Rav4 Diesel - Cutting Out

[pr0xibus]

Afternoon folks

I have not purchased it yet, it would be my first Toyota, and First RAV.  Anyway after speak with the current owner, she has a problem whereby sometimes, Maybe weekly, or maybe it does not appear for ages but the car cuts out.  Once turning the engine off and back on it apparently starts up fine.  Leading up to the cut out the car has a loss of power.

She has been told by a friend and the answers are below

" ever so often sometimes months apart or even a yr the engine just cuts out , some say it's due to a filter passing fuel deposit into the turbo that stops fuel getting pumped thru. It gives about a mile slowing down . And I usually wait a minute turn the engine back on and all is good . Have met someone who says they put a cleaner in the fuel everytime they fill up and this sorts the issue out "

" Just spoke with my Dad his neighbour has the same car as me and it's common knowledge that these vehicles have this fault , he managed to fix the problems by replacing the fuel filter at a cost of about £10 and there is also a filter in the fuel tank that can be removed about £10/15 , he also puts in a diesel additive in the fuel tank at under a £1 .
Hope this helps , also forums online will probably help explain this issue better . "

" The longest it went was just over a yr . It did it once this summer on a road trip to and back from the west coast . Then occasionally it will do it a few times and then not all at for ages , so very intermittent, its find driving local for me most of the time I have found that taking long journeys is when it is most likely to occur .
Other than what I've been told by my garage and other Rav4 owners I cant really help much more , my Dads neighbour said he fixed the issue , its had a full service and MOT history . I didn't put it thru a service that was due about a month or so ago as I knew I was getting a new car . "

I know its not much to go on, but just curious on what the problem could be?

The car is a 2.0 Diesel 2005 @ 156k MOT until october and under £500

 

Cheers

[RAV4-D4D]

I doubt anyone will be able to diagnose with certainty because as you say it's weird and intermittent.

When you say it cuts out do you mean when you're driving the engine just stops and the car comes to a halt or do you mean on long journeys when you restart the car it sometimes doesn't start?

The latter is much more common and speaking from experience is likely to be fixable (it's now over two months since I hopefully fixed this and it hasn't recurred yet).

For under £500 I'd take the gamble, roll my sleeves up and have a little fun trying to sort it. I'd probably start by cleaning all the electrical contacts to make sure everything is getting the power it needs, because weird intermittent faults tend to be electrical in my experience.

The fuel filter (in the engine bay) is easy to change but messy and can be done at the same time as you take the airbox out to clean the electrics if you wish - but I'd try and do one at a time (and I wouldn't be inclined to believe the filter is the likely culprit so you may be wasting your time - unless it needs a new filter anyway).

I hope this is of some help.

 

 

[pr0xibus]

Afternoon RAV4

 

I ended up taking the risk and buying it, I've done 200 miles so far and its not cut out, only one error code stored and was P1251, I will look into this one.  Changed the Air filter, bought a fuel filter too but taking out the bit under the airfilter, the fuel filter I bought seemed too large, looking around their seems to be 2 fuel filters?  one at the front of the engine and one in the fuel tank?, maybe the one i bought was for the rear,

Cheers

[RAV4-D4D]

Good decision and good luck.

This is the part number for the fuel filter I bought which I suspect is the one you need (suggest you double check though): 503820027

[IanML]

If you want an alternative theory, how about this:

There is a "foreign object" in the fuel tank (say a leaf) which occasionally partially blocks the intake, causing the loss of power and eventually the engine stops.  Once it stops, the suction is no longer there, so the object falls to the bottom of the tank.  The process repeats at unpredictable intervals, when the object happens to move to the intake.

If that is the problem, I expect the tank will have to be removed and cleaned.  Years ago, fuel tanks had a drain for just this purpose, but I suspect that's a thing of the past.