Swamped my T4R and NEED HELP NOW

Jeff16758

Jeff16758

New member
OK,

So at the direction of my fearless navigator in a new offroad spot I ended up up to my doors in mud/water/ice last night. The exhaust went under, but I don't think I pulled in any water in the intake (initially). The water was just below the top of my front right tire. I have a 3" lift and 33's, so I'm thinking i never put my intake under. While trying to get out my temp was fine and everything was running normally so I didn't want to shut off my engine even though I knew I was stuck due to the exhaust being under. Eventually my engine compartment started steaming pretty good (from the water around it I believe) and eventually my check engine light came on and my engine coughed, so I immmediately shut it down.

Long story short we got it out and it's in my driveway. I never tried to start it again once I shut it off. I took the airbox and intake apart and didn't find any water other than a tiny sheen on the bottom of the airbox and the bottom 1/2" of the filter dirty. I replaced the air filter, cleaned the MAF and removed the plugs and turned the engine over a few times with a little bit of mystery oil just for piece of mind. Same thing, no water and it turned over fine. I replaced the battery (needed it anyway), the plugs and wires. Put a new air filter in and made sure everything was dry. The codes have cleared (I have a good diagnostic tool). It turns over fine but will not run. I tried starting it without the EFI fuse in to make sure it was clear of everything and not flooded.

So basically now I'm out of ideas. I'm wondering if someone else out there had the same problem and found a trick (a blown fuse that doesn't throw a code, another place to drain, etc....).

PLEASE let me know if you have a similar experience or a suggestion. This is my daily driver.

Thanks in advance.
 
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I think I have all 3. The plugs I took out were wet with fuel (no water from what I could tell), most likely from me trying to crank it once it was out of the muck last night. I turned the engine over with the EFI fuse removed and plugs out, and then I replaced the plugs anyway. Air should be clean and unobstructed. I don't see how compression would have changed since yesterday, since I have no evidence of hydro-locking it and damaging any valves/etc.

I forgot to mention my signature mentions the deckplate mod but THANK GOD I had the plate in at the time or I surely would have been screwed. Starting to wonder if that mod is even worth the risk vs. (supposed) reward.

I'm a pretty mechanical person and think I've explored the obvious suspects, but I'm new to 4runners this year and have definitely never had one under water...
 
Well if you have all 3 it would run. You need to verify that you really do have all of them. Spark is going to be the easiest. either pull a fresh plug or throw an old plug in one of the plug wires and make sure you have spark while you are cranking. I would then move on to fuel and verify that the injectors are firing. A noid light is the safest cheap way to do this, but I have also probed the injector wiring with a test light on a few Toyotas and never had an issue. One you know the injector is working then it comes down to fuel pressure, and making sure the fuel is actually still fuel. You shouldn't have been able to get water into the fuel system, but anything is possible. If everything is good on those fronts then I would throw a compression tester in it, or start looking at cam timing.
 
The way it shut down suggests an electrical problem is my guess. Make sure you have spark and go from there. Good luck Jeff!
 
I was going to mention the same things as Stick. Verification of the essentials is
the first step. Although I'm new to runners as well, and cannot not answer the question, ask your self what sensors were under water and more prone to failure.
Is your muffler/cat filled up with water?...yea...silly question...
 
thanks for the quick responses guys.

i took an extra plug and tested all three of the spark plugs on the driver's side and they all have spark. I'm assuming (maybe incorrectly?) that this means all the plugs under the coil packs on the passenger side have spark as well...

also, the wrecker last night had the front end in the air a good 20 degrees loading/unloading it so i'm thinking any residual water in the exhaust made its way out. I'd break one of the couplings to make sure nothing comes out but we all know how readily old exhausts love to come apart.

my next idea is to try a spray of starting fluid into the throttle body. if that doesn't work i'm going to call it a night and keep researching and start fresh in the morning, since it's getting cold and dark in MA right now.

still no engine codes, i have spark and i have air.

can someone elaborate on testing injectors? i've never done it before.

keep the suggestions coming as I only have tomorrow to figure this out before i leave for work for 3 weeks and am forced to let it sit...

thanks again
 
Jeff16758 said:
can someone elaborate on testing injectors? i've never done it before.
Click to expand...


