Here is some good news to start the year off right – I believe that replacing the fuel pump assembly has resolved the warm engine long crank problem! I changed out the part(s) in late November and have not had any difficulty starting the van in over a month.
The part I replaced was Toyota P/N 77020-08040 Fuel Pump Assembly, which I bought from
Toyota of Puyallup for about $350. It consists of the fuel pump itself, the pressure regulator, the fuel filter, and the fuel gauge/float assembly. I am not sure which one (or more) of these individual parts was the actual root cause of the problem, but I did observe some black, silty stuff oozing out of the filter when I tore apart the old assembly. Coincidentally, it seems that Toyota sells all the pieces (pump, regulator, o-rings, etc.) except for the fuel filter individually, so perhaps if I was a better detective, I could have saved myself some $$. Likewise, I suppose that buying a pump from some non-Toyota entity could also have also been cheaper, but I figured that I did not want to deal with something which might have been less than a ‘perfect’ fit. I also spent about another $100 on new gaskets, clamps, and hoses which you may or may not also want to replace.
As a public service, I thought that I would document my experience replacing this fuel pump assembly on my 2010 Sienna van. But before I start, I need to clarify a few things. First, I am merely some guy who you do not know who does not do this kind of stuff for a living. So, if my story helps you, I am very happy. But you are on your own with regards to the diagnosis of your own issues and making this repair. If you do choose to do it yourself, keep in mind that you will be working under a heavy vehicle playing around with a whole bunch of gasoline and vapors which can burst into flames and flat out kill you. Second, I live and drive this van around a suburban area of Northern California, which is probably one of the easiest environments on a vehicle that you will find – there is no snow, salt, mud, or snakes (a former colleague of mine found a cottonmouth under his car when he was living in Alabama – generally you do not find snakes here, although sometimes I am convinced that I am working with a few at the office). After nearly 10 years, there is not a lick of rust on the van, so my bolts come out with less than Herculean effort and generally do not snap off. Finally, I had planned to take a bunch of photographs to document this, but I have an old phone and the battery died. So instead of pictures painting a thousand words, you will get the thousand words.
Parts I bought that were absolutely necessary (2010 Sienna XLE):
- 77020-08040 Fuel Pump Assembly
- 77169-48040 Gasket Fuel Suction
Parts I bought that I probably could have reused the old ones, but I did not want to take a chance:
- 77144-08010 Retainer Ring
- 77158-08010 Fuel Pump Assembly Support
- 77213-08020 Connector Hose
- 90460-46003 Clamp
- 90640-42005 Clamp
The retainer ring and fuel pump assembly support are plastic pieces which form the seal to seat the fuel pump into the tank – along with the gasket, it is sort of like a Mason jar arrangement. The retainer is a ring which has little barbs which allow the ring to be screwed on, but prevents it from unscrewing. If you are patient and careful, you can remove this ring without snapping off the barbs. But I was not going to take any chances and got a new one. The clamp and connector hose attach the fuel tank to the fill pipe. This is rubber, so I figured that after nearly 10 years, it was not a bad idea to replace it too. Once I started poking around, it seemed that someone other than myself managed to crush the plastic fuel tank filler hose cover 77661-08020, so I had to replace that too.
I also went to Autozone and picked up their loaner
Fuel Pump Replacement Kit 6 Pack. The only thing I needed from this was a spanner wrench which I used to remove and reseal the fuel pump assembly retainer ring. I suppose that you could also buy one of these spanner wrenches yourself if you want to keep it as a souvenir of this automotive adventure.
Preparation
I drove the van around until the low fuel light on the instrument panel was lit and the on-board computer “distance to empty” read 0. Perhaps it is somewhat reassuring that even after this, the fuel tank still had about 3-4 gallons of gasoline left in it (enough to get to a gas station). But in this case, it meant that the tank had an additional 20-25 lbs of liquid sloshing around in there while I was trying to remove it from the van. I backed the van up so that the rear wheels were situated on ramps. I jacked the front end up and put it on jack stands, because you need to get under the middle of the car to remove the charcoal canister protector. I then opened the hood, removed the cover from the fuse and relay block, and removed the circuit opening relay (its position on the block is shown on the inside of the cover). I then started the van until the engine quit – this supposedly depressurizes the fuel system so that gasoline does not spray all over when you disconnect the fuel tubes under the van. Once the engine died, I replaced the relay and the cover. I also disconnected the cable from the negative battery terminal as the last thing I needed was anything to spark with a whole bunch of gasoline around.
Procedure
I then climbed under the van and removed the six bolts which hold on the charcoal canister protector using a 10mm ratchet. With that off, I removed the fuel tank vent hose from the charcoal canister. It looked to be about a 1/2” tube with a squeeze type connector. In the same area, I disconnected the fuel tank main tube which was a hose about 3/8” which attached to a metal pipe with its own squeeze connector. I was a little paranoid about fuel leaking all over the place, so as I removed hoses and pipes, I wrapped plastic bags and twist ties around the loose ends of the hoses and connectors. There are also a couple of wire harness clamps which support a corrugated covered electrical wire for the fuel gauge and pump which need to be removed.
