3s-fe Engine

[sjrainsford]

Hi folks! I'll probably be repeating this in the Rav 4 section, but as there are so many models with the 3S-FE 2.0 engine, I thought I may as well post here too.

Well, as it says under the title - my engine seems to be pinking under acceleration. It also doesn't seem to be as rev happy as Toyota engines are normally either.

Any ideas? Have checked the vacuum lines (well the ones I can get to). Theres also a sort of quiet whistle sound during acceleration too, but that happens lower down the rev band than the pinking.

I'm kinda hoping that maybe this has happened to a few people before, and it's a common problem. But as toyotas are generally reliable, I may be on my own.

Thanks for any replies in advance!

[ADI Paul]

Sorry, but this reply is almost a year late. However, I only bought my Carina a couple of weeks ago and it had noticable pinking and what I discovered may be of help to others, so here goes.

My car has 77k miles on it and I checked the ignition timing (you need the type of timing light that clips over the HT leads as the plugs are way down between the cam covers). The timing was way too advanced.

I took the distributor cap off and discovered that it was like new - except that the posts where the spark jumps were heavily encrusted with deposits. Clearly this cap was well beyond it's sell by date and had never been changed. Not having a new cap to hand, I scraped the deposits off with a flat screwdriver down to shiny metal.

The rotor arm was in a similar state. I had no choice but to file it back to shiny metal also.

Doing this is not good as the air gap is increased and at the first opportunity I will replace both items with new ones.

After doing this temporary repair, I reset the timing by slackening off the distributor bolts and moving the dizzy accordingly. When I put new parts on again, I'll have to recheck the timing.

Out of curiosity, I looked up the service schedule and expected to see these parts replaced as a matter of course about every 30k miles or thereabouts like every other car with a dizzy. It wasn't mentioned at all!!! No wonder it had been pinking!

It now runs fine and revs freely.

[tea sport]

I am not saying your engine isnt pinking but i have seen on a number of occaisions, Engine noise being transmited into the car through a split in the rubber boot/seal around the steering post. It is located around the base of the post as it goes through the bulkhead. It can be checked by simply feeling it for splits.

(i have only seen this on rav's not any other toyota's)