I went to replace the fuel filter tonight, but I ended up keeping the current one on. Does this thing stop leaking/flowing or does it just keep going until you get the new one on? Do any fuel lines need to be loosened or anything to pull the ends off? I didn't want to force it too hard. Not super easy when lying on the floor of the garage in a small space between the car and the wall :S.

I found a "how to" on the filter replacement, but the pictures don't work, so it wasn't super helpful. Anyway, just have to be really quick to minimize leakage or what?

 

2JZ?

I've seen fuel filters go 300K miles and are still fine, others got clogged and caused issues. So hard to say when they need to be replaced.



As you can see there are hex fittings on each end of the filter these need to be held security while loosening the fuel lines. If done wrong you can twist and break the fuel lines so make sure you have some good flare wrenches or vice grips work as well if there is enough room. Leakage is not a big deal, vent pressure by removing the gas cap then crack a line open some fuel will leak out but not much. But don't leave the filter off for a long period I did this once a whole bunch of fuel leaked on to the floor.

The bottom fuel line is especially prone to twisting, the hex nut sticks to the fuel line (rust, crud etc.) so be very careful.

 

Thanks for the response. Engine is 2JZ-GTE, but I think it's the same filter for both. I did get to the point of removing both flare nuts, but then I didn't want to pull on the lines too hard to be able to remove them from the ends of the filter. Looks like they are at least slightly inserted, so they need to be pulled out and moved to the side to pull the filter out. Maybe there are more nuts I need to remove on the "holster" for the fuel filter?

Anyway, the fuel coming out was clean, so I've just left everything reconnected for now. I just thought I'd change it out since I have no idea how old the filter is and I already had the side skirts off (they need to be removed on my car for access). I also got an oil change done this weekend. Getting closer to actually DD'ing this for a bit. I'll probably start mid August. I think the last thing to get done before then is a polish/wax.

 

I had the car beside the Aristo moved out of the garage, so I had some more room to take a few photos with the new wheels on. I didn't want to take the time to move the crap out of the way beside the car, but you get the idea. I think I'm liking them, but I still need to get the car lower...No time to do that for now.

 

Replaced the right rear window regulator last night.



Old vs "new"



Kind of forgot I had to do this job. A while back I was able to get three of the regulators from a guy who was parting a car. The plastic pieces always break on these things...

I also started to work on a cut polish job, but it will be a bit before I get it done. I did a heavier cut on the top of the trunk, roof and hood. It's looking ok, but need a professional job to get out some of the heavier water spot etching in the paint. Once I'm done, It will look ok for now though

 

Finished the paint correction and I'm generally happy with how it turned out.

Before:





After:







I could have insurance on it as early as middle of next week. I'll get some better photos when it's out of the garage

 

I've been driving this now for the last couple of days. I always get nervous when I start driving a car again after I've had it sitting for a while. Especially in this case where I had the IACV issues but hadn't really done any further testing to verify the cleaning I did worked. However, I'm happy to report no issues so far (100 km)! I took some photos on Monday, so I'll get those uploaded soon. Unfortunately, it's raining today Good thing I took those photos the other day!!!

 

Still working through the photos I took early last week. In the mean time, here's a couple I took on the weekend.

 

Well, two weeks of driving went smooth until yesterday. IACV issue came back, so new one on order. I should have it tomorrow or Thursday. I'll probably wait until the weekend to fix it. This time the CEL came on where it didn't before, but I was also driving it this time. Last time I was just idling (or trying to) in the driveway. Since it has a CEL I'll see if I can pull codes as well.

 

Bad news, the 2JZ-GE and 2JZ-GTE IACV's are different They look very much the same (especially if you are looking at photos where they aren't side by side), but the GE IACV is slightly smaller with the plunger itself also being a smaller diameter. Trying to research it before hand all I ever found posts about is that they were different part numbers. Maybe this info with the photos will help someone else in the future! GTE IACV on the left and GE on the right.





Found a proper GTE one, more $$$ of course . Probably late next week though before I have it

 

Unfortunately, the IACV doesn't seem to be the issue. It started an ran for a bit, but then after a minute or so it died. Tried starting a few more times and each time it would idle low and stall out shortly after starting. This is the same thing that was happening before. The only two things I've touched are the IACV and the ECU. Since it worked properly after I had temporarily unplugged and then reconnected the ECU, maybe there is a bad connection somewhere. I would think if it was a vacuum leak it wouldn't have ran fine for 3 weeks and then suddenly have the same issue.