At the rear of the van near the wheel well, I had to remove a diagonal brace which was blocking a bolt for the fuel filler hose cover. These are 14mm bolts. I was then able to remove the three 10mm bolts which used to hold on the fuel filler hose cover before it was smashed. Two of the bolts are easily located, but the third is sort of buried behind the plastic insert wheel well cover. I had to remove the little flap/splash guard to get to it. It attached the fuel filler hose cover to a bracket on the fuel tank inlet pipe. This was probably the trickiest bolt I had to deal with. I then loosened the two clamps on the rubber fuel inlet connector hose and removed it. There was also a 3/8” fuel tube here which connects to the inlet pipe with a squeeze connector. I disconnected it and bagged it.
Then came the fun part – dropping the tank. I opened both rear sliding doors to the van and positioned ratcheting tie down straps around the interior of the van and underneath the fuel tank. I torqued them snug and then went to work. The fuel tank is supported under the van by three metal bands which are connected to the body by 6, 14mm bolts. The straps themselves are connected to the tank by clips which did not need to be removed. I carefully loosened and removed the bolts. The tank dropped about an inch or so, now suspended by the tie down straps. This was actually good, as I was able to release the fuel gauge and pump wire harness from 4 molded hold downs on the top of the tank and not risk breaking the wire itself. I then gingerly lowered the fuel tank to the ground by gradually releasing the tie down straps. By the way, this would have been a whole lot easier to do with a helper, but he was busy fighting to keep the galaxy safe from invading space aliens.
With the tank down, I carefully moved it out from under the van, taking care not to put any tension on the fuel gauge and pump wire. There are a couple of sealed openings on the top of the fuel tank – the fuel pump is the one where the corrugated electrical wire is attached. Once I could get to it, I removed the electrical connector. These things always seem to get brittle and crack on me, but this one came out intact. There is also a little yellow plastic clip which needs to be slid out to allow the fuel line to be removed. Again, I bagged the end of the fuel line. Now I used the Autozone spanner wrench to remove the plastic retainer ring. The plastic ring has ribs on it which hook into the spanner. I turned it about 1/3 of the way around before the little barbs on it caught on the pump housing top. I then had to carefully squeeze them out of the way to allow me to rotate it another 1/3 of the way before they caught again. I suppose that I could have just snapped them off as I did have a replacement, but I figured that I would just take my time and not take any chances. Eventually, I was able to remove the ring. Once I did, the spring-loaded top of the fuel pump assembly popped out of the opening. I was then able to remove the pump unit from the tank. It does take a little finagling to get the metal rod with the float extracted.
Now I siphoned out the remaining fuel in the tank, storing it in cleaned plastic milk jugs. Just to be a little more fussy, I used a funnel lined with a coffee filter to facilitate filling the containers. As it turns out, it wasn’t a bad idea to have a few gallons of fuel on hand as it enabled me to get to the gas station once I got the whole thing back together.
At this point, I removed the old gasket and cleaned the groove that seats it. I took the new gasket and wiped it in some gasoline to lubricate it a bit. Then I carefully maneuvered the new fuel pump assembly float arm into the tank opening along with the rest of the unit. There is a tab on the fuel pump which fits into a slot on the threaded support to orient the assembly properly. I then fit the new retainer ring over the top of the pump compressing the springs and screwed it on by hand. Once it became too difficult to turn manually, I attached the spanner. I used a torque wrench to get it to 50 ft-lbs. From there I continued turning it until the arrow on the ring was positioned between the two min-max marks on the tank. I then reattached the fuel line and slid in the yellow plastic clip to hold it in place. At this point, I moved the tank back into close proximity to the van and reattached the fuel gauge electrical connector to the pump housing.
With most of the fuel removed from the tank (and relocated into the old milk jugs), it was now much easier to handle. I positioned the tie down straps under the tank and routed them through the interior of the van. I ratcheted up the tank until it was about 2 inches below the bottom of the van. I routed the wire harness back into the molded trough and clips on the top of the tank. Then back to ratcheting up the tank. I was able to get one of the tank straps into position and start a tank bolt. From there, it was quite easy to get the remaining bolts into position and manually screwed in. I ultimately torqued them to 24 ft-lbs.
From here, it was pretty much the reverse of what I did to remove the tank. I slid the new clamps on the ends of the fuel hose and connected it between the tank and the inlet pipe. To make life easier for me, I made sure that the screw barrel of the clamp was positioned where it was easy to reach. I then reconnected the 3/8“ fuel tube. The connector makes a click or pop sound when it is attached, but I gave it a gentle tug just to be sure that it was correctly seated. I then attached the plastic filler hose cover with the three bolts torqued to 45 in-lbs (they are just attaching a plastic shield). I also screwed back in the wheel well splash guard thingie. Finally, I reattached the diagonal brace and torqued the bolts to 21 ft-lbs.
Now back to the front of the tank. I reattached the clamps holding the corrugated covered fuel gage and pump wire. I reconnected the 3/8” fuel line, again listening for a click and giving it a gentle tug. Then I reconnected the ½” vent line to the charcoal canister. Again, click and tug. Finally, I reinstalled the charcoal canister plastic cover with the 6 bolts torqued to 45 in-lbs.
At this point, I poured the gasoline from the milk jugs back into the fuel tank through the filler door. I reattached the cable to the negative terminal on the battery. I then removed the jack stands and started the van. A couple of cranks, and the engine roared to life! I drove off the ramps and headed to the gas station for a fill up.
So, after about 5 weeks, the warm start long crank problem has not reappeared. In addition, the van seems to have better pickup and more power, but that may just be my imagination. In any case, I no longer smell of gasoline, the wife is happy, and it’s a new year. Life is good.
