I wonder if those nyloc locking nuts or really any plastic can be used as an indicator weather or not a M6 stud in a solar power system is corroded and heating up. I suppose once the nyloc locking nut is melted the insulator for the stud would have melted too so its not that good of an indicator.
Maybe a piece of easily melting plastic like a small cut of a piece of plastic bag wrapped around the stud maybe and held on there by a rubber band. The smell of the smouldering plastic bag could then be an early warning indicator of a problem.
I got the idea from wintermute's melting prophylatic on his A/C compressor clutch;.
Maybe a piece of easily melting plastic like a small cut of a piece of plastic bag wrapped around the stud maybe and held on there by a rubber band. The smell of the smouldering plastic bag could then be an early warning indicator of a problem.
I got the idea from wintermute's melting prophylatic on his A/C compressor clutch;.
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My world 'on fuelling'.
I dont give a monkies how fuel gets in there, as long as it's near right.... why worry?
Internal combustion engines are how efficient?
Mercedes F1 power-unit Combined is 51%.... your 'rot-box' might have done 34% when spanking new and modern engines aint change much in the last 10 - 15yrs.
The 'gain' of EFI (if you wanna call it that) is there's Less waste when the engine out-put / tune via the bits of metal doing the work is sub-optimal.
I dont give a monkies how fuel gets in there, as long as it's near right.... why worry?
Internal combustion engines are how efficient?
Mercedes F1 power-unit Combined is 51%.... your 'rot-box' might have done 34% when spanking new and modern engines aint change much in the last 10 - 15yrs.
The 'gain' of EFI (if you wanna call it that) is there's Less waste when the engine out-put / tune via the bits of metal doing the work is sub-optimal.
They make these for monitoring temperature;
Color Changing Thermometer Strips & Temperature Indicator
Color Changing Thermometer Strips & Temperature Indicator
Going to a computerless carburetted setup also allows you to switch and change transmissions willy nilly. Without the "gamblor" stranglehold of an EFI computer dictating you what you can and cannot do to your own car. Its not so much that its a computer that I'm concerned about its that its a proprietary closed down computer with firmware that I cannot alter AND its obsolete already, eventually the computers will be impossible to find and impossible to keep working properly as SMD components age. My car's ECU is based on a design founded in 1992 and was made in 1997, that is quite old for a computer to keep running. 21 year old components.
A 3VZ-FE manual transmission ECU is extremely rare to the point of being ridiculous to find. But that doesn't mean going to carbed makes things entirely easier, I still have to find a bellhousing that mates up to the 3VZ-FE engine, hopefully the Auto transmission bellhousing is the same and I can reuse it.
Setting up a cutoff switch to the igniter with a simply made arduino circuit for programmable redline cutoff wouldn't be difficult either. Might also be worthwhile programming some safeguards into the arduino to prevent permanent engine damage by shutting down the ignition on a permanent basis and flashing a check engine light with an error message and code on a LCD display. Testing for knocking would be one problem that could be checked for. That takes care of the benefits that EFI has over carburettors but with a much better free and open source and easily modifiable arduino circuit. Most importantly cheap.
All of this EFI integration in modern cars (such as computerised throttles) is making cars more restricted as far as I'm concerned and contributing to planned obsolescence.
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Some good news. Traction on tracking down the problem with my 3VZ. Me and my mechanic went through all of it together and we tracked it down to a possible faulty fuel injector that is stuck open and leaking fuel on the rear bank.
Suprise suprise this car DOES have limited OBD live data output but it won't throw a code and you cannot read codes, this is with a high end touchscreen scanner and a "TOY-2" adaptor to adapt the round Toyota connector to a DIN-15 to an OBD looking port which the scan tool can then plug into.
Anyway we checked the fuel pressure, was normal, 38-44 psi, we figured the pressure might've been high because the fuel pressure regulator might've been bung (despite testing it myself we checked fuel pressure anyway.) We had to go old school and pull a few old dusty books out of a locked cabinet to get the right fuel pressure for this engine.
