Tacoma wont crank, NEED HELP!!!

Need some serious help here. My 1998 Tacoma has just taken a huge dump on me and it refuses to crank. I know for a fact that its not the battery or the starter for all the electrical components work fine and the motor will turn over without any problem however it will not fire. I think it could be a problem with the ignition system or with it not getting any fuel. this is the second time it has happened. odly enough the last time it happened it had rained the night before and this time it had rained today also, im not sure if that would cause a short or something weird with the ignition system. either way I've had the truck for almost 5 or 6 years and it has never given any Major motor problems until now. it has over 280,000 miles on it and i would really like it to make 100,000 more. if anybody can point me in a direction to start ruling stuff out it would be much appreciated. if it helps the motor during attempts to crank it will show an occasional blurp of fire but then it stops and continues to just turn over. Please HELP me TacomaWorld!!!

 

Do 98's have coil packs or a distributor? I think its coil packs.


Try turning the key to ON, wait for the fuel pump to prime. Make sure you can hear it, you will hear a humming sound right after you turn it to on for about 3 seconds. Keep turning the key to on and off a couple times and THEN try to start it. Its an attempt to feed a little extra fuel into the system, similar to 'pumping the gas' on an older vehicle. If it runs at all, you got a fuel issue, could be pump or filter. If you don't hear a humming of the fuel pump, then I think you found your problem

 

ok sweet i would go try it now but it happened at my GF's house and she just brought me back home so i left it there. i will try it tomorrow but odly enough last time it just sat for a while and then cranked right on up with no problem. but i will be trying to listen for the humming sound tomorrow.

 

Sounds good. Sometimes it helps to have someone poke an ear under the hood while you turn the key to on, you may not hear it from inside the cab.

 

i had a mustang that had a similar problem. whenever there was moisture, it had a problem starting. i would let it sit and dry out and it would start up fine. i never did figure out why it would do this.

i'd recommend you do the usual tests, battery and terminals, check for loose grounds, and see if jump starting it helps.

btw, i was a little confuse with what you said. does it just keeps cranking, but won't turn over or does it not crank at all and just click click click.

 

it keeps turning over but it won't start. i dont know if the moisture has anything to do with it but i figured it was something worth mentioning just in case it could be affecting something electrical.

 

have you had any major maintenance done to it recently? when this happened to me (it still is happening to me, haha) i had a complete tune up done. are there any codes? when my car didnt fire the CEL didn't come on for a little while but it ended up being the crank position sensor. also it wouldn't hurt to pull the plugs and check if theres water in there (happened to me before) , try a spark test to see if you're getting spark as well. have you checked your fuel pump/ fuses? i know when this happened to me i was hysteric, but its better to go about things methodically and systematically. Hope you find it and get this thing running again! i have 295k on mine and once it starts it drives like a dream! goodluck! let us know how you fix it!

 

alright i pulled the plugs and they had spark going to em so i can rule out the coil packs and no spark to the plugs. so i moved onto the fuel system the relay has continuity so i can rule out a blown fuse in that department. i pretty much have it narrowed down to the fuel pump and i have a trusted mechanic working on replacing it, i dont have enough experience to do a repair such as that. i will keep yall updated on whether that does the trick or not. if not i now have a crank sensor to check .

 

Fuel pump did it and now the Green Taco is Rolling again

 

Score another for this guy...

 

sweet! now lets see it make 200k more