A confession,a request and an oddball starting problem

[fastbob72]

I have somewhat of a grave confession to make.To stand up and say the words out loud in front of an audience to lance the ugly truth. My beloved Avensis,the T22 ran out of MOT jan the 31st and I now drive a 59 plate Yaris 1.33 vvt-i.

My head hangs with shame.Yet it shouldn't as although it wasn't planned this way it's going to work out for the best.The T22 is in my driveway,up on ramps and stands with her interior removed and me inspecting every inch of the underneath for the dread signs of rust,which will be eliminated and solid metal welded in it's place.

Knowing the test was due I had intended,even booked it in for the test but the weather up my way between snow from christmas until the past week,ice and even temperatures hitting -15 at one point 'I couldn't even get the car down to my house for fear I'd be unable to get back up the gradient of the semi tarmac,semi hardcored track from my driveway to the lane at the top if it snowed overnight which it did regularly from xmas till the end of january.

Unable to get my car down I certainly couldn't begin prepping it for the test so when this little bugeyed thing came up for reasonable money with a years tickets and 30 quid a year for tax it seemed to make a kind of sense,though seriously reluctant sense.Parking up the T22 was like saying goodbye to your faithful dog during that last terrible trip to the vet but that isn't the plan nor never was.The Yaris though capable and all that is no replacement for my Avensis,not even close but it gives me the space and time to turn my full attention on the T22 without being compelled to get it back on the road yesterday which has always been the case until now.

Back in 2018 I bought a Celica with the 2ZZ-GE motor to do a swap into my T22 but knowing this would be complex it soon became clear it would be even more than I had imagined not that the idea was dropped.The 2ZZ has been fully rebuilt,the head has been mildly flowed and ported by my good self.New cams,new lifters,modified manifold and so and so on.What became clear was the swap would take weeks rather than the days I'd initially envisioned.The two engines while almost identical on paper are ddifferent sizes.The 2ZZ is fatter which if you know what FE and GE actually mean should be that huge a surprise yet I hadn't imagined the difference would matter,the 1ZZ is slightly taller but the 2ZZ was canted back slightly with the Celicas engine bay so if mounted vertically in the T22 suddenly the 6 speed transaxle will be at slight angle to the horizontal. The exhaust on the 1ZZ drops straight down then does a 90 degree turn at floor level,the 2ZZ ex manifold comes out at around 45 degrees straight into the where the bulkhead is so some form of 'trans tunnel' will need to be cut out and fabricated whilst not losing any torsional rigidity or adding excess weight.

Engine mounts will need to be fabricated and where exactly within the bay does it go.I think the easiest way would to be to use my driveshafts as a kind of datum point and position the engine and trans to line up with them .Of course,all this fabrication,changes to the cars structure will mean an engineers examination to pass the MOT so I intend to MOT it first,then do the swap and by the time it's due again all the issues and fault will have been ironed out and solved until it's genuinely ready to be deemed roadworthy.

So the Yaris has been a rather unlooked for blessing although I have to admit that last sunday morning when I was about to head to work it certainly was no blessing at all.A veritable curse if you'd asked me right then.

It had been fine,Toyota like reliable for the couple of weeks so far but come 9.15 am last sunday when I turned the key nothing happened.Dash light lit up like normal but turning the engine produced nothing at all,not even dimming dash lights like you'd expect.Having very little time I whipped the good Battery from the Avensis placing in front of the Yaris thinking,hoping it was slightly flat and a good kick from the T22 Battery would  frankenstein it into life.I'd put the T22 up on stands and removed the wheels so that option was not even in the  running,just the Battery and some jump leads but they made no difference. Anyway,I found another way in and on returning puzzled what was the Yaris playing at.

It had been fine saturday afternoon yet useless sunday morning,what had changed.All I'd done to it saturday evening was look in the boot as I was curious for no particular reason whether it had a space saver or a real spare tyre,space saver btw 😞 I'd checked the oil and took the floor mats out of the T22 and put them into the Yaris.How did any of that cause it to refuse to start.

The first clue was the lack of anything at all when turning the key past ACC .You'd expect a sluggish starter if the battery was drained,a jammed starter should have dimmed the lights so it seemed like an electrical fault in the starting curcuit or the solenoid had given up but why there seemed no answer.Personally,I suspected the issue was with security system.,the remote locking key ,immobiliser or something. Scanning an online curcuit diagram of the starter system I saw there was a clutch switch,a what ? Clutch switch which upon further reading it appeared if the clutch pedal wasn't fully depressed when starting no power went to the starter.

I don't know which is more bizarre,a starter with a clutch switch or the idea someone would start a manual without their foot down on the clutch,why would you start a car any other way,makes no sense to me at all.

Then it struck me,it seemed ridiculous but actual possible.Were the floor mats preventing the clutch from fully closing the switch and cutting power to the starter..Surely not,how thick is a rubber floor mat 1/4 inch if that.Could that little amount of restriction under the pedal cause all this.Well,if you hadn't guessed that was exactly the problem although with or without the mat the clutch pedal felt fully pressed down whatever but with  the mat removed it started first time.

It's the craziest starting problem I've ever had to deal with but I sup[pose a victory for a little lateral thinking and I'll certainly not make that mistake again.

Also,can anyone tell me what the gear ratios and final drive for the 6 spd 1.33 vvt-i Yaris are because I've hunted online for hours and haven't found anything I can call reliable.I believe it's a EC66 transaxle according to the plate in my passenger door jam but searching that online has drawn a blank.I bought the ebook manual from a well known online resource which I've used before many times yet the manual doesn't cover the manual gearbox,the auto yes,manual no.

Any advice,answers or suggestion who to try would be extremely welcome right now .

[fastbob72]

Also my stereo has a button for selecting either AM or DAB yet there is no sign of anything remotely like digital radio.I'm assuming there simply isn't but does that mean it has the capability to be added or upgraded ?

[FROSTYBALLS]

DAB was available as an optional module. The button was fitted as standard for when the DAB module was fitted. It was the same on my 2009 and 2012 Auris.

On  models later than the T22, the car mats have small hooks which fit clip into a fastening in the carpet and into the mat, which stops the mat moving forwards and interfering with the pedals. An example:

[fastbob72]

Thanks,I pretty much assumed the button was more about a potential DAB upgrade rather than being standard ,which is a shame as I miss having the digital radio which I'd fitted in my T22 but then again it has the AUX input which means I can listen to Audible or Spotify whatever by p.lugging my mobile in so it works out in the end anyway 🙂

Is the DAB module easy to get hold of still and worth fitting ?

[FROSTYBALLS]

May be able to get one off eBay. These head units were superceded by the Toyota Touch units around 2012, which have a touch screen built in.