Then I noticed a SECOND temperature sensor for the ECU is on the passengers side, back of the engine that I haven't yet replaced, mechanic ran down to bursons and got one and put it in and we watched the live data and we noticed that the voltage reading was going up instead of down, would climb to 3.89v to 4.14 then 4.16v. I unplugged the sensor to check weather or not we were reading the correct one, and yep, the ecu likes to read its temp from the back of the engine. I'm not entirely sure then why there are two? One at the front of the engine and one at the back. strange to say the least.
Anyway there was a coolant temperature data point available on the scan tool for this car and I mentioned to my mechanic that the coolant temperature that the ECU thinks its at is about right at 55 degrees centigrade. So that stopped that possibility dead in its tracks but we've simply found another problem for the car. Interestingly the amount of fuel coming out the tailpipe lessened when we replaced the second coolant temperature sensor which leads me to believe it was faulty anyway but that its not our main problem.
So that stopped that path dead in its tracks, He then put a test light on the injector connectors and unplugged them all periodically and unplugging the rear injectors didn't change anything (huge red flag). So we've narrowed it down to a stuck open injector on the back which means I've gotta drag the car back home and do the work myself and take all of the injectors out and give them to him so he can do a leakdown test on the injectors for me and find a known good working injector in the batch of the old injectors that I have that came out of the car.
So the main problem with this car has probably been all along faulty/leaky injectors. Even in the new remanufactured ones that I bought from the US there was a leaky one in the batch.
Anyway I'm very greatful with my mechanic's help and he will be getting paid handsomely for this work. I will be picking the car up tomorrow and taking it back home so that I can get dirty and remove the intake manifold so that I can get the back injectors out and take them back over to my mechanic and get him to leakdown test them and find a good working one out of the old used ones.
I think I've proven without a doubt that injectors (23250-62030 & 23209-62030) on this motor are a huge troublemaker with this engine. Avoid them like the plague.
Suprise suprise this car DOES have limited OBD live data output but it won't throw a code and you cannot read codes, this is with a high end touchscreen scanner and a "TOY-2" adaptor to adapt the round Toyota connector to a DIN-15 to an OBD looking port which the scan tool can then plug into.
Anyway we checked the fuel pressure, was normal, 38-44 psi, we figured the pressure might've been high because the fuel pressure regulator might've been bung (despite testing it myself we checked fuel pressure anyway.) We had to go old school and pull a few old dusty books out of a locked cabinet to get the right fuel pressure for this engine.
Then I noticed a SECOND temperature sensor for the ECU is on the passengers side, back of the engine that I haven't yet replaced, mechanic ran down to bursons and got one and put it in and we watched the live data and we noticed that the voltage reading was going up instead of down, would climb to 3.89v to 4.14 then 4.16v. I unplugged the sensor to check weather or not we were reading the correct one, and yep, the ecu likes to read its temp from the back of the engine. I'm not entirely sure then why there are two? One at the front of the engine and one at the back. strange to say the least.
Anyway there was a coolant temperature data point available on the scan tool for this car and I mentioned to my mechanic that the coolant temperature that the ECU thinks its at is about right at 55 degrees centigrade. So that stopped that possibility dead in its tracks but we've simply found another problem for the car. Interestingly the amount of fuel coming out the tailpipe lessened when we replaced the second coolant temperature sensor which leads me to believe it was faulty anyway but that its not our main problem.
So that stopped that path dead in its tracks, He then put a test light on the injector connectors and unplugged them all periodically and unplugging the rear injectors didn't change anything (huge red flag). So we've narrowed it down to a stuck open injector on the back which means I've gotta drag the car back home and do the work myself and take all of the injectors out and give them to him so he can do a leakdown test on the injectors for me and find a known good working injector in the batch of the old injectors that I have that came out of the car.
So the main problem with this car has probably been all along faulty/leaky injectors. Even in the new remanufactured ones that I bought from the US there was a leaky one in the batch.
Anyway I'm very greatful with my mechanic's help and he will be getting paid handsomely for this work. I will be picking the car up tomorrow and taking it back home so that I can get dirty and remove the intake manifold so that I can get the back injectors out and take them back over to my mechanic and get him to leakdown test them and find a good working one out of the old used ones.
