A Toyota Fortuner D4D was towed in the other day. The engine was cranking but the engine did not take. The customer said that she just went around the corner and the engine cut out and she could not start the engine again. The first thing I thought I should do is to plug in the scanner and see if there are any codes. The only code I got is P1604 startability malfunction. This could mean anything. You have to check various sensors. The first thing you have to check and see if there is enough fuel in the tank, people are lazy to check their gauges. The customer also wants us to service the vehicle. We have replaced the fuel filter and engine oil, air, and aircon filters. After you have replaced the fuel filter you have to pump the pump on top of the fuel filter container until it is stiff, which means the fuel container is now full and the engine is ready to be cranking. But we found that the fuel filter pump does not want to become stiff. I have made myself a suction pump with a mechanical petrol pump of a 1400 Nissan carburetor vehicle, which I have attached to an electric motor and it pumps perfectly. I connected the suction side of the petrol pump to the pipe coming from the tank of the Fortuner. I have switched on my homemade pump and I could see the pump is battling to get fuel from the tank. The pump outlet pipe is just spitting fuel out no solid stream is coming out. We have to remove the fuel tank to inspect it, there might be a crack in one of the plastic pipes or dirt in the fuel tank or whatever. We remove the fuel tank and we found that the pickup was almost completely clocked up. See the image below.
Fortunately, the strainer of this pickup can be removed from the pickup container, this help to clean it properly. see the image below.
Well after everything was fitted back – we could start the engine, the pump on top of the fuel filter became stiff after pumping it a few times.