A typical tech will use what are called noid lights:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Fue...v4igKl74DIDw&ved=0CAwQ_AUoAA&biw=1024&bih=677

You can pick these up at a lot of places for various prices, and they are as simple as plugging one into the harness in place of the injector and the light should flash when the injector would get a signal to open.

As I mentioned before you can use a test light as well but you would want to be very careful not to short it to anything. You would hook the clamp side of the light to your positive battery terminal and then probe the injector wiring. Of the two wires you should have one color that is common to all of the injectors and this will be power to them. You want the other wire. The other wire will be the pulsed ground from the ECU triggering them to fire. Of course it is also worth taking a second to verify that the power side has power as well, but the ground side is what you want to concentrate on.

If you want to get REALLY into it, buy an oscilloscope and you can really see what the injectors are doing. No where near necessary for your troubleshooting though.
 
lab scope sure is the fastest way if you know how to use it. not cheap though. picoscope has been my favorite.

I'd advise to wait on testing the injectors unless you find the ether allows it to run. At that point I would start to check the fuel pump fuse etc.

Is there still a circuit opening relay on these? I would check to see its operating... assuming it runs on your ether (starting fluid).

Also be aware that the crank sensor was probably under water, though I don't know what type Toyota uses for this.

otherwise I'd use a multimeter to test injectors... you can still get milliseconds and voltage etc.

Really, just start from the basics and work your way deeper.
 
Can you pose a video of your engine trying to start?

If you are getting gas into the engine, your exhaust should smell like a gas station.
 
when you do get it running make sure you drain/fill your front, center, and rear diffs, as well as your transmission ( I would to 3x drain/fill on the trans)
 
no video yet, i've been a little busy as you might guess.

double checked that the fuel pump is coming on, checked resistance for crank/cam sensors and they are right where they should be according to the book. unplugged every connection i could, cleaned and dried them, and put them back.

i have fuel/spark (verified)/air and the exhaust not blocked... haven't checked injectors but i can smell fuel (and can't find any leaks). i know injectors are the next suspect but can't check them right now.

not sure where to go from here. any other quick checks/ cheap tricks for tonight before i start opening beers and watching TV in defeat?
 
For those who care to know, You won't believe this. Took the timing belt cover off and it was PACKED with mud. So much so that i think it jumped the timing.

Going to replace the belt, idler and water pump, remove all the plugs again to let my fuel flooded cylinders dry out through evaporation, change all my fluids, do a compression test and then try firing her up Monday.

Hopefully I will post the last update then. I'm praying that this is what happened.
 
Holy sh*t, that was it. Couldn't wait to find out so I just cleaned it, reset the timing, changed the oil and started it. Fired right up. Now I can rest a bit easier knowing it she just needs a nice hot bath and some TLC...

I have a complete timing kit coming along with new belts, then ill clean the alternator and starter and hope they last, check and flush any needed fluids, check CV Boots and wheel bearings, flush out my rocker panels and finally steam clean everything... Going to be a busy holiday week.

In the end I think ill end up with about an $800 learning experience and a carpet delete for some rhino liner. Not bad when I remember that last night I was considering a possible engine swap...

Merry Xmas to everyone, and goodbye holiday bonus to me hahahaha :happens:
 
:cheers:Kudos man, way to persevere. THAT is something that I wouldn't have thought about and amm real glad I didn't have to figure it out first.
 
Congratulations on the fix...although not a cheap one.

Have a quick question: is your "navigator" helping with labor...if not also helping to buy parts? I think I would be ready to choke them at this point!
 
RussToy said:
Have a quick question: is your "navigator" helping with labor...if not also helping to buy parts? I think I would be ready to choke them at this point!
Click to expand...

Hahaha unfortunately he's only been helpful in labor. He's a longtime friend and in the end I'm still the one who drove my own truck in there without scouting well enough... Let this be a testament to looking before you leap (and the benefit of what a 2nd truck would have been to pull me out early rather than get into more trouble trying to floor it out of there).

I guess I'm just going to keep working till its done and say easy come easy go this time unfortunately.

I think the next bonus will go towards a locker and winch...
 
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