I think I've proven without a doubt that injectors (23250-62030 & 23209-62030) on this motor are a huge troublemaker with this engine. Avoid them like the plague.
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Temp measured front and rear of engine = Front of engine has a Cool breeze and the rear some what hotter.
Read average = job done.
Austin Minis (A-Series 'Unit') heads ran hotter then Hades* and only had one sensor on top of the water pump..... first sign of overheating was temp rise on gauge and when ready to seize the gauge would drop to zero!
Next 'tell' was what can only be described as an Explosion of steam as the pipe from the head melted!
The 'trick' solution was to have measures of in-to and out-of the rad wiff a big red idiot light connected to a pressure switch.
*Smart guys who built really strong engines ran water cooled inlet manifolds. Interestingly, if you got the mechanical variables correct, overheating wasn't much of a problem in average atmospheric conditions.
Read average = job done.
Austin Minis (A-Series 'Unit') heads ran hotter then Hades* and only had one sensor on top of the water pump..... first sign of overheating was temp rise on gauge and when ready to seize the gauge would drop to zero!
Next 'tell' was what can only be described as an Explosion of steam as the pipe from the head melted!
The 'trick' solution was to have measures of in-to and out-of the rad wiff a big red idiot light connected to a pressure switch.
*Smart guys who built really strong engines ran water cooled inlet manifolds. Interestingly, if you got the mechanical variables correct, overheating wasn't much of a problem in average atmospheric conditions.
Me and my mechanic leakdown tested the 3 back injectors. They were fine.
My suspicions are now that either me or the previous owner (most likely the previous owner as the thermostat was hollowed out and the O2 sensor wire on the rear bank was broken off) has in some way damaged either the wiring harness or the ECU at some point.
The car seems to be for some reason telling the ECU to keep throwing fuel into the engine no matter what. That is why I replaced the engine coolant sensors and the O2 sensors and the AFM.
So last thing to replace is the ECU before we start hunting down a wiring problem in the many harnesses of this car.
I'm now going to go down and pull the ECU out of the car.
My suspicions are now that either me or the previous owner (most likely the previous owner as the thermostat was hollowed out and the O2 sensor wire on the rear bank was broken off) has in some way damaged either the wiring harness or the ECU at some point.
The car seems to be for some reason telling the ECU to keep throwing fuel into the engine no matter what. That is why I replaced the engine coolant sensors and the O2 sensors and the AFM.
So last thing to replace is the ECU before we start hunting down a wiring problem in the many harnesses of this car.
I'm now going to go down and pull the ECU out of the car.
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It all makes perfect sense now.
When I got the car the rear O2 sensor cable was broken off.
When I got the car off the previous seller the thermostat was hollowed out.
When I got the car the front coolant sensor was faulty, giving the ecu faulty information, saying that the coolant was 10c when it was actually more like 55c.
So we know that the seller of the car was trying to cover up a problem by hollowing out the thermostat... what does doing that do? it makes the coolant ice cold all of the time, why did he need that? So that the car wouldn't smoke so badly? maybe. So it wouldn't conk out and die? Maybe.
We know for a fact that the rear O2 sensor cable was broken off, sheared off from a constant movement of the O2 cable. Was he back there trying to get the O2 sensor to work and got angry? Maybe he got peed off when Toyota told him he needed a new ECU and balked at the price, then sold the car onto me.
When I took the car to the mechanics it was one of the rear bank of injectors that was staying open. We tested the rear bank of injectors and the injectors were fine.
HOWEVER if we suspect that the rear O2 sensor input on the ECU is damaged then why did with the help of the Snapon diagnostic tool that we know that the O2 sensors were oscillating. It didn't say that both O2 sensors were oscillating it just saying that the ECU thinks that everything is fine and dandy when its not fine and dandy.
