Follow up from Common Rail Diesel problem

Kept throwing a different fault each time you started it and some said Solenoids in the transmission (which is why it went to Wholesale Automatics but luckily they didn't believe what they were seeing and did pressure tests and eventually said electrical not Transmission) and others made no sense at all. The fuse in question was in the main under bonnet circuit panel and the fuse was still alright but not connecting. At least that's what Mr Toyota said.

I agree with splits.
Any vehicle which has roaming faults and mutiple sensor failures or solenoids not working is NEARLY ALWAYS a supply of electron problem OR an inability of those supplied electrons to get to/return to the battery negative.
Therefore, it has to be a fuse/connection or an neg/earthing connection. Reasonably basic stuff.

Obviously the auto people recognized that and sent it back to the diagnostic nuff nuffs hoping they would learn.
Unfortunately people blame Toyota but it isn't Mr. Toyota, it is Sammy Stupid who works in dealerships.

I mentioned a while ago of a Nissan D40 Navara with more faults than codes, almost. The Authorized selling dealer in my town worked on it and found multiple faults by their electronic brain. They had not much brain. Purely by accident they must have unbolted the earth and replaced it without knowing they had done anything. Then the totally dead vehicle started and registered NO faults.
Owner wanted to then trade it, lost confidence in it, the dealer then would NOT trade the vehicle claiming it had electronic faults, despite 5 minutes before saying it had none. Owner bought a Toyota Hilux.

RMD
posted
"electrons to get to/return to the battery negative." (Conventionally taught)

Just a small point,for those that don't know. Electrons actually travel from negative to positive of the battery, yes neg to pos.

So it is very important to have a good earth negative circuit.
Poor negative circuits cause all sorts of problems.

Not the conventional way every one gets taught in Australia .
America gets taught the correct way I believe.
English cars use to have positive as the ground and negative as the active circuit.

Gary

Yes Gary, they do leave the neg but since the fault was not "supplying" to the circuit, the idea of continuing the 12v flow was stated as such.

If ANY owner (ith a little instruction) has a multi meter and can hold the probes across fuses they would find the fault. It has to be causing a resistance to flow or no flow seeing the fuse itself was reported as being intact.

Dealers can't use multimeters or identify fuses apparently.

Yep your spot on Theo, In order to get economy and meet the emission controls they have made the new diesels to my mind uneconomical. Not in fuel mileage but in long term maintenance and over complicated. For nearly two years I had the ABS, Stability control and downhill assist light would come on for no reason and next time you started it it would go out. Had it back to dealer many times and they could not find the fault. By coincidence a friend installed trailer brakes on his 200 series Toyota and had the same fault appear straight after. By adjusting the sensitivity of the stop light switch to the point where it would come on with a light touch on the brakes the fault cleared. Tried it on mine and have never seen the lights again. Go figure.

Theo.
I would like to know how a neutral light switch can ruin an injector pump. Even if it altered the timing, which is injection based, the pump would work the same
because it isn't the item which controls timing at all. The injector pump just makes pressure, the injectors via the ECU do the timing. I think someone was telling you porkies there.

I,m with you RMD
can,t see how it could be related
mechpete

We had a D22 3 litre Navara and suffered a failure of the neutral switch, which certainly impacted the cars performance, however after Dealer diagnoses they found the faulty switch, replaced and all good. I believe it is fitted to prevent driveline 'overload' or 'shockload' so that as the clutch is depressed fuel returns to idle regardless of pedal position.
I am not 100% sure of the above and happy to be corrected.
Rgds,
Rob

Again - nothing to do with Common Rail - just issues that could occur in any car.

It seems that most of the comments and issues in this thread and more generally on the forum attribute any problem in a Common Rail engined 4wd to the common rail when in fact that aspect is exceptionally reliable (vulnerable to water) and the issues raised have nothing to do with that aspect of the engine and its management system.

