Carina E 1.8 Gs - Stalling Problem

[Deepak]

Hi,

I have recently bought a used Toyota Carina E 1.8 GS 1997. The last major service was done in May 05. It ran ok for a while, but in the past few weeks I am experiancing stalling problems. The vehicle stalls abruptly when I am waiting at crossroads or traffic signals. Luckily most of the times it starts up after a few minutes. But after the first time it struggled really hard to start, I had a major service done at a local garage. The guys at the garage told me that they have changed the fuel filter. The vehicle ran ok for a while after the service but i am experiancing the same problem again.

Can anyone please suggest any ideas as to why this problem might be occuring? I intend to take it to another garage in the next few days, however any ideas/pointers to the root cause would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Regards,

Deepak

[francois]

yeah, the HT leads may be at fault. They do give up the ghost after a while. The original ones on my toyota lasted 9/10 years but started playing up recently causing misfires/power loss. You can get a new pair for about £70.

[gazza1286]

Won't you need two pair?? lol

[francois]

all right all right, I meant a set rather than a pair

[Deepak]

Hi,

Thanks for the info. How can the HT leads be identified? I am guessing HT leads mean High Tension leads, and hence are the big fat cables that are connected to the Battery. Are these something that can be fixed by self or need to be taken to a garage?

Thanks,

Deepak

[francois]

Deepak,

No they are the cables going from distributor cap to the spark plugs (well, thats what I was refering to anyway). They are quite easy to change yourself. just unplug old ones and plug in new ones. do them one by one to avoid confusion

cheers

[sotal]

Make sure the engine breather pipes are OK as well. I had one that fell off on an older car and that caused those very symptons

[Deepak]

Guys,

I tried to get new HT leads at a local Halfords, but they tried to sell me ones that were on the shelf for more than 2 years (meant to be collected in 2004), which I've refused. Ne'ways, in the meanwhile I have changed the batteries in my car keys and the problems have occurred only twice since then. So 8/10 times there are no starting problems and no stalling . Therefore not yet 100% sure whether the problem has been resolved.

Is there some way that the existing leads can be cleaned?

Thanks,

Deepak

[Deepak]

Ok ! HT leads it is. Changed them yesterday. The car is now running as smooth as a hot knife would slice through butter........ok thats a bit of exaggeration, but the difference is quite evident.

Thanks again guys !

Cheers!

Deepak

[Deepak]

:ffs: It stalled again !! Changing the leads has made some difference. Starts up more easily and most of the times with a single turn of the key. The stalling has also reduced. However, without any warning or any identifiable symptoms does stall ramdomly, sometimes at 20-30 mph sometimes around 55-60.

The only identifiable pattern is that whenever the car doesn't start right away with the turn of the key, it tends to stall after driving for a few minutes. I saw on some other topic that the fuel injectors may need to be cleaned/replaced. Can anyone please guide me as to how the injectors can be identifed, can they be cleaned/replaced by self or needs to go to garage and how much would new ones cost !

Thanks,

Deepak

[francois]

deepak

look where ht leads come into the spark plugs. above each ht lead, you'll notice alttle plastic plug. these connect to the 4 injectors. I need one replaced too. I dont know the price but it looks quite hard to do yourseld, especially as rubber o rings need replaced.

[Deepak]

Thanks francois. I found them right where you said they would be.

One observation that I have been able to make is that the problem is occuring whenever the amount of petrol drops below the 50% mark. Is it possible that there is some solid residue at the bottom of the tank which is causing a problem when the amount of petrol in the tank goes down??? OR is it possible that the fuel pump is not working ok? Is there some way to find out if either of the above is true?

Thanks,

Deepak

[francois]

Interesting.

My misfire occurs on only one cylinder which is why i thought that injector was tittied. Indeed I have confirmed its not the spark plug or the ht lead, which only leaves the injector or worse, a problem with the cylinder itself, which means bye bye car. I think its the injector because the misfire is intermittent. Its a known fault in carina's 1.8 after over 100k.

