Sick Celica Needs Help

[Lorra]

HELP!!! My 1994 red Celica 2l GT died on Tuesday whilst i was bombing along in the fast lane on the M3!! So far two garages have been unable to find the fault, but agree it must be something electrical - its not the igniition amplifier, any ideas??

I've only had this car for 6 months and it was my pride and joy, I am heart broken and also do not have a bottomless bank account either!!!!

Any help, advice, free consultations will be greatly appreciated, maybe you've had the same problem? Know someone who has? Know someone who is s***t hot when it comes to electrics on jap imports???

Lorra

Dorset

[GT4 BOOSTER]

lets begin by telling us all what the car is not doing , then maybe we can make progress.

[Lorra]

Ok, thanks, well when it died there was no noise no prior problem of any kind, the engine just cut out whilst doing 80(ish). (Worst bit is on the Friday previous it had a full service and MOT)!

Now bear with me here cos I'm not up with the tech/mechanical stuff, when I turn the ignition key it sounds like its gonna start but just doesn't kick in, it just turns over and over until I stop, there are no weird noises or anything and nothing mechanical has been damaged, etc as a result, so no cam belt calamity, etc.

The garages that have seen it so far have had no toyota spec diagnostic software to test further, but my local Toyota dealer (to which it looks like I'll need to go next and get fleeced!) does not have the software for a grey import anyhow! So they tell me they will have to do all their checks, etc, manually anyway!

Any clearer??

Yours hopefully

Lorra

[GT4 BOOSTER]

ok first off you need to check if its sparking , to do this get an old spark plug ,put it into any one of your existing leads ,place the spark plug tip near something metallic ( the engine hoist bracket is the best bet )and have an assistant crank the engine and look for a spark jumping across the plug tip.if you have a spark its down to petrol shortage or non at all ,which sugests a blocked filter or the fuel injection pump has died .if no spark its down to the coil ,the rotor arm or the distributor cap or the distributor itself.maybe a good idea to check all the fuses too and replace any blown ones if there is any.also make sure to check that there are no vaccuum pipes off anywhere as there are quite a few on celicas and when they fall off the engine just stalls and wont run .worst case for you is the ecu is down which toyota will want around £1200 for a new one.

anyone else who has an opinion may add to this , but i hope this can give you some pointers and possibly a cure.

[Kelvyn]

While checking the distributer cap have someone crank the engine while the cap is off, if the rotor arm doesn't turn then suspect cambelt failure. Other than that Maleborn has the basics of it covered.

You can check some of the diagnostic stuff yourself of course, using a paper clip, take a look here http://www.off-road.com/toyota/tech/codes/

[GT4 BOOSTER]

quick fire question , has the vehicle got an immobiliser on it.

[Lorra]

;) Thanks for all the advice! Thats fantastic! The garage tell me the cam belt, spark plugs and fuses are fine, though two fuses had blown when they checked it out but the car still wouldn't start after they'd replaced them!

Still, you've given me more options for the garage to check if they haven't already done so, are these things that are difficult to check on my car? Or can be easily missed? Could this be why the garages were unable to diagnose the problem you think??

To tell you the truth I don't know if the car does have an immobiliser, I presumed it had, but then I had no manual, etc to look see and apparently when there was one it was in japanese anyway!!

Thanks again!!! Any more thoughts would be appreciated

[GT4 BOOSTER]

if its sparking , well thats 1 good thing it means everything is working on that side of things , basically then all it can be now is a vaccuum pipe somewhere or fuel starvation , ( i'm not stating thats what it is just speculating here ) - have them check this out , could be the fuel pump has packed in or a wire fell off , clogged fuel filter may even be the fuel guage is faulty and there is no petrol in it , its been known to happen

1 last thing feel the rear tail pipe is releasing pressure , its been known that the rear exhaust baffles collapse and choke the engine causing it not to start .but this seems unlikely as you would of heard them rattling about.

could be the fly wheel timing sensor if they have 1 fitted .

i just hope its not the engine management system ( ecu ) has failed.but seeing as its sparking that seems unlikely , but i'm no expert . goodluck

[GT4 BOOSTER]

Evaporative emissions come from the fuels, oils, rubber, and plastic parts used on our automobiles. Most of the emissions come from the fuel and this has been controlled using a charcoal canister connected to the vent line from the fuel tank. The charcoal canister is filled with activated charcoal (carbon) that attracts the hydrocarbon fumes evaporating from the fuel just as bees are attracted to honey. Each gram of activated charcoal can hold up to 1000 times it's weight in hydrocarbon fumes.

The magic of the canister is that it can release the fumes when fresh air is pulled through the charcoal, so the canister can be used over and over again. Air is pulled through the canister by engine intake manifold vacuum and the hydrocarbon fumes are burned inside the engine instead of being released to the atmosphere.

Trouble develops when the air inlet to the canister becomes plugged. This air inlet is also the vent for the fuel tank. When fuel flows out of the tank, air must be allowed to enter. When no air can enter, a vacuum develops and eventually the fuel pump cannot pull any more fuel out of the tank. The car acts as if it ran out of gas, but the tank may be full!

I have talked to several car owners over the last few months with this problem. The car will work well for perhaps up to 1/2 hour and then suddenly stall. Sometimes it will restart after cranking for a while, but many times it must sit for a half hour or more before it will start. Usually the vehicle operates perfectly when taken to a repair shop.

The key to diagnosing this problem is to remove the fuel cap when the vehicle stalls. If it starts up immediately afterwards, then the vent filter on the canister is probably plugged. Some canisters have a replaceable filter but many require the complete canister to be replaced. Because the canister is usually tucked out of sight at the bottom of the engine compartment, and it doesn't have any moving parts, it is often overlooked when vehicle service is performed. If your vehicle stalls after operating for some time, and everything else seems to be working correctly, don't forget that carbon canister hiding under your hood.