Anyway, the Land Cruiser is back to daily driver duty and the Aristo is back off the road and need to spend some time diagnosing.

 

What did the code end up being??

Bad ECU's are very common in these old cars, it could absolutely be a blown capacitor in your ECU, have you opened it up?

Edit: i see you said you opened it up in April, which may be long enough for a problem to occur when unplugging/plugging it in if the battery wasn't disconnected before. I would definitely check on that again.

 

Checked for codes....nothing came up. Luckily, I do have a spare ECU (I think) so I can try swapping that out, but I think there are also a few other potential issues I can check into. I will do a more detailed write up of some other things that have happened with the car over the past year. I don't think many other people check in here, but if nothing else, it will be a reminder for me of what's been going on when I have time to revisit this

 

As I mentioned in my previous post here are a few things that have happened with the car over the past year. Get ready for a bit of a read:

About a year ago I had a TRD cluster that I was selling. To confirm it was working, I temporarily installed it just to confirm lights and gauges were working. In the process, one of the retaining clips for the cluster broke. Joys of working with 30 year old plastic and cold temperatures!!! I haven’t had any issues with the stock cluster, but maybe the connection isn’t 100% and causing the ECU to not receive the vehicle speed reading? (more on this below). Bad cluster connection preventing ECU from receiving speed reading.

The car was parked through last Fall and Winter. In March 2021 I sold my M5, so I wanted to move the Aristo into the garage. Battery was charged up, turned the key to the ignition “click” and then nothing. All lights on the dash are off, nothing electrical works. Disconnect the battery reconnect, lights etc. are working again. Turn the key “click” and then nothing again. Mess with the battery cables a bit and the car starts up, but idles at 2000 RPM and seems like a massive boost leak. However, the car is driveable, so I go around the block and then back in the driveway. Bad IACV.

After research etc. the above seemed like an IACV issue. I took the IACV off, cleaned it and put it back on. First attempt to start the car and I get the same “click” and then no power as described above. After messing with the battery connections again, I found that if I push the ground cable towards the battery after I connect it, the car will start. The terminal connector does look a little bit rusty, so maybe this ground cable has a bad connection to the terminal under the shrink wrap? Maybe there is an issue with the battery post? Bad IACV. Bad ground connection or ground cable. Battery.

After I get the battery cable to connect properly, now the car starts but idles super low and then dies. If I put my foot on the throttle a bit, I can keep it running. I figure it’s still an issue with the IACV and now it’s stuck closed instead of open. Doing more research on poor idle it seemed like lots of people had issues with the capacitors in the ECU that were causing this problem, so I open things up and check the ECU. Surprise! It’s a Blitz Access ECU. Can’t see any evidence of leaking or anything with the capacitors, so I close everything up and put the interior back together. ECU capacitors.

The car sits for a month or two and I decide I want to get the car in the garage, so I can work on it regardless of weather conditions. I figured even with the low idle issue, I can probably get the car to run long enough to get it in the garage. Drop the battery in, do the little trick with the ground cable…the cart starts up and idles normal. Let it warm up, still running just fine. Awesome! I thought “I guess the IACV unstuck itself.” Pull the car in the garage, and do an oil change, flush out the brake fluid and do some detailing work.

Early September 2021 now and I decide I’m going to drive the Aristo, so I can get some work done on my Land Cruiser. By default I believe the AVC-R displays boost, speed and throttle %. In the past, all these displays have worked properly; however, this time, the speed just says “0 km/hr” all the time. I didn’t think anything of it and I don’t really want to display the speed on there anyway. This goes back to the first paragraph, maybe the ECU isn’t getting a speed reading? Bad cluster connection or something else with the speed reading.

