help geo prizm 90 - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

ldrancer · 04-19-2011, 03:21 AM

i got a 90 geo prizm hatchback. it's not the gsi, it's got a breather instead of the airbox, and the cat is off and it has anexhaust from another kind of car hooked on about halfway in the pipe. the 02 sensor is hanging there, somewhere, and i dont know what it's doing.
so doesn't use oil oranything, but just found out, it was hard to start and i was goign what the crap. usually that means spark plugs. new ones, and well it ran good. took too many cranks before. you know. the old spark plugs, weren't really old, i dont think. not much, im not for sure. anyway the tips, where they fire to, where small, and like nubs. and after not really 4 days my car isn't sounding good again and it's getting hard to start. the spark plugs that came out were teh best ngk you can buy i found from one website. i put in platinum and well, i was going down th eroad today in 5th, and i floored it and i could hear it missing. so i'm thinking the spark plugs aren't doing good. so what should i do with this breather? the airbox has been took off and a free flow k&n air filter, or something, has been put on, it looks like a screen filter. the muffler was cut halfway, and this is a hatchback, and a biggerexhaust form another car was just kind of put on. the catalytic converter isn't there, and the o2 sensor kind of hangs. so how should i run this breather, or what should i do? i think the breahter, is making it run too lean, or the 02 sensor just sint setting this thign right. well for some reason it dont run rightk, so if anyone knows. thanks.

jordanangel · 04-19-2011, 05:49 AM

if your o2 sensor is not reading right it can cause a lot of problems, and is this breather your talking about the intake?

ldrancer · 04-19-2011, 12:54 PM

well, i just got the car. and i dont even really know where it goes. he said something. it just sort of hanging, the o2 sensor is. it says sensor on it, and is just hanging. i dont even know where it hooks up. so and yea it's got this pipe from where the airbox would of hooked on and it goes to a big screen like filter. and the spark plugs are getting ate up.
i dont even know where that sensor goes and stuff. most people says it don't do nothing, so i dont know.

90 GP · 04-19-2011, 02:29 PM

There is a black air temp sensor that plugs into the stock air box. Is that what you are referring to? The oxy sensor hooks into the the front pipe after the manifold in a threaded connector. If the cat converter and all the other goodies are missing or disconnected it will run like crap and the computer would have no inputs ( oxy and air temp sensor) to make timing and fuel adjustments. Good luck passing your smog test(if you have one) without that stuff in place and working.

ldrancer · 04-19-2011, 03:07 PM

im not trying to pass smog tests. im trying to get my spark plugs to run good. is there anything i can do. i seen that black box it says sensor on it. would putting my airbox back on do anything? or do i need the o2 sensor hooked up too? i guess i'll loook for it. how far down the muffler is it?

ldrancer · 04-19-2011, 07:14 PM

where is the o2 sensor located? before or after the catalytic converter? and does it matter, where the o2 sensor is. i think he said it was cut off, but im not going outisde, and well, he said something about the o2 sensor, and a sensor hanging. so im guessing the temperatures the same hanging there, and the o2 sensor, needs hooked back up. would it make a air breather work? just wondering.

jordanangel · 04-19-2011, 09:37 PM

like GP said without those hooked up and working right your engine will run like crap, your o2 sensor reads the exhaust coming out of your engine and adjusts the air fuel mix to run smooth and the air temp sensor helps with this too, it gives a reading to your engine computer telling it how cold or hot the air going in the engine is so it can help adjust the air fuel mix along with the o2 sensor, i put my air temp sensor in wrong when i put in an after market intake kit and well it ran like crap and when i fixed it ran fine till my o2 sensor went out

if your o2 sensor and air temp are not reading right you can get a very lean or rich running engine and that can guess engine damage and or terrible gas mileage

your o2 sensor should be bolted to the exhaust manifold pipe and with our cars its before the cat, your air temp should be plugged into your air intake tube to read right and make sure it has enough room for air to pass by it or it will read wrong and make it feel like the car has no power at all

hope this helps