My Hiace won't start after changing the fuel filter

Hello!

Just got a 1996 super custom HiAce so I am new to this all!

Started to see an issue where the car would turn off while driving; started to occur more frequently and it finally left me on the side of the road.

The person who sold it to me suggested that it may be a fuel issue and recommended that I change the fuel filter.
After doing so, the car is not starting; it cranks but doesn't turn over and start.
I'm seeing a strange flashing/flickering of the coil and engine lights in the dashboard when the key is in the ON position.

Any recommendations?

You do not say what engine you have so a bit of a shot in the dark , could be the dreaded ECU capacitors leaking this causes all sorts of weird symptoms including engine stopping, starting again after cooling or when starting occasionally firing but not starting, this only applies to the 1kzte engine . This is my own personal experience the ECU capacitors of that era were particularly dodgy and most fail at this age, the repair is quite simple if you know an amateur engineer with good soldering skills there are 7or 8 need replacing and only cost about 7/8 dollars each, I found this to be the most cost effective repair new ECU are not available second hand ones will have the same issues, professional workshops are not interested. By the way the ECU is in the left hand door pillar near the battery, loads of info on the form just search ECU good luck.

Hello!
Thanks for your reply.
I have the 3.0 turbo version.

I actually thought that it may be an electronics issue in the ECU.  I opened it up and took a look but did not see anything suspicious and the board smelled ok. Picture is below.

When that capacitor leaking issue occurs, what are the symptoms? What would it look like? Would the capacitors be visibly damaged?

Your van just needs air, compression and fuel to run.

The dash lights are worrying, but you can verify you have fuel by continuously cranking it and observing smoke from the exhaust. No smoke no fuel.

I would consider verifying fuel at the pump if you have a fueling issue. You have to prime that separator housing after you replace the filter. If you have no fuel at the engine, I would verify prime there first as it was just replaced. It takes forever to crank if it is empty.

If you have fuel there, there is no lift pump on the Hiace, so the injection pump is the next issue in the chain. It has internal filters that when clogged can cause your symptoms. Good news is they are user serviceable but annoying to get to.

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Agree with the others who have posted some great options.

Yes, the ECU might have an issue and capacitors do fail. There are sort of two types of capacitors out there. Metalised film and electrolytic and they fail in different ways. This:

is a great explanation of symptoms of their failure but the solution is to test them and swap the duds.

However, start simple!

If you have one of the filters like here:


Then you need to prime the filter fully before it’ll deliver fuel to the injector pump and on to the injectors and be reliable!

Before cranking anything further remove / crack open the outflow from the filter unit and see that you are able to pump fuel through the new filter.

If you can then button everything up again and bleed the injectors (look this up on YT etc or dig into the manuals on the Hiacesoutheast website). The best site for these that I've come across and also to decode the build plate etc.

If there’s no fuel then there could be lots of reasons and I’ve seen them all. In general,

1 – There is a leak in the filter assembly so the pump just pulls in air. Sort out the o-rings / gaskets and check the drain at the bottom.

2 – The pump primer head has issues. There’s a diaphragm and non-return valves in the primer head and they get upset, stuck or damaged and the pumping action has no affect. Remove the primer head and submerge it in a bit of diesel and pump away. If it sorts itself out then great, mine did. If not replace it.

3 - The fuel supply from the tank is poor. There can be all sorts of problems here including dirt in the tank, corroded lines or a block to the tank vent that should equalises the pressure. Again start simple.

There are a number of other things that can cause problems such as the stop solenoid cutting in or as said above insufficient tank venting so you are starved of fuel or a failing ECU (I think the 3.0 turbo probably has an ECU) but good fuel supply without entrained air is absolutely crucial.

Finally, the fuel unit on the Electronic Parts Catalogue (for my van) is here:

https://toyota.epc-data.com/regius_ace/lh119v/114894/engine/2302/

Modify this to yours (based on the build plate and options) and you’ll have access to a very good parts catalogue site, which also links to the Amayama site (others are out there, too) that can also be searched.