RobnJane
A neutral switch isn't anything to do with a control pedal in the vehicle.
I agree switches can be faulty but usually the pedal switches, positioned on both Clutch and Brake cuts the cruise off when pedal is pressed.
A neutral switch is fitted to a gearsystem, ie, manual geabox. That mighthave an effect on stopping preformance if malfunctioning but isn't related to overload or shock loads.
I presume that info came from a dealer, most of whom will say anything to placate the customer, "give 'em a reason and they are happy and will go away" is the common style of dealer replies. If the customer is told something they keep asking what is the problem. Dealers have vast experience in telling customers "stuff". Sometimes they may be truthful. Document such events as they are rare indeed.

Hey Rmd

I'll have a crack at trying to relay the info given to me by my diesel mechanic in Cairns. I do as much work on vehicles myself, but if it's too much for me... it goes to him LOL

I drove around in my zd30 Navara for around 3 or 4 weeks with 4th gear badly surging or as some people say 'hunting'. It was almost non operational. After 2 weeks I did my research and it pointed to a neutral switch so I purchased and replaced. Easy peesy... problem fixed.

2 weeks after new neutral switch injector pump died (Bosch vp44 pump... google it). The only fault code the thing threw up was 0073 which is 'pump communication line' which is the plug & elec line from ECU to pump. Myself and a mate did everything we could to try and start the vehicle to no result. My mechanic stressed that the vp44 does inherently die for no reason from time to time BUT there is nearly always a trigger for it and his first question was have you had any issues of late, which i responded with the 4th gear hunting & neutral switch. Bingo he said.

His take on it was that Id been driving on it for a matter of weeks it had upset a portion of the ECU thus causing wrong injection... not so much the pump itself but injection in general was not fluent as per normal. Again and as you say the pump just gives pressure, but the injectors were being disrupted by the surging. It all seemed pretty likely to me in his words.

My further research revealed the Vp44 normally throws up a code 0076 'spill valve' when it is dead. In my case the 0073 comm line is extremely common in the 3L Patrol, same but intercooled. It is mostly due to air induction into pump e.g. running out of fuel, air in lines. 0073 is a code that can pop up from time to time in the Navara's being caused by running severly low on fuel e.g. starving injector pump, or problems associated with ECU (as per my case). The ECU from memory can nearly always be reset for minor issues by starting vehicle and letting run for 10mins straight however injector pump can never be reset. It must be replaced.

Id like to think I've not been sold for a dummy. IfI have been it must have been Johnathon Thurston kind of dummy!!!!

" It seems that most of the comments and issues in this thread and more generally on the forum attribute any problem in a Common Rail engined 4wd to the common rail when in fact that aspect is exceptionally reliable (vulnerable to water) and the issues raised have nothing to do with that aspect of the engine and its management system."

================================

I agree. It reminds me of a story I read decades ago at the time Chrysler outboard motors were first fitted with electronic ignition systems. The control unit was a black plastic box. .

A steadily increasing number of these "black boxes" started coming back from dealers who, while trying to diagnose problems with these mysterious new ignition systems, thought they were faulty. It was a case of blame the black box. Chrysler could not find anything wrong with them.

Some bright spark in head office decided to make the control units out of white plastic. That more than halved the number being returned. There was no more black box to blame.

" A slightly loose main jet in my FB Holden carby had two good mechanics defeated. "

We had a problem many years ago at work with a Renault engine cutting out when the car went around a sharp corner. After much checking and head scratching, it turned out to be a broken engine mount.

As the car went fast enough around a corner that was sharp enough, the engine would lean over slightly and pull the wire to the firewall mounted ignition coil tight. This would break the circuit.

Gee, that's a hard one. Diagnosis of a old holden six.
1/ fuel in bowl of pump.
2/ fuel in carb
3/ we got some spark ?
still no go well undo 2 nuts and a fuel line and take carb off for closer inspection. 10 mins tops to do this.
It is not rocket science and I wonder how many apprentices they trained not many I hope.