Got a family hand-me-down Avalon, have a few questions

[dhen]

Hi,

I got a 1998 Avalon about a month ago. It's been running fine, but being an older car I've been trying to fix a few things. Anyway, I have a couple of questions.

1) Is the motor an interference motor. In other words, what happens if the timing belt fails? (Yes, I know I should just replace it, but I'm just asking.)

2) Are there any issues with using a Japanese Domestic Market engine with these cars. I've seen some cheap ones on the internet. Everything's working fine for now, but you never know.

3) The accelerator pedal sometimes sticks when I first press on it. Is there a place I could oil to stop this? I tried cleaning the throttle body by spraying some cleaner in it.

Thanks,

Darian

[new echo owner]

1) Non-interference motor.
2) Don't know. plenty of 1MZ-FE around and very rarely do they go bad.
3) How good did you clean the throttle body, it maybe the cruise control actuator that is causing your problem, check the cables then the actuator to make sure they are free.

N.E.O.

[BMR]

My Camry's throttle got sticky a while back, and I'm pretty sure it has the same setup. There's a plastic box-looking cover just to the left of the battery held on with a couple of screws on the left side (opposite the battery). There are some linkages under there; I think it's where the cruise control hooks in, like NEO said. Lube those pivots up with some WD40 or something like that. That's where the prob was on my Camry anyways.

[dhen]

Thanks, I'll look into that.

Darian