About 3 weeks and 500km later, the car starts acting weird on my drive to work. Any time I let off the throttle, the RPM’s get erratic and I get the CEL lit up as well as TRC. Foot back on the throttle and there is a bit of a stumble and then the car seems to drive just fine and both the CEL and TRC lights go back off. On the drive, any time I come to a stop, the RPMs drop and the car stalls. The rest of the drive to work this is combated by left foot braking and applying just a bit of throttle with the right foot. The drive home after work things got a bit worse. When trying to accelerate from low RPM the car would stumble and misfire until it got to about 2000 RPM. Then it would drive fine. I think at this point the CEL and TRC stayed lit up all the time. Again, I worked around this by left foot braking and I would manually select lower gears to keep the RPM higher. When I get home, I can tell the car has been running rich since the exhaust tips are all black.

Since the above was similar to what I had experienced before, I just assumed the IACV was bad again. I did check codes before I disconnected the battery, but no codes came up (jump TE1 and E1 just get constant flashing CEL). Now I have dropped in a new IACV complete with new gaskets and check valve assembly. I started up the car and it idled ok at about 1000 RPM, but slowly got lower and died after a few minutes with the same low RPM issue I was seeing before.

Also, not noted above, but may be worth noting, on the day I was driving to work and the issue came up, when I started the car first thing in the morning, the idle was a bit low, but a slight blip on the throttle and it ran normally. This is actually something I had observed with the car for a long time; however, this had not occurred in the three weeks prior while driving the car. Coincidence? I also know that I have a small electrical draw. I haven’t been able to fully check into it, but I suspect it’s from one of the door lock actuators. Maybe a combination of the draw lowering the battery combined with a bad connection? I dunno…

This is where I’m at now. Observations from above with a bit of research I think I need to check into the following:

· IACV issue has been ruled out

· Is there are bad connection on the cluster or elsewhere preventing the ECU from getting a speed reading?

· Does the negative battery post have a bad connection to the battery cell?

· Does the ground cable to the battery have a bad connection?

· Does the ECU have bad capacitors (I’m kind of thinking this is not the case, but easy to check again)

· Does the ECU have a bad connection? Possible.

· Spark plugs are probably fouled

· Bad coil packs?

· Fuel pump ECU?

· Electrical draw

Given that the issue was there, then was gone, then came back again, I’m guessing it will be something electrical which most of the listed items to investigate are electrical related. I’ll get to starting to check this stuff, but I have another car I will be working on first. I’m guessing early 2022 before I get back to the Aristo, but hopefully sooner!

 

As usual, I took a long time to do anything with this, but I finally had some time recently to try and figure out what was wrong with the car. First I just tried starting the car since it had been sitting for a while. Cranked for a bit, then if would fire up, but die right away. Sometimes it seemed like it was misfiring a bit as well. Then I checked the fuel pump ECU and fuel pump by jumping the terminals in the diagnostic port. Confirmed to be working ok. Next I just poked around looking at the vacuum lines, but didn't see anything obvious. Next easiest thing for me to do was swap out the ECU for a spare that I have. With the spare ECU the car cranked for a bit and then fired up. Idled a little bit low with a bit of a misfire, but left it and it started idling smooth. I let it run for a bit and slowly gave it a bit of gas, with a few blips of the throttle to see if it would idle low or stall out like it was doing before. Nope, all good!

I was still a bit suspicious that it was simply the ECU, so I tried pulling around on the wires to the ECU, so see if it changed anything, but no difference observed. Still not totally convinced I put the original ECU back in and tried to start the car. Now the car started, but it idled pretty high (1500 RPM) and was slowly climbing. The CEL light was also on, and I think the TRC light as well. I then swapped back to the spare ECU and it ran just fine, so the problem was the ECU. No surprise that @joewitafro was right!

I also confirmed that the ground cable is bad from the battery. I suspect there is too much corrosion in the cable near the terminal connection. I made a cable to temporarily bypass and jump from the battery to the body. I'll need to decide if I buy a new cable, or just make a permanent replacement to jump from the battery to the body.

Other plans...I'm sure the spark plugs are not looking great, but I'm concerned that if I go in to replace them I'm going to end up having to do the coil pack connectors as well. I have replacement connectors, I just don't really feel like adding that to my "to do" list. Short term, I need my Land Cruiser for a few things anyway, so realistically, the car will probably just stay off the road until next spring. That will give me time over the Winter to get other things done on the car as well.

Good news after looking over the vacuum lines is I noticed it may be leaking coolant at the heater valve location. Confirmed it was leaking after the car was running.



Not good news that it's leaking, but good news that I noticed it! I'll need to look up the part number and hope that it's the same as the GS300.