Hey ToyotaVanTech group! Long time reviewer first time poster.

For almost a year now I have battled with a friends 1989 Toyota MasterAce Surf Grand Saloon (4WD and Right hand Drive).

When he left it with me it was running fine, perfectly good idle. Since then I have had gas pedal delayed response, rough idle, battery thermal runaway, and now just no start at all.

Timeline:

September 2024

Throttle "limp response" first starts. It is oddly noticeable after or during left hand turns (not sure if relevant) and would basically feel like when pressing down on the gas, the engine was bogging getting too much fuel and fighting to stay running. When stepping off the gas the engine RPMs would sometimes increase. If this was a carbureted vehicle I would 100% say it was running too rich.

After this occurred a few times and the van returning to normal, it started causing the van to lose almost all engine power and shudder almost to a halt. It would sometimes recover if I worked the gas pedal up and down but mainly would die stranding me.

October 2024

I checked a few things, replaced/deleted the fusible links around the battery thinking they could be an issue, and took it for a test drive. During this test drive of about 40miles, the gas pedal issue occurred still, and in addition the van had a full battery melt down. The friend who left it with me stated he may have left the battery terminals under-torqued, or looking at the thread it may be that the alternator sense line was stuck at full output on the FL0.5. Still not sure why the battery melted down.

December 2024

After this and two tows home I left the van sitting while I tried to find a shop in Santa Cruz that would be willing to work on it. During this time I reviewed some threads on people stating similar loss of power from the ECU capacitors. I removed the ECU and checked all the capacitors for leaking. Seeing nothing I returned it back to its location. Not wanting to get stranded again without finding the culprit I left the van sitting.

Now

I have recently found a shop that is willing to take the van in, but wants it to be movable. I was able to get it started and idle slowly forward and backwards, but after awhile the idling van would shudder to a halt. If I put it into drive it would shudder and try to die as well especially if the gas pedal was pressed. After idling to a halt this afternoon now the van refuses to start at all.

My feeling over this issue has always been around electrical and fuel. During all of this there has been no check engine light, the only light that will occasionally come on is the orange oil level light (although oil level is fine). Because it is the Japanese right hand drive variant many of the great blog posts about it don't resemble the actual layout which further aids my frustration (check connectors that don't exist, mirrored components, unable to get trouble codes) and none of the manuals in English are aligned with what I am actually seeing in the van.

Things I have checked:
  • ECU
  • Fusible Links
  • Fuses
  • Battery
  • Alternator


Things that were replaced prior to it being left with me:
  • Clean tank
  • fuel pump
  • fuel filter
  • fuel sending unit
  • spark plugs
  • water pump
  • clutch fan
  • all belts
  • idler pulleys
  • both radiator hoses
  • throttle body hoses
  • all heater core hoses
  • transmission cooler
  • transmission flush


Things I think it could be:
  • ECU
  • EFI System
  • Fuel Pump
  • Air Flow Meter
  • TPS


My main question is if anyone has encountered these types of issues? I am pretty stumped.

Thanks in advance.

B