2.0 D4d With 1 Cylinder Not Working

[Hans de Keijzer]

Dear all,

last friday my Avensis 2.0 D4D started vibrating badly, making lots of noise and a lot of black smoke coming out of the exhaust. 3 different garages have so far not been able to pinpoint the problem, only to find out cylinder 3 is not working. Computer readout seems to tell all is OK, yet running the engine even for 5 sec. tells a different story ;)

About two weeks ago after a 500 km drive on typical Polish roads (lots of trucks and single lane roads, so very diverse driving; deep acceleration upon overtaking, driving 110 kmh and slowly behind the next truck) I noticed at a traffic light the car was shaking more than normally, but only for a few seconds. Driving seemed ok. This shaking only happened just after stopping for the light and disappeared after 2-3 seconds. In the rest of the weekend it behaved normal again so I paid no further attention.

Now last week I drove again some 800 km under similar conditions and didn't notice anything strange. Then friday the engine started perfectly but after 200m of driving it started making a bad rattling noise (like the old diesels but a few times worse), the engine was shaking a lot and a thick black cloud came from the exhaust.

The 3rd garage suspects the dieselpump, which is quite strange to me. I don't see how a faulty dieselpump could cause 3 cylinders to work fine and 1 to not function. So I started suspecting the injectors, but maybe I'm completely wrong.

Does any of you have an idea what could be the problem or once experienced the same problem?

I hope to hear :)

regards and thanks in advance!

Hans

[nickp8]

Try the Avensis section: http://toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showforum=51

[Cyker]

Given what little I know about engines, I don't see how it could be the pump since D4D's are common rail. More likely one of the injectors is slightly blocked or not spraying properly?