Gen 1 Sequoia Died while driving - battery light came on - crank no start

I was driving my ‘02 Sequoia home this evening and when driving slowly over a railroad crossing, the car died. The battery light came on immediately. The car did not lose any accessory power. Headlights, hazards, radio all still worked. Car would crank but not start. Battery is nearly new. I pushed it a block or so to my house…in the rain. My god that thing is heavy.
Any insight would be appreciated. Car has 3/4 tank of gas.

 

Timing belt must be changed every 100k or 10yr, whichever comes first (toyota says 90k/9yr). This is a mild interference engine and you can absolutely turn it into a boat anchor if you fail to do that and it snaps.

First question: Have you verified the timing belt is intact? 10mm socket to loosen a couple of timing cover fasteners and check.

Second question, if the timing belt was done with a quality belt and tensioner in the maintenance window: Did you verify the crank position sensor's harness was correctly routed and hasn't been severed?

Thirdly, IF THE TIMING BELT IS INTACT, have you tried starting it with Starting Fluid, which you can buy cans of at the store? This will tell us if it's a fuel delivery issue (which DOES NOT mean you need to change the fuel pump!!)

 

I would give it a shot of ether. If it turns over, you know you have a fuel problem. But, I would check the timing belt first as @shifty` has suggested.

 

Check the timing belt first and foremost. If it does turn out to be bad, hopefully as you have a 2002 the engine may have survived. I've seen a few cases where things worked out for the earlier pre VVTI engines. Also you were going slowly, so that's in your favor.

 

Thanks for all the quick responses. It seems like it’s probably the timing belt. What’s the ballpark cost of a timing belt replacement at an independent mechanic? That’s not something I think I can take on myself.

 

Why did everyone immediately assume timing belt? Battery light on could also be a bad alternator.

Based on what exactly? Unless you pulled back the timing cover and checked, you can't be certain. Checking the timing belt takes no more than 10 minutes. If it did break, it's not a guarantee that the engine is fine. Your looking at $1500 minimum for most shops to replace. Water pump and tensioner need to be done at the same time.

 

Yeah, I would say $1500 is ballpark for a quality place that knows what they are doing. But don't think it's the timing belt because that is what we are telling you to check first. We're just saying IF it is the timing belt, better to know it before you make things worse. You can get a good look at the timing belt by removing the 10mm bolts on the timing belt cover on the passenger side, then pulling the cover back. You'll see if it broke. If not, go ahead with the other steps. Fuel, spark, air.

 

Truck will run even if the alternator pukes. Even if the serpentine belt snaps. My truck was running just fine after the factory alternator failed and was on fire.

I'm fairly certain battery light comes on if the truck won't start, i.e. key is forward in the ON position but the truck isnt' running. I could be wrong, but I feel like it's true for the pre-2005 at least?

Generally speaking though, abrupt and quiet stoppage of engine, turning over with no catch, no history provided on timing belt, it's the first thing I'll always tell people to check on this specific engine.

3-step process I'd follow is above. Super easy to check the timing belt is intact and tight. If it's intact, that means things are likely turning over inside the engine. If they're turning over inside the engine, I'd want to determine: Is it a fuel delivery problem or a spark delivery problem? That's where the ether/starting fluid comes into the picture. Spray a healthy shot into the throttle body. If the truck starts, something is wrong with crank position sensor, ECU, fuel pump (but it's probably not the fuel pump if slapping the tank while cranking doesn't make the truck start), or other fuel delivery prob. If it doesn't turn over, I'm going to be looking at things electrical.

This could be something as stupid as OP's EFI 1 fuse popped. We really don't know, but before he starts laying into it, cranking it constantly, he should check if the timing belt is intact. I wouldn't necessarily want to be cranking my engine with no timing belt.

 

True but not for long.

Even with a new battery, the batt light coming on is usually an indication of a charging problem, checking the voltage of the battery is normally the logical first step, at least in my book of checks. Also, how do your battery connections look, are they tight ? Many accessories will still function with low voltage but certain engine control items will not function properly with inadequate ECU power supply voltages caused by alternator and/or it's voltage regulator.

Caution about timing belt is always appropriate but I prefer to kiss.

 

I just confirmed on my '06, if the engine dies while in operation, this is what the dash looks like after, battery light, check engine light, trans temp light, all of the above comes on. I'm going to go out on a limb and say the '00-'04 probably does similar, despite the gauge cluster differences.

Only saying: I wouldn't let the dash lights sway a decision on this one.

And I'd verify the timing belt, just because it's so easy to do. Nobody wants to be THIS GUY, he was in a similar position. We told him on page 1 to check the timing belt and timing. He finally did after hours spent, on page 5 of the thread, and found it was snapped.

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Truck has been towed to a trusted Indy shop for investigation. I’ll update the thread as info becomes available.