So that correlation of three bits of information means that the rear bank O2 sensor is probably not giving correct information to the ECU, the voltage simply isn't making it to the ECU, something is either faulty in the wiring or the ECU, that the input to the ECU is damaged or that the wiring going to the rear bank O2 sensor is damaged. Because we know for a fact that both the rear and front O2 sensors were replaced, they're brand new. And we know that the front bank of injectors are working fine, you pull them and the engine dies. Not so for the rear injectors. So something is telling the rear injectors to stay open for longer and that can only be the O2 sensor/ECU and the coolant temp sensors, and we replaced the coolant temp sensors.
More proof. When I turned the car off when I was driving it home yesterday and started it back up it ran fine all the way back home. That points me towards the ECU as being at fault. "Did you try to turn it off and on again?"
BUT that simply raises more questions than it answers, why didn't the ECU then throw a code for the rear bank O2 sensor? Well we know that the ECU is probably not fully OBD compliant.... because toyota australia is a... but still it should've thrown a code when the O2 sensor wire was broken off, but it never did.
We also know that with a very expensive snapon diagnostic tool that we cannot pull codes from this ECU. which means this ECU is probably not OBD compliant.
To be 100% sure that this isn't a wiring problem I should probably backprobe the inputs to the ECU with a multimeter and see if the wiring going to the O2 sensors are ok. maybe this afternoon I can get down there while the ECU is out and gently probe the plugs with some very thin wire (so that I don't bend any pins.) and connect the O2 sensor wires to ground with a resistor inbetween, of a known value. This is just so that I can check the wiring integrity going back to the ECU.
When I got the car the rear O2 sensor cable was broken off.
When I got the car off the previous seller the thermostat was hollowed out.
When I got the car the front coolant sensor was faulty, giving the ecu faulty information, saying that the coolant was 10c when it was actually more like 55c.
So we know that the seller of the car was trying to cover up a problem by hollowing out the thermostat... what does doing that do? it makes the coolant ice cold all of the time, why did he need that? So that the car wouldn't smoke so badly? maybe. So it wouldn't conk out and die? Maybe.
We know for a fact that the rear O2 sensor cable was broken off, sheared off from a constant movement of the O2 cable. Was he back there trying to get the O2 sensor to work and got angry? Maybe he got peed off when Toyota told him he needed a new ECU and balked at the price, then sold the car onto me.
When I took the car to the mechanics it was one of the rear bank of injectors that was staying open. We tested the rear bank of injectors and the injectors were fine.
HOWEVER if we suspect that the rear O2 sensor input on the ECU is damaged then why did with the help of the Snapon diagnostic tool that we know that the O2 sensors were oscillating. It didn't say that both O2 sensors were oscillating it just saying that the ECU thinks that everything is fine and dandy when its not fine and dandy.
So that correlation of three bits of information means that the rear bank O2 sensor is probably not giving correct information to the ECU, the voltage simply isn't making it to the ECU, something is either faulty in the wiring or the ECU, that the input to the ECU is damaged or that the wiring going to the rear bank O2 sensor is damaged. Because we know for a fact that both the rear and front O2 sensors were replaced, they're brand new. And we know that the front bank of injectors are working fine, you pull them and the engine dies. Not so for the rear injectors. So something is telling the rear injectors to stay open for longer and that can only be the O2 sensor/ECU and the coolant temp sensors, and we replaced the coolant temp sensors.
More proof. When I turned the car off when I was driving it home yesterday and started it back up it ran fine all the way back home. That points me towards the ECU as being at fault. "Did you try to turn it off and on again?"
BUT that simply raises more questions than it answers, why didn't the ECU then throw a code for the rear bank O2 sensor? Well we know that the ECU is probably not fully OBD compliant.... because toyota australia is a... but still it should've thrown a code when the O2 sensor wire was broken off, but it never did.
We also know that with a very expensive snapon diagnostic tool that we cannot pull codes from this ECU. which means this ECU is probably not OBD compliant.
