16TT plugs were about 6 months old with only around 1000 km on them, and they gave a spark when tested near the manifold, but when screwed in the engine wouldn't start and the plugs got soaked in petrol. If anyone can explain this, I would be interested to hear from you.