Engine/exhuasr/water problem - Page 2 - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Larzzzz · 07-05-2007, 05:32 AM

I'm not familiar with the corolla, but I've broken and had to fix several vehicles in my time. Have you tried to duplicate these problems at home with a hose? Spitting and sputtering when going through puddles makes me think wet wiring. WD-40 works the great on wet wires. Any wiring routed underneath that looks questionable? The gurgling sound......... crack or hole in the intake plumbing? Any smoke out of the ehaust? Perhaps some of the injector wiring is chaffed, I believe that the ECU switches ground to turn the injectors on. Imagine an injector open for 2-3 sec instead of 2-3 thousandths of a second with 50+ pounds of pressure pushing through it. That could be your gurgling sound. and the code could be thrown because your cat could have some raw gas in it which will eventually burn off.

Just another .02 , hope you figure it out. Good luck.

punter · 07-05-2007, 05:49 AM

Problem sounds electrical, anything else shouldn't be so sudden.
Check parts like you coil/ignitor for any moisture (they could be faulty anyway)

PiercedTiger · 07-05-2007, 07:40 AM

I doubt it... The car is low, but there wasn't enough water to flood the tailpipe. I wasn't backing down a boat ramp or anything like that... Just a little puddle on the side of the road.

punter · 07-05-2007, 08:27 PM

Have you ever backed a car into the water, it doesn't affect them, the exhaust will just bubble away happily.

Your problem is not the exhaust, it can't make the car stall suddenely.

PiercedTiger · 07-06-2007, 07:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by punter

Have you ever backed a car into the water, it doesn't affect them, the exhaust will just bubble away happily.

Your problem is not the exhaust, it can't make the car stall suddenely.

Thanks. I kinda figured the exhaust would push it out, but the engine struggles and sounded like something was block the exhaust. Kind of a gurgling/gasping noise. Water in the exhaust somewhere is the only thing I could think of. Especially when it only happens when it rains. I have 170+k on it so maybe I need to replace the coil packs? Is it possible they're just old and more suseptable to moisture now? A few people have mentioned they might be the problem, but at $180 for both I'd hate to drop $200 "just to see". I have a local repair shop that can do a full fuel system clean (gas additive, oil additive, IV-like drip into the intake) that he says might fix it by cleaning everything out. It's only $70 so it's one of the cheaper options at this point, but I seem to remember having a local Jiffy Lube do the same thing less than a year ago. I can't imagine it would need it so soon. Especially since I've stopped racking up the miles on it since we got the truck. The dealer wants $130 just to run some diagnostics on it for and hour n a half...

And that's not even a fix IF they figure out what's wrong.

diver9000 · 07-06-2007, 08:36 AM

With the car is running properly, have someone sit in it to keep the engine running. Get under it with a hose and spray it in small spots to see if you can narrow your search. Im thinking you have a bad connection on your O2 sensor or some of the wiring just on the backside of the engine where the wiring harness is located may be your problem.

PiercedTiger · 07-06-2007, 08:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by diver9000

With the car is running properly, have someone sit in it to keep the engine running. Get under it with a hose and spray it in small spots to see if you can narrow your search. Im thinking you have a bad connection on your O2 sensor or some of the wiring just on the backside of the engine where the wiring harness is located may be your problem.

Thanks. I need to try that this weekend. This last time there wasn't a lot of water on the road so hopefully it won't take much to replicate the problem.

Kr0n1k · 07-06-2007, 11:02 PM

Stripped or damaged wiring going to your o2 sensor/ bad o2 sensor. Locate the sensor, follow the wires all the way back. That, or your ignitor/coil sound like the most reasonable answers.

to electrical problems.

PiercedTiger · 07-17-2007, 07:58 AM

I checked as many wires as I could. Everything seems ok. I get a little bit of white smoke now and then, but then the car is usually a quart low on oil each change so it may be burning some. I put some Seafoam through it last weekend. In the gas, oil, and vacuum line on the intake. It runs better now, and I noticed two things from this.

One, I could duplicate the problem by pouring the seafoam into the vacuum line a little too fast. The engine would cough, sputter, struggle to run, and stall if I didn't grab the throttle soon enough and rev it up. I have a short ram intake, but since the filter always seemed dry I never thought water was getting in the intake. After this experience, I realized it would take less than a teaspoon of water to cause this problem. As in, maybe 5-6 large drops getting in the filter, atomizing, and mixing with the air. (probably not even enough to see a wet spot on the filter) Maybe less since I would imagine Seafoam is flammable and THAT still stalled the engine. I never had this problem in SC, but it rarely rained and the water never stayed on the road. (I got the intake after moving to SC) So I think I'll try putting the stock intake back on. It just really blew my mind how little liquid it took to stall the engine!

Two, I now know I have an hole in the exhaust somewhere between the engine and the cat. So I need to figure out what it's going to take to fix that and if it's something I can do myself. I thought there was a hole there before, but the white smoke from the Seafoam proved it.

Thanks all for you suggestions!