Gen 6 Celica Recurring Starting Problem

March 2, 2010

Hi All.

I have a 1994 Gen 6 Celica GT 2.0ltr that I've owned and had no problems with for the last 8-9 months. Just recently (last 6 weeks or so) it has had to go into a local garage twice as a non-starter. First time it cost £75 and they said while they were looking for the problem it apparently "rectified itself". Brought the car home and sure enough it kept starting every day first time, every time as always. 2 weeks later it happens again. Back to the garage again and this time they say they found a wire that comes from the fuel pump (under drivers seat) that goes to the area behind the panel on the RIGHT of the drivers footwell that was bent badly and had to be replaced. This cost another £101 for their time etc. They said that after replacing this wire the tester showed constant live power to the fuel pump and it was starting every time again and that they were 99.9% sure this is what had caused the starting problem.

3 trouble free and always starting weeks later on, to last friday, it happens again! Starts instantly no problem, I take girlfriend into work, go to start it to go back home and.....nothing again. Good strong Battery, it usually fires on about 1-2 cylinders but won't start. Leave it 5 mins same again. Then EVERY time you try after that the enging just turns over and then will nor fire at all no matter how many times you try. Anyone ever have a similar issue or have any ideas at all what it could be? The local garage are pretty competent usually and yet twice it's gone wrong after I've been charged for what should be a fixed car. I have no idea if it's electrical or fuel issue. The car usues no oil or water etc and is apart from this issue very, very reliable and in very good all round condidtion. It's not like it's falling apart or something lol.

Thanks anyway if you could give some pointers/ideas in the right direction as it's just costing money without the issue being solved at the moment and I don't really relish taking it to a Toyota garage as I guess the costs would be massive.

Andrew

March 2, 2010

when did it last have plugs, leads, dizzy and rotor arm??

Distributor and arm can breakdown over time

March 3, 2010

when did it last have plugs, leads, dizzy and rotor arm??
Distributor and arm can breakdown over time

Hi Paulgtt and thanks for the reply.

I have no idea if or when these items have been changed in the cars past and I certainly haven't put these parts on the car during the 8 - 9 months I have owned it. I have a local mechanic coming to see the car (hoping today but he's very busy right now), and he says he will test to at least see if the plugs are receiveing a good regular spark. At least then we will have an idea if it's electrical or a fuel issue hopefully. Only problem is he has done little to no serious work on a Celica or Toyota so he didn't seem overy confident on finding the problem. If he can't find anything obvious I will be phoning a different garage tomorrow to see if they can get it solved. Thanks for replying. Will post back here if I know anything more.

Andy

March 3, 2010

Mine would sometimes idle really low on the revs and missfire occasionally when at high revs.

new plugs, leads and dizzy and arm sorted it, as I said the dizzy and arm can crack.

TCB parts for these parts mate, use genuine Toyota leads, alot of celicas don't like these fancy aftermarket ones.

March 6, 2010

Hi Again.

Just thought if anyone has the same problem or is interested anyway, the "new" garage I took the car to found and fixed the problem within 1 hour. The other garage were in the right area but sadly don't appear to have checked everything thoroughly enough. Turns out all it was is a RELAY right by the fuel pump (under drivers seat apparently), that was faulty. Power into relay but nothing out the other side. Simple really eh? What a shame it cost me £176 in wasted labour in the first garage and now another £102 to finally put the problem to rest, making a grand total of £278 for a relay about as big as a matchbox. That's life I guess......sigh :rolleyes: . Now my Celica is back to it's good old reliable starting first turn of the key.......Everytime!! :)