To be 100% sure that this isn't a wiring problem I should probably backprobe the inputs to the ECU with a multimeter and see if the wiring going to the O2 sensors are ok. maybe this afternoon I can get down there while the ECU is out and gently probe the plugs with some very thin wire (so that I don't bend any pins.) and connect the O2 sensor wires to ground with a resistor inbetween, of a known value. This is just so that I can check the wiring integrity going back to the ECU.
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Checked wire loom integrity for both the front and back O2 sensors. Both are fine. I soldered up a small jumper lead with two alligator clips on each end with a 470 ohm metal film resistor in between and earthed one end to a good earth and the other end to the wire going to/coming from the ECU to the O2 sensor inside the engine bay. I then went inside and probed the connector according to the haynes manual schematic pinouts.
I think we hit gold on the damaged by previous owner faulty ECU theory.
Could also be that rear coolant sensor that we replaced on Wednesday and the ECU hasn't yet had time to relearn. But I doubt it. I still think the ECU is faulty.
If it was just the coolant sensor at fault then we replaced that on Wednesday and it would've stopped throwing fuel out the rear tailpipe and it would've fixed itself straight away after we replaced the sensor after we cut off power to the ignition.
The amount of fuel coming out the tailpipe was less but it was still there when I started the car back up again and drove it back home on Thursday.
So... Faulty ECU.
Could also be a bad earth? Not sure. I'll check them I guess.
I think we hit gold on the damaged by previous owner faulty ECU theory.
Could also be that rear coolant sensor that we replaced on Wednesday and the ECU hasn't yet had time to relearn. But I doubt it. I still think the ECU is faulty.
If it was just the coolant sensor at fault then we replaced that on Wednesday and it would've stopped throwing fuel out the rear tailpipe and it would've fixed itself straight away after we replaced the sensor after we cut off power to the ignition.
The amount of fuel coming out the tailpipe was less but it was still there when I started the car back up again and drove it back home on Thursday.
So... Faulty ECU.
Could also be a bad earth? Not sure. I'll check them I guess.
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Camry ECU's have a history of cap failures causing various faults.
Plenty about it on the net.
Dan.
Plenty about it on the net.
Dan.
wow thanks for that information Max Headroom!
All my crazy Lexus issues SOLVED!! (ECU-leaking capacitor) - ClubLexus - Lexus Forum Discussion
Okay. The round plug underneath the dash is called a Mazda 17 pin connector and you can buy adaptors for it to go from round to an OBD connector.
Sweet.
All my crazy Lexus issues SOLVED!! (ECU-leaking capacitor) - ClubLexus - Lexus Forum Discussion
Okay. The round plug underneath the dash is called a Mazda 17 pin connector and you can buy adaptors for it to go from round to an OBD connector.
Sweet.
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Never thought that an ECU would have a badcaps problem... but I guess it makes perfect sense. This reaks of planned obsolescence for sure but you can't really blame Toyota directly because they put capacitors with a life expectancy of 10 years into their ECUs, you can't get that much better than 10 years.
50v 10uf near D101
50v 10uf near D104 and T601
50v 10uf C701
C812 15uF 35v
C811 15uF 35v
C106 100uF 10v
C108 220uF 10v
Replacements must be at least Low ESR rated. Doubt that the temp rating would matter but I would put 105c in there even if the originals are 85c, longer life, etc.
89661-33570 is my ECU part number. 3VZ-FE engine with A540E automatic transmission
Ordering two sets of caps!. I'll do both ECUs and keep one as a spare.
Maybe now we can get some OBD action? *crosses fingers*
Hmm... guess I had better check the lead pitch/diamter first before finding replacement caps.
50v 10uf near D101
50v 10uf near D104 and T601
50v 10uf C701
C812 15uF 35v
C811 15uF 35v
C106 100uF 10v
C108 220uF 10v
Replacements must be at least Low ESR rated. Doubt that the temp rating would matter but I would put 105c in there even if the originals are 85c, longer life, etc.
89661-33570 is my ECU part number. 3VZ-FE engine with A540E automatic transmission
Ordering two sets of caps!. I'll do both ECUs and keep one as a spare.
Maybe now we can get some OBD action? *crosses fingers*
Hmm... guess I had better check the lead pitch/diamter first before finding replacement caps.
