07 Cranks but wont start?!?! HELP

iv noticed over the past few days when i start my truck is has been taking more cranks before it fires up. and yesterday it would crank for a good 5 seconds before it would fire. This morning it would only crank and crank and crank but no fire at all.

I checked battery connection it was all tight. I have fuel in my tank, my air filter is only 1 month old ( afe cold air dry ) so i know it cant be the filter. And i had just recently cleaned my MAF with seafoam spray and cleaned my throttle body. I took my battery to auto zone and he said its fine but now its at 43% so i left it there for a charge ( 3-4 hours eta , optima red top ) and while i was there i though i might as well buy a new fuel filter because i did run sea foam through my gas tank a few months back. but auto zone tells me the fuel filter for my truck is N/A because it is located inside of the fuel tank.

My truck is a 2007 Tacoma prerunner TRD offroad 2wd 4.0 v6 with 103k miles and very well taken care of.

i am at a loss and currently suppose to be at work..... i know you tacoma gurus will have some info to help me out here. i tried to search this but the TW search doesnt work too well ( you can find TW threads easier from google search ) but i still found nothing that sounded like my problem.

 

Not sure about Tacoma, but on my bike if battery is not fully charged, it will crank but will not start.

See what happens once it's fully charged.

 

any check engine light? I'd start by determining if the issue is with fuel, ignition, or compression.

I'd start with fuel first- if you spray some starting fluid or anything with propane propellant (carb cleaner, b12 chemtool, etc) into the intake (after the air filter but above the throttle body) will it run for a second? It's damaging long term but once or twice for diagnostics is OK in my mind. If it runs for a sec then it's a problem with fuel delivery (fuel pump, injectors, etc).

I do this to test older carbed and FI cars. If this is a no-go for newer engines someone please let me know (if so I'd like to know why also).

Cheers

 

hows your spark plugs

 

First, the whole starter fluid thing isnt good. Besides, it may not even work if you still have the secondary charcoal filter. If it cranks but wont start, either your ignition system or fuel pump isnt working. Check the fuses. I had the same problem one night and there was a fuse popped.

 

I have the AFE stage 2 SI cai so i dont have a charcoal filter. I know it is either fuel or spark at this point and i doubt its my spark plugs because they would all have to break at the same time for the engine to not even fire or pop . I think its my fuel pump or some ingition issue... iv read about possibly needing to reflash my ecu? not sure about that one.

But where do i find the fuses? and is there a fuse for my fuel pump? I think thats next on my list.

Thanks for the input

 

So you have fuel... have you actually checked your spark plugs to see if they are getting spark? It's worth a shot.
I do think this is a fuel issue, though. Either the fuel pump isn’t pumping fuel or the ECU isn’t triggering the fuel injectors.

 

I'd suspect ignition, and more specifically I'd suspect the immobilizer and security stuff. Try lock/panic/unlock then start with a different key.

 

Care to clarify how they said it was fine but you had to charge it right after? Failing batteries will look charged but as soon as you put a load on it, it will drain fast.

 

Guy at autozone tested it and said its holding a charge, then he put it on a trickle charger to get it back to 100%. And the thing is... the engine was cranking perfectly fast and hard, just didint hear any fire or poppin. and like i mentioned it started taking longer and longer to start in the past few days so it has to have been something that is wearing out or burning out, which is why im suspecting the fuel pump as the problem for now.

Gonna pull a late nighter in the rainy weather tonight trying to dig deeper and will update on that status.

 

There was another guy just last week with the same issue. It was his battery.

 

If it cranks fine I don't see the battery being the problem...check for spark

 

How long has it been since the plugs were last changed?

 

most newer cars have a senso at the crankshaft that detects tdc, and initiates fuel delivery and injector timing or something, i worked on a plymouth neon one time and the thing would crank and crank, but nothing. i did a bunch of research, and replaced one sensor at the cam, then the one at the crank and it fired right up. i think its called crankshaft position sensor, u can also hear the fuel pump running if you listen closely, and check it with the shreader valve on the fuel line that feeds the injectors, (like on a tire) just hit it with a small screwdriver and it should squirt at you, giggity, and they also lend out fuel pressure gauges at autozone or wherever to test the fuel pressure, if your leaning that route.

 

Thanks for the info on the crank censor . If I'm going to check those, how and where are they located?

 

From the FSM: http://www.customtacos.com/tech/fil...6toyrm/06toypdf/06rmsrc/rm2006ta/00500410.pdf

 

I don't know where it is, it's usually a wire with a plug going into the case somewhere by the balancer, it will most likely have a bolt and all u gotta do is undo the wire plug, and bolt and it will pop out with a little work.

 

You guys are kind of taking the hard path too soon. The crank sensors are a pain in the ass to get to on almost all GR engines because they are behind the AC compressor just like shown in the link 2 posts up. If the battery is as low as 11.9v, there will be starting issues. If its not the battery, you then check for spark and injector pulse. If there is spark but no injector pulse, it's can be an immobilizer issue. If it has both spark and injector pulse, you them need to check fuel pressure. Toyota doesn't use shrader valves. You will have to install the fuel pressure tester inline at one of the connectors. Make sure the battery has proper voltage (above 12 volts) , then check spark and injector pulse. Go from there. If you don't know how to safely do this stuff, you will have to take it somewhere.

 

Definitely agree, the sensor was just one of the times I've seen this happen, I am not a mechanic certified or otherwise, he can try jumping it, see if that works to eliminate the battery for sure

 

You kind of initiated the harder path. I'm not here to yell or flame. The crank sensor is kind of basic nowadays anyways as far as engine controls. The cam sensors are just as important, if not more important because they allow multi-port fuel injection and variable valve timing, and they can give information suggesting the timing is off as well. That being said, I have personally never seen a crank sensor go bad in a GR motor yet. Can it happen? Sure. Likely at this point? No. While you are correct that a cam or crank sensor can cause an extended crank, we just have to always start with the basic stuff. Some manufacturers have built-in computer logic that allow the engine to still start while relying on the other sensor if a cam or crank signal is lost. It will just crank longer until it sees the data it needs to run. I am not sure if Toyota does this. I guess one could go out and disconnect a cam sensor and see what happens, but then you will need to clear a code.