Toyota 4-cyl. dying

Rich

Rich

Asshole at large
Joined
Mar 17, 2005
Location
Central PA
OK, this is on the wife's '89 Celica 3SFE. (2.0 liter DOHC)

Getting ready to sell it, on Tuesday, I sprayed the engine with some de-greaser, let it sit for about 2 minutes, then hosed it off with a garden hose nozzle. Despite knowing better, I did this with the engine NOT running.

Since then, it's been downhill. It starts pretty normally and will idle forever without a hiccup. it free-revs well most of the time, with just a little stumble right when I hit the throttle.(80% of the time) Sometimes (20% of the time) it acts like it's got no spark when I try to rev it (i.e. when I step on it, it makes that "buuuh" sound and tries to die. If I let off the throttle, it resumes idling fine)

It's basically un-drivable, because as I let out the clutch and feed in throttle, the engine usually bucks and starts to die.. sometimes catching itself if I push the clutch in fast enough (40%), sometimes it'll just sit there and go from 700-0-700, coughing and sputtering. (50%) The other 10%, it coughs and sputters, and then runs BACKWARDS for a second or 2.

Often once it dies like that, I try to re-start it and it'll just crank and crank (raw fuel smell). If I let it sit for 15 seconds or so, it'll frequently fire right back up like nothing was wrong, and idle smooth.

Mind you, it drove PERFECTLY (well, as good as a 20 year old car will) before I washed it.

Here's what I've done:

I pulled the plugs and no water had gotten down in there.
Pulled the very rudimentary TPS and cleaned it, though it wasn't dirty.
Un-plugged and re-plugged every connector I could grab, no corrosion on the pins inside any connector.

I'm convinced it's something electrical / spark related, but what? You'd think if it was water in the dizzy cap it would have dried out by now?

I think the car just knows we're selling it and doesn't want to go.
 
Could you have shorted some sort of Mass airflow sensor out so it can't register the proper air-fuel ratio? BTW I've never worked on or even looked under the hood of that model so its just a shot in the dark from me.
 
Pull the Dizzy cap off, dry the internals. there is a vent on the dizzy that lets water in

The dizzy is very similar to what I deal with on the lifts, and if they get wet, they run like ass. very similar to what you are describing.

If you spray anything in the cap or dizzy body to help dry it out, make sure it's had the chance to vapor out before you reassemble and attempt starting, this is an exciting experiance that I don't care to relive ( just glad I had a tune up kit with me)
 
my vote is on wet dist. it's difficult for all the condensaton left behind to completely dry out without removing and clearing it of moisture. Keep in mind that a pencil mark all the way arougn the inside of the cap will make a car do the same thing, they are VERY sensitive to anythign that will conduct current.
 
X3 on the dizzy cap. Dry out the cap but also blow out the distributor real good too.
 
OK, well I sure hope it is just the dizzy - hell, it's due for a replacement anyway, maybe I'll just replace the cap, rotors and wires.
 
Well.. that's interesting. I pulled the cap off, and the damn thing has quite a bit of oil with a little water in it! (The dizzy sits horizontally, with the coil at the bottom, inside the cap). Yeah, that might explain the problem!

I pulled the dizzy (noting that the lower bolt holding it on was loose) and cleaned it thoroughly with electrical cleaner, then used the air nozzle to finish. Put a new rotor, cap, wires, and plugs in, and it runs like a top. Didn't test drive it because of the rain, but it free revs more smoothly than before with no hesitation at all.

I'm guessing that the loose bolt coupled with my de-greaser got a good bit of oil down in there.
 
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