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Typically with the temp sensors, one is for the gauges, and the other will be for the engine function.
Never hurts to check the resistance of the sensor at the ecu connector if in doubt.
Never hurts to check the resistance of the sensor at the ecu connector if in doubt.
Yeah I did all of that phase. Actually the sensor on the front of the engine was for the fan speed controller inside of the car. The rear one was for the ECU.
Anyway I'm 100% sure now that its an ECU capacitor issue as I saw one kind of leaky inside of my ECU.
Anyway I'm 100% sure now that its an ECU capacitor issue as I saw one kind of leaky inside of my ECU.
Twenty years or so ago a friend in the auto business brings me a box full of Mitsubishi ECU's. He said he had been bringing them to a guy who opened them up and replaced several round silver things and then gave them back to him. He charged USD $75 per ECU to do this with no guarantee of repair, but "most of them worked."
I cracked one open and pointed out all the caps and asked if these were the round silver things, and he replied yes. I ordered a bunch of caps from DigiKey and replaced them. He said again "most of them worked."
I cracked one open and pointed out all the caps and asked if these were the round silver things, and he replied yes. I ordered a bunch of caps from DigiKey and replaced them. He said again "most of them worked."
The capacitor issue could explain the strange way my Soarer was running in the year or so before I sold it. Low rpms were not as good, had the car for over 14 years and knew what it should have been like.
Hope that’s the issue with yours there.
Hope that’s the issue with yours there.
Indeed. Here's hoping. *Crosses fingers* 🙂
I ordered the following from RS Components. It would've all been polymer but they were out of stock.
15x Nichicon Aluminium Electrolytic Capacitor PM Series 63V dc 10μF, Through Hole Electrolytic, ±20% +105°C
10x Nichicon Aluminium Electrolytic Capacitor HE Series 63V dc 15μF, Through Hole Electrolytic, ±20% +105°C
5x Nichicon Aluminium Electrolytic Capacitor HE Series 10V dc 100μF, Through Hole Electrolytic, ±20% +105°C
10x KEMET Aluminium Polymer Capacitor A750 Series 10V dc 220μF, Through Hole Polymer, ±20% +105°C 6.3 (Dia.) x 8mm 2.5mm
10x KEMET Aluminium Polymer Capacitor A750 Series 16V dc 1000μF, Through Hole Polymer, ±20% +105°C 10 (Dia.) x 12mm 5mm
Total was: $22.58 AUD
I'm sure I can find a use for those 1000uF capacitors somewhere. If you notice that I've chosen Nichicon HE and PM series caps, both of them are rated for extremely high operational hours.
http://www.nichicon.co.jp/english/products/pdfs/e-he.pdf
http://products.nichicon.co.jp/en/pdf/xja043/e-pm.pdf
I ordered the following from RS Components. It would've all been polymer but they were out of stock.
15x Nichicon Aluminium Electrolytic Capacitor PM Series 63V dc 10μF, Through Hole Electrolytic, ±20% +105°C
10x Nichicon Aluminium Electrolytic Capacitor HE Series 63V dc 15μF, Through Hole Electrolytic, ±20% +105°C
5x Nichicon Aluminium Electrolytic Capacitor HE Series 10V dc 100μF, Through Hole Electrolytic, ±20% +105°C
10x KEMET Aluminium Polymer Capacitor A750 Series 10V dc 220μF, Through Hole Polymer, ±20% +105°C 6.3 (Dia.) x 8mm 2.5mm
10x KEMET Aluminium Polymer Capacitor A750 Series 16V dc 1000μF, Through Hole Polymer, ±20% +105°C 10 (Dia.) x 12mm 5mm
Total was: $22.58 AUD
I'm sure I can find a use for those 1000uF capacitors somewhere. If you notice that I've chosen Nichicon HE and PM series caps, both of them are rated for extremely high operational hours.
http://www.nichicon.co.jp/english/products/pdfs/e-he.pdf
http://products.nichicon.co.jp/en/pdf/xja043/e-pm.pdf
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