Charlieb60

OK...so here is my issue.

My 89 4Runner with the 3VZE won't turn over. It gets incredibly close everytime, but just won't get there.

It seems to be draining my battery, as I had to go have it charged yesterday. I put it it in, tried to crank and it just wouldn't get there....the mechanic that looked at it for me a few weeks ago (it was really cold and wouldn't start) told me to keep my foot all the down on the gas so it wouldn't flood engine and just keep trying to turn it over.

That has worked everytime, but now it's stopped working.

HELP!

I am not a mechanic, nor mechanically inclined, and I need this truck to work for me in the cold and snow. It's snowing heavily now and really need to get started up.

Any help that a do it yourselfer could try.....

THANKS

mightymouse

iTrader: (6)

take the battery to the parts store and have it tested. If it tests out ok then take the alternator in to have it tested. Prob one of the two. My guess is bad battery. your mechanic gave some goofy advice don't put the gas to the floor when you start it as that will not help if the motor isn't turning over.

Charlieb60

OK. I took the battery yesterday and they just said that it needed a charge. They did that, I put it back in, and that's that.

How difficult is it to take out the alternator...never done anything like that before. Where should I go to start?

How much is reasonable for a mechanic to charge for replacing an alternator?

Is this possibly a symptom of poor compression? My mechanic also says my truck is really slow, which I thought was just common to the 3.0 engine and it being a 20 year old truck.

It's awesome in the snow and I got it for a decent price, but I need to figure this out.

Thanks for your help.

mightymouse

iTrader: (6)

just a words of advice. Get another mechanic as he seems to have an opinion about your motor and stepping on the gas peddle to not flood the engine sounds a little hokey to me. Replacing an alternator should take no loner than 1 hour maybe 1.5 if he's a little slow. Or start reading. There is a lot of info on this site along with others that have a load of info regarding your truck. There are fsm (factory service manual) links write ups and many other things that will help you out. I'm not going to spoon feed you and i'm not gonna be a jerk and just say search! but you get the point right? Start searching, reading and figuring this little stuff out for yourself. In the long run you'll be more educated about your rig, less likely to get screwed at the mechanic, able to do some simple repairs, and take care of your own stuff when problems arise. Knowledge is power my friend. Good luck
Aaron

mightymouse

iTrader: (6)

After re-reading your original post what do you mean by not turning over? Are you saying the starter cranks the motor over and it doesn't fire? just cranks and cranks but never fires? or you turn the key and it barely turns the starter and makes a slow whining sound until it doesn't turn at all? Or does it just click and nothing? This stuff can be difficult to diagnose over the web. Answers to this might help you in your searching around the net and give you a better idea to what you're looking at as a potential problem.

Charlieb60

The starter is cranking the motor and it does not fire...just keeps cranking and rumbling, but does not fully turn over and stay on.

Once I give it a few tries, then it starts to whine a little then seems to drain the battery to where it will just click and not crank at all.

Does that answer it better?

Man I appreciate your help.

mightymouse

iTrader: (6)

Yeah that's a better idea and it sounds as though the alternator is not your problem as the battery is charged enough to start the engine but for some reason you're not getting it to fire. So at this point you can either take it to a shop and get it fixed (again i would get another mechanic with what i've read so far) or start learning.
Alright i'll give ya some direction. Here's some things to check and start searching on how to check.
Check the fuel pump and make sure you are getting fuel to the rail. (i think this might be your problem)
Check and make sure you're getting spark. Might wanna pull a spark plug and see what it looks like just for fun and see if it's shot, fouled or screwed up.
Here's the fsm for ya now get to reading. http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-b...fsm/index.html
Also check the fuses (efi fuse) And start trouble shooting. A motor only needs a few things to fire and run air, spark, fuel.
This should be a good start.
Good luck, Aaron

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

As you don`t say where you live but you do say it is cold.
Have you changed then fuel filter lately ??

Being most places have 10% alcohol in the gas it being froze shouldn`t be an issue.

The battery is draining due to your cranking I would think it has to be a fuel or spark problem

Did you notice anything before this no start problem started?/

When was the last time a good major tune up was done?? Plugs, wires, cap and rotor air filter.

what weight oil are you running to heavy and in need of a tune up could cause a no start issue like you are seeing.

you might also have battery cables that need to be replaced just from old age.

All these things added together could cause your issue.

Try and figure what the problem is before just throwing parts at it unless needed.

You should really post your location you might have help just a few miles away

Charlieb60

I am in Boone, NC, which is the western part of the state in the mountains.

It's pretty cold here, about 20 degrees.

I am going to start with some of these ideas...I just have very little knowledge and don't know where to start so it's a little intimidating.

I'm a fast learner though and will get this figured out.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Charlieb60

Here's the latest. Mechanic came to my house to try and get it started. After about 15 minutes, he said that he adjusted the timing slightly and I watched him mess with the distributor and then it started up. It took a lot of gentle little cranks. It then stopped cranking until we hooked the battery up to his truck's battery.

All in all, maybe the ignitor? I told him to run a compression test and check starter, battery including all cables, etc.

We'll see later today. I learned a lot by watching...I learn much better that way than reading a manual, just hard to find the time and person to learn from.

mightymouse

iTrader: (6)

if that's the case (this is only speculation) Then one might think the timing belt is off and needs to be replaced. If the timing belt is off on the 3.0 from my experience it will either not start or run poorly. Or the timing just could have been off and that's all that was needed. Glad to see it's running.