Going through EFI relays seems like every two months

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Sep 28, 2009
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Does anybody ells have this problem? As far as I can tell these things s*** the bed for no rime nor reason. One was driving in town on a pretty hot day, Two where on rough gravel roads. From what I have gathered from other threads a good place to start is with replacing the fuel filters the inline one as well as the suction filter (sock) in the fuel tank. Does anybody have some insight into this. I'm new so send the birds my way.
 
What year truck?
 
THere is a TON of stuff on this subject. You need to search a bit. The possibilities are poor connections in the fuse box (very likely) leading to burnt wires. Bad connections can be on both the logic side and load side of the relay. Again, a bit of searching will lead you down the correct path for your vehicle. The EFI fuse contacts should be suspect as well.

If simply replacing the relay gets you going, I would try some mechanical persuasion the next time it fails. Simply remove and replace it or give it a gentle whack with a screwdriver handle. If you can get it to work by rocking it back and forth in the socket then you have some issues in the fusebox to deal with.

A drop in replacement for the OEM relay is from a Camry or whatever, Toyota part# 28300-16010
 
From PM

Jon asked, "Please explain what you mean by "blowing EFI relays". Is the 15amp EFI fuse blowing? Is the relay failing?
What happens exactly?"

The OP replied, "Well it usually happens while driving. The engine will clunk once or twice then die ( engine light comes on). I swap the the Relay out and everything is fine. This last time it clunked once while driving then was fine I made a stop and when I went to go again it would not start I popped in my spare and away I go. One thing though the relay's I have been using are 22A."
 
"The engine will clunk once or twice then die ( engine light comes on)."

This doesn't sound like the EFI circuit to me. Your check engine light wouldn't come on if the EFI circuit had failed. What happens if you try to restart without swapping the relay?
 
It won't start. I should mention also the first time this happened I replaced the coil and igniter which got it running again. I was referring to the to the EFI Main relay in fuse box under the hood.
 
OK, lets start at the beginning. You're driving, the motor dies and does not restart. At this point is the check engine light on or off? If the CE lamp is on then the EFI circuit is energized and you SHOULD have spark. If the CE lamp is off then I would suspect the EFI circuit.

AHA! I see your 22A reference now. Had to look at the can of the OEM relay. Should be part# 90987-02004.
 
It won't start. I should mention also the first time this happened I replaced the coil and igniter which got it running again. I was referring to the to the EFI Main relay in fuse box under the hood.

What led you to the coil/igniter as opposed to the EFI circuit?
 
OK, lets start at the beginning. You're driving, the motor dies and does not restart. At this point is the check engine light on or off? If the CE lamp is on then the EFI circuit is energized and you SHOULD have spark. If the CE lamp is off then I would suspect the EFI circuit.

AHA! I see your 22A reference now. Had to look at the can of the OEM relay. Should be part# 90987-02004.

Thats interesting I have a different part number thus the 22A relay. I wounder if that might be part of the problem. The first time this happened I took it to a Mechanic and he was the one to replace ignite/coil said nothing about the relay but he had a hell of a time figuring it out as it seemed to work intermittently. Since then I have had this happen three times and replacing the EFI relay has got it running every time.

So what happens when its about to die on me is I'm driving along and everything is fine then the engine starts staling and recovering 2-3 times each time the CEL flashes then the engine totally dies and the CEL stays on. This all happens in about 5 seconds. No other fuses are blown just that dam relay.
 
Relay gets pretty hot too, right? Clean the contacts, all of them. You can replace the wire(s) if you want, I've had god luck with cleaning. Mine never blew the relay and always worked well once it (relay) cooled down.
 
Here’s some ramblings before I need to get my house ready for dinner tonight. Happy turkey BTW.

When an igniter fails it can get very intermittent (not temperature dependent) and hard to diagnose. The only way is to replace it with a known good unit. Every other component in the ignition system can be checked with a procedure outlined in the FSM.

The fact that the CE lamp is on and she won’t fire tells me it is something other than the EFI circuit, or at least not fuse/relay/ECU logic related. There could be other intermittent connections to the fuel pump, AFM, circuit opening relay, and several others. Perhaps the 15-30 seconds it takes for a component to cool down is all that is needed. Perhaps simply opening and closing the hood makes a difference.

BTW, when was the last time the distributor cap and rotor were changed? Last full tune up? How old are the plug wires? Was the igniter/coil changed out with a new OEM unit?

Have a look at my EFI diagnostic flowchart. Keep it in the truck along with a decent multimeter. It has some tasty bits from the FSM that may or may not be helpful.

http://www.sdsysdesign.com/tlc/images/Strife/3FE EFI Diag.pdf
 

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