Oh my....I may not make it home today!!

[sjents]

Not sure the 1991 Celica GT Liftback 5SFE will be making it home today.

Well, here's the long and short of it:

-For the past few weeks, it's been bogging down in every gear when I start to accelerate. The problem becomes less and less frequent at the vehicle warms up.

-Today, I replaced the battery. While replacing the battery, I broke the bolt that was fastening a ground wire (coming off of the negative battery cable) to the front of the vehicle, right behind the headlights. I used another bolt to fasten the ground wire about 4 inches away from it's original spot. I had to get to work, thus no time to remove the broken bolt and find a replacement.

-About 5 blocks from work (which is 15 miles from where I installed the new battery), the engine started cycling violently from 1000 to 2000 RPMs and back down, while the exhaust was going crazy (loud). I normally don't hear the exhaust system at all, and now it sounds like I'm riding a Harley, not driving a Toyota.

-After pulling into my parking ramp at work (about 30 minutes ago), I popped the hood to have a quick look. The positive battery cable was a bit loose. It was still on the terminal, but it was loose. That's something I can take care of after work no problem. That's really all I saw in the 30 seconds I took to glance around at the engine.

Any replies to this urgent situation will be greatly appreciated. Help out your fellow Celica driver and get some good karma flowing. Please.

[A Diddy]

alternator?

[sjents]

Oh my,

Now, this situation probably represents less than 1% of the actual cases where the vehicle is hesitating, however:

On my way home from work last night, the problem got worse and worse. Engine was extremely loud, as was exhaust. Could smell exhaust/gas/etc. Had to roll down windows. Pulled into the garage and popped the hood while still running to try and find the noise:

The 2nd f***ing spark plug wire was flopping around on the top of the valve cover, plug still attached to it. Wow. The plug spun out. Didn't strip anything. Took about 5 seconds to re-check the gap and toss it back into the block. Started it up......Good to go.

Man, anytime you can "fix" your car in under 5 minutes, you win. It's nice to experience good karma after disaster repairs (timing belt, throwout bearing, etc).

[maxpower_hd]

I've actually seen that happen several times. Twice on Hondas, once on a Toyota and once on a Chrysler Sebring. I'm not sure why it happens but my theory is that the heads are aluminum while the plugs are steel and something is happening with expansion from the heat plus vibration.

Whatever causes it, it seems that using Never Seaze on the plug threads helps prevent it.