In your case, the fact that the car stalls implies the problem is probably not with solely one injector. Does your car ever misfire but not stall? Does this occur only under humid atmospheric conditions? One solution, you are right, may be due to the fuel delivery to the injection system. If your fuell filter is recently replaced, then it could be the fuel pump. The fact that it ionly occurs when tank is less than half full is consistent with crap in the tank or pressure problems with the fuel pump. However there are many other options! e.g. engine management control, cracked distributor cap among many others.

try the following:

put in some injector cleaner (stp or similar) then give it a good blast. sometimes this solves problems magically. cheap option. do this first.

try the engine diagnosis mode, as indicated in the manual. wire it up and take it for a spin and if it stalls, check the error code given to you. cheap option. would pick up fuel pump malfunction, i think.

take to diagnosis garage and get them to hook it up see what comes up on the full diagnosis machine. reasonably cheap (as long as its an independent and not a toyota dealership) but only useful if whatever is wrong is detectable through the electronic/electric circuits. they would detect fuel pump malfunction.

there is always residue in the tank, in any car. try siphoning tank from different depths and see how thick your residue layer is. if more than a few cm, it could be that. I'm not entirely sure how you would go about cleaning out the tank. I think mechanics use something a bit like a hoover! I dont think that would be too expensive to get done by a garage, but its a bit of a shot in the dark. either way cleaning the tank wouldnt do any harm and at least you'd know its not that.

find out how much a fuel pump is! you can actually replace this yourself, though a garage could do it easily and shouldnt charge too much. then you'd know if its that. ahgian its a shot in the dark.

If I were you, I d do what i am doing, i.e. find an independant toyota specialist (look in yellow pages). it'll cost ya, but these guys will have loads of experience with your particular car and they may have a gut feeling about whats wrong.

cheers

francois

Thanks francois. I found them right where you said they would be.

One observation that I have been able to make is that the problem is occuring whenever the amount of petrol drops below the 50% mark. Is it possible that there is some solid residue at the bottom of the tank which is causing a problem when the amount of petrol in the tank goes down??? OR is it possible that the fuel pump is not working ok? Is there some way to find out if either of the above is true?

Thanks,

Deepak

[Deepak]

Hi Francois,

Thaks for the tips. I guess the theory about petrol dropping below the 50% mark does not apply anymore. I have the tank full now and it has stalled a few times in the past few days including today.

Another observation I have made is that the vehicle stalls only when I am trying to go up or down a gear e.g. from 1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd or from 5th to 3rd etc.

The injector cleaner that you mentioned, is that a fuel additive that should be poured in the tank?

Thanks,

Deepak

[silent heroes]

hi guys / ladies,

reading the above, losing power along the way happens to me also. Only with engine temp high. (after lets say 15-20 km). intermitting. You can feel it coming and feel it fading later on, then again giving more power as it should. Driving over bumps makes it happen again. so is breaking. Notice that the issue can be induced also by pump-brake action.

(vac!).

About 50.000 km ago, nr 2 died on me. Now -helas-, my nr 1 seems to be longing for the great motorheavens.

(almost 400.000 km on my lovely LB).

TIP:

Replacing the injector should always be done together with O-ring and plug. (peanuts money wise, even at the dealer, just do it). The original new injector itself is quite more expensive. labour hours is low, its an easy job, that is, when the intermittingly faulty injector is identified.

TIP:

(you can ID it yerself, easy. Even on the road, just undo one contact at the time, and see and listen what happens, the redo and go for the next one) B)

TIP:

You centainly do not need to replace all 4 if just 1 is faulty! Unless you wanna part with your cash. :P

TIP:

TUNAP fluid is indeed mixed into the fuel annually. remember to refuel 1 time thereafter before tank is 1/2 way!

[silent heroes]