 

The one difference between 05/06 and 00-04 combination meters with factory bulbs is the fact 00-04 use incandescent and 05/06 like your 06, uses LED's. LED's are either on or off and will stay visually illuminated longer than an incandescent as a battery slowly discharges with lack of an alternator. Which is one reason the fuel bulb remaining incandescent is suggested when changing 00-04 to LED's.

Having said that, not knowing what you are actually attempting to say or confirming, I'm not sure how one could respond.

 

I was looping back to FGV's comment:

Only to reinforce: Battery light isn't indicative of much, it's always on if the key is in ON position but engine is not running. And it's the main reason I don't think the alternator is behind the no-start condition.

 

Car is set to be looked at first thing in the morning…tick tock tick tock tick tock

 

Good Luck

 

Any update?

 

Talked to the mechanic and they think it’s the fuel pump but will let me know for sure tomorrow. At least it’s not the timing belt! Will update with actual info tomorrow.

 

Small reminder:

You may be about to pay for a couple hours labor plust parts on replacing a fuel pump that's perfectly good.

I can't tell you how many times we've seen this story play out before. And sometimes, the fuel pump gets people up and going, either because the shop realizes the actual problem and quietly fixes it, or they end up spending even more money because it was one of the other things mentioned here.

Wishing you luck. But not optimistic.

 

@shifty` is there a course of action you would recommend when I talk to the shop?

 

I recommended a simple course of action before you took it to the shop, and you ignored it (spray starting fluid in the throttle body; see if it runs). Can of starting fluid (ether) is a few bucks at the store and tells you immediately if fuel delivery is the problem. Once you know that you can start the process of figuring out which of about a dozen things are causing the fuel pump to not pump fuel.

Not sure how some other course of action I tell you now change anything? You either listen to advice, or you don't.

There's a wild array of things that will cause lack of fuel delivery in the 1st gen Seq/Tun. Everything from a simple blown fuse to bad relay to crank position wire getting shredded due to bad routing, and even aftermarket alarms will do it, and some folks didn't realize there ever was an alarm in the vehicle. All of these things are easy to check.

I'd reckon maybe 1 in 5 or even 1 in 10 times it's actually the fuel pump. I hope in your case it is. More than that, I hope the shop you took it to is aware of the relationship between the fuel pump getting power and all of the little electronic bits Toyota put in these trucks that, if not satisfied, won't allow the pump to get power.

 

Just to expand a little on Shifty's post. You're going to see posts/responses sometimes asking a question, or telling you to try something, or pointing you to a thread, that you may think is simply not relevant to the issue at hand. These are not responses designed to 'add post count', send you on a wild goose chase, eff with you because you are new or anything like that. These guys have seen it, been there, found out the hard way. And they absolutely want to help you. It just gets hard when the 100th person asks for advice and ignores it.

And I'm guilty too. I had a clunking sound when moving off. The megathread said what the issue was. I thought that I KNEW it was not that. Turns out, it was simply a couple of missing bolts (exactly what the thread said). Fix was ten bucks and 5 minutes. I had replaced tie rods in the meantime that really did not need replacing.

So welcome! And if responses seem a little acidic sometimes, it genuinely comes from good intentions.

 

I'm fighting with a goddamn Docker instance that won't fire up on a client system and it's about to drive me damn nuts, so my patience is a little thin at the moment.

Times like this I probably shouldn't be replying.

 

We like the salty Shifty

 

Again, I appreciate all the help and wish I could have done the troubleshooting myself before sending it off to the shop. As you all know, life is busy and sometimes you just try and take something off your plate. I will have a conversation with the mechanic to see what their course of investigation was for the fuel pump. Am I correct that I should mention fuse/relay/crank position sensor possible connections. Could these be investigated for complicity after the fuel pump has been replaced? I’d imagine they could.

 

Some parts of the country are different and life sometimes puts us in a bad spot but if I felt I needed to help a mechanic troubleshoot a problem, I would have to consider another mechanic.

I'd also mention to them that your Battery light came on when it died, which is an indication of a charging problem even tho some believe it isn't indicative of much.

 

I see the future...

 

The only reason I would be inclined to question my mechanic is because of the suggestion made here that he wouldn’t know what he was doing. I’m just a guy looking for help and insight. I’m fully aware of the challenges presented by owning older vehicles but I’m just not wired for a car payment or to plunk down $25-40k cash for something that will depreciate rapidly. I also like the character offered by older vehicles but understand that they have their issues.

 

One thing you also need to realize about 1st Gen Tundra/Sequoia is if you can't or don't do your own maintenance, you had better be willing to open up your wallet. The whole point of folks giving advice here is to save you money and expand your knowledge to keep these older vehicles running. If you have a mechanic that you trust and is knowledgeable about these vehicles, great! They are few and far between. I personally don't, so I make time to do my own maintenance. This forum has saved me tons of dough and helped me through some complicated fixes.

 

I would also let them know there is a timing belt. They may not be familiar with 4.7.

So many shops just fire the parts cannon now, instead of spending time to diagnose. Not saying this is the case here, but my recent experiences with shops has left a bad taste.