Topher60

Well it's going to the shop and I'll let you all know. Been bugging the **** out of me and I can't wait any longer for help. The car has been sitting for too long. I've been told by a couple of people what I did shouldn't have caused a problem with the Igniters, Coil packs or Distributors. I will know soon enough.
Topher60

sam12345

iTrader: (1)

So what ended up being the problem?

deanshark

Dude, he just posted 2 hours before you did, in the middle of the night. I don't think he's that important for someone to get out of bed, tow his car in, and fix it at midnight. Have another beer and wait for the answer.
Topher60; If you didn't bring it in yet I thought of something you can check. Under the passenger side coil, near the coolant temp sensor, there's another sensor (not the sensor for the temp gauge) that might have come undone or wire cut. I don't remember what it's called but it's related to the fuel injectors, it wont let the car start. I read about that sensor a few weeks ago on a different site, I'll see if I can find that post.

sam12345

iTrader: (1)

yeah, I didn't realize the date and time. I just get frustrated when people post that they are going to report back and then you never find out what the problem was.

sam12345

iTrader: (1)

So what ended up being the problem?

Topher60

Well the problem has been solved. I finally got a Master Toyota Tech to come over to my house. I was about to have it towed to the dealer, as I stated in my last post.
Nice to have connections and a lot of patience, I waited two months for this fellow to get over.
The problems turned out to be as follows.
1. The EFI relay was bad. I replaced that. Part# 90987-02004-83. The Horn and EFI relay are exactly the same part numbers. Ordered a spare.
2. The timing was WAY OFF.
When I had crossed the 3 & 5 wires and taken it for a 3 mile drive (I wasn’t aware at the time I had crossed the 3 & 5 wires) and it was running rough so I got on it to try and blow out any crap since it had been sitting for 6 months. By doing this it threw the timing way off. The tech was surprised at how far it threw it off.
NOTE: When trying to find the timing mark on the engine block (Blue) to match up with the mark on the RH & LH camshaft pulleys’ it was a pain in the *** because dirt had covered the blue mark. I was lucky because when I was putting the covers back on the wires (several times) I had accidently wiped the dirt off of one of them. You can see photo #17 of the mark here @ http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/engine/timingbelt.html .
During the process of elimination fixing the car I did replace the rotor caps, rotors, drive belt, EFI relay, OEM Denso plugs part# 90919-01178-83 (Tech said it needed OEM plugs) thermostat, thermostat gasket and a vacuum hose that went to the Intake Pipe (Part# 17875-50010) that I broke the nipple off of.
My time spent by not ordering the OEM wire harness (Part# 90919-22262) and screwing it up to save a few bucks was 15 hours.
The Tech spent 14 hours at my house to resolve this mess.
I was very fortunate to have someone to come over to my garage and do this for me.
My total costs for parts were a little under $600.00 I ordered some extra oil filters. I bartered 100 GB of music on a brand new 750GB Toshiba external hard drive ($70.00) for the Tech. This would have cost a hell of a lot more at a Dealer.
I hope this will help some of my fellow members of Clublexus.com
Thank You,
Topher60

deanshark

Well, glad ya got it fixed. As you were ruling things out I thought you checked the relays after I mentioned it but (I went back and read it) you just checked the fuses. Not sure if I would trust this "Master Toyota Tech" though. One thing, you don't need OEM plugs. You can run whatever ya want, I'm using some $1.49 copper plugs and never had any troubles. Another thing, how would switching 2 plug wires make the engine jump time? If that was the case then thousands of peoples' cars would have jumped time. I see your parts list, where you say "drive belt", are you talking the timing belt or serpentine belt? I would think timing, b/c it jumped time, but you didn't list the rest of the parts that need to be changed in there, like the idlers, tensioner and water pump? I would think, b/c it jumped, that the tensioner is what was actually bad. How much did this "master tech" charge you for the 14 hours he was there? (I'm just wondering what people charge for side work)

Topher60

I paid $450 plus the hard drive with music. I replaced the serpentine belt aka drive belt. The timing belt and water pump were replaced 25K miles ago (125,000 miles) and I was there the whole time he worked on my car. I saw for myself how far the timing was off. He also said he recommended the OEM plugs. Not that I must use them. The ones I had bought were not good ones for my car. I got my money back from Napa for the other plugs and the OEM ones were cheaper. I'm aware that you can use other plugs. Just not the ones I had bought.

I don't know what idlers are. I’ll look it up. The tensioner I'll have to ask him about. I don't know the answer to how could switching two wires make the timing jump that much. All I know is it did. I saw for myself. Since I had this problem I have been there with the Tech the entire time.

Topher60

deanshark

So, you watched him do all the work? If it "supposedly" jumped time, he tore the engine apart to reset the timing and he didn't change the belt, tensioner, or idler pulleys? If it jumped then the belt could have missing or shredded teeth. It doesn't matter if it was only 25K, my tensioner went after 14K so I changed everything inside again b/c one of the idlers was bad also. I think what he might have done was try to set the timing marks (and they were off) but he probably needed to spin the crankshaft one more full revolution to line everything up. When I said "how could switching the wires make it jump time", I was being sarcastic. There's no way that would do anything except make the car run rough, which it did, it would not jump time.
My opinion on this is, I think your whole problem was the EFI relay blew when the coil wire snapped and (more then likely) sent a power serge through the whole system. Not to sound like a d*** but if 3 months ago, when some of us mentioned it, you checked the EFI relay with a $10 meter, you wouldn't have had to deal with this so called "Master Toyota Tech". I just think he told you all that so he could charge you more. That's what it sounds like to me and I really hate that. But at least it's running now. Hope nothing else goes wrong, good luck.