Cheers!

Thank you!

I tested the fuel flow thru the filter when I replaced it; the pump on top of the filter DOES get fuel out of the output tube.

I also see smoke out of the exhaust when I'm trying to start the engine.

After about a doze attempts, the van did turn on and stay on for a few min; I let it rev (~2k RPM) for a minute and let it site for a minute, then turned it off; now I can't start it again.

I'm continuing to see the engine and coil lights flicker on and off a lot when the key is in ON position; I checked all the fuses and they are ok; also visually inspected the ECU boards and they seem ok.

I'm seeing some black smoke out of the exhaust wen the car was on for a bit.

Others have suggested that maybe I got bad diesel?
Or maybe I have air in the system?

I have some videos of how it's sounding/looking when trying to start up but I can not attached them because I just joined this forum and there is a 7 day wait period

Thank you all for the help, much apprciated.

Interesting and good to know you’ve worked through the first steps.

I didn’t know there was a 7-day period between joining and being able to post more complicated messages, but I remember when the options appeared. I thought it might be related to content. There’s a sticky post in the ‘Show us yours’ section that explains how to uploads pictures and the rest are similar, when you can.

I see that you’ve mentioned a couple of times the flickering of the engine and coil lights. If this is really fast then it might be a problem but if it’s sort-of on-off and countable I wonder if this might be diagnostic codes being displayed. Toyota and probably lots of manufacturers using the OBD1 system used flashing engine lights, particularly the check engine light to display tens and units of sequences of codes and these are displayed in a diagnostic mode with the key in the ON position. There are loads of YT vids that show how to read these codes. They are also described in the 1KZ-TE manual available at Hiacesoutheast. I don’t think you’ve said which engine you have but this and the diagnostic fault finder in the same manual might be another place to review. I don't even have OBD1 (I don't think) in my '92.

Yes, you can get bad diesel but most diesel-powered things are not that fussy to grade. It’s important it’s clean (filtered) to avoid injector blockages and the water is removed. Air in the system is a real problem and the whole fuel supply side is driven by a pull pump in the injector pump so it’s very sensitive to seal failure as this will draw in air.

It’s worth looking at a couple of YT videos on indirect injection or diesel rotary injection pumps to see how they work as this might help but once pressurised, seal problems tend to leak diesel outwards in an obvious way.

If you think you have supply side issues (including air admission) then try bypassing the whole lot and test using some different fuel in a small can. I once had to do this briefly and used an outboard engine squeezy primer and no filter, but that’s not a fix!


So, maybe codes, maybe ECU, maybe air or other fuel supply-side problems.

Hope these comments help and don’t lead to dead ends.

Cheers!

I had a feeling that it's an electrical issue so I loosened and retightened the grounding wires to the engine; this seems to have stopped the flickering ignition lights issue! I'm also now about to start the vehicle!

I remain worried about taking the van on a longer drive as the way it suddenly turns off while driving can be dangerous.

Another idea was that there is an electrical problem in the key/ignition; as a test, i got the car started and then wiggled the key (without turning it); this definitely did something bad once (can't repeat it tho!): it sent the engine revving up to 3.5K RPM; i turned the car off and smelled something burning.... could not identify where from; not the ECU and not the ignition area....

Weird.

My next port of call would be looking at the Diesel Injection pump. There are numerous plugs and sensors coming and going off that. I recently had to replace a stay that bolts to the engine block and bottom of the injection pump.. It had unbolted itself and dropped off the van meaning my pump was not secured, would shudder itself to stall and broke a bunch of stuff attached to it.

Among those components were a lot of plugs/wires that had rubbed and shorted. So do a visual inspection of all those and multimeter for circuits etc.

Maybe release the injector rail and crank it and observe that the jets on all 4 all of significant pressure and that fuel is at least getting past the pump.

A bonus is that itz really fun to get too..