New to toyota, with a couple problems - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

McBoyko · 11-21-2007, 08:32 PM

hey,

i just bought my girlfriend a 92? celica gt?.... the only reasons the question marks are there is because it is a rebuilt car and i really dont know exactly what its got in it. any way, the ac does not work, but i narrowed that down to it just needing a recharge, next is a whistling sound when i floor it, i only floored it because i was checking the pickup when i bought it. next is the o/d light blinks when i get up to highway speeds and after. the car also seems a bit slow, i look all around and saw that the down pipe has huge dents in it where it curves probably from going or some bumps too fast. while i was doing a tune up i left her to change the dome light bulb, sounds simple.... bad idea... she blew the fuse that goes to the radio and dash clock and other inside lights, lol. i dont know how she did it. also spits some smoke out the back.

i searched for all these problems and came up with the following results:

the o/d light- tranny problem, get a read out and go from there

whisling- didnt find anything

a/c- just need to know what type of gas to put in

down pipe- replace it

smoke- possibly to most costly fix, either rings or valves.

everything else goes good cept the p/s, which is non-existent. its the pump though.

i got her for 680 which i think is a good buy. the odometer says 204k but i know its wrong cuz the speedo gauge is from an st and the engine is from a gt i think..... i dont know the engine code for sure but i think it a 5sfe (cuz its 2.2) . i couldnt find any vin #'s cept for the windows and those are st vins.

please help me if i am wrong i dont want to go and just replace things when they dont need replacing.

Life2 · 11-22-2007, 09:35 AM

I used to always think the whistling sound was a belt dieing but my dad recently told me that belts don't make much of a noise when they go bad. My new theory for this is an exhaust leak and I'm 95% confident in that. I don't know much about the other problems....the smoke is bad depending on the color but you seem pretty knowledgeable about cars so it's probably a black smoke if you even brought it up since a little white smoke is no big deal.

McBoyko · 12-13-2007, 12:29 AM

it doesn't sound like a belt going bad, its more of a turbo/supercharger type of sound. it would be awesome if there was a supercharger stuck in there somewhere that wasn't hooked up to the manif. and just sucking air in and spitting it out, i would be able to fab some intake pipes and give a lot more power. i tried looking but i couldn't find anything. but you are probably right about the exhaust leak somewhere hopefully when i replace the down pipe it'll fix the whistle. but, head gasket is coming first, blew it while driving home from her mothers. the car hadn't been driven in a long time and i think it was just to much for the old gasket.

the color of the smoke was a blue-ish type, so it was burning oil. while i've got the head off i'll think about replacing rings and taking a quick look at the valves. ive got similar problems with my 97 nissan altima (such a crappy car) ive put so much money and time in my nissan that i probably coulve gotten myself a celica al-trac. that wouldve been nice

i'll try to keep this updates for other people with similar problems, it may take some time for me to get back to posts tho, since i go to UCF for aerospace engineering and it takes up alot of my time.

wonger · 12-13-2007, 03:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by McBoyko

it doesn't sound like a belt going bad, its more of a turbo/supercharger type of sound. it would be awesome if there was a supercharger stuck in there somewhere that wasn't hooked up to the manif. and just sucking air in and spitting it out, i would be able to fab some intake pipes and give a lot more power. i tried looking but i couldn't find anything. but you are probably right about the exhaust leak somewhere hopefully when i replace the down pipe it'll fix the whistle. but, head gasket is coming first, blew it while driving home from her mothers. the car hadn't been driven in a long time and i think it was just to much for the old gasket.

the color of the smoke was a blue-ish type, so it was burning oil. while i've got the head off i'll think about replacing rings and taking a quick look at the valves. ive got similar problems with my 97 nissan altima (such a crappy car) ive put so much money and time in my nissan that i probably coulve gotten myself a celica al-trac. that wouldve been nice

i'll try to keep this updates for other people with similar problems, it may take some time for me to get back to posts tho, since i go to UCF for aerospace engineering and it takes up alot of my time.

a vacuum leak could cause the same sound
i wouldnt replace the rings unless they are bad. with the head off.. pour some coolant in each cylinder.. and let it sit over night.. if it disappears or starts to leak into the bottom in of the block. than replace the rings . taking the heads of doesn't mean the pistons come right off as well ..

alot source of your leaks would be the valve seals.. which is pretty common on toyotas

aolteach · 12-17-2007, 04:49 PM

I'm not exactly sure about he whistling sound...but I have say I thought I was the only one with that problem.
I have 92 GT-S, 5S-FE. When I get the revs up it sounds like I have a small turbo under there. It's done that since the day I bought it and never got worse. Only at the mid to high rpm range. And only under load. Not while parked.
So my "theories" are either the CAT is a tab bit clogged as the car has 254,000kms. I've taken one apart and it has like a honeycomb filter in there that will get clogged slowely.
Or there's a little air reservoir type thing on the air tube running from the airbox to the intake. It sticks off the side of the tube. I've wondered if that wasn't some sort of air reservoir. Really not sure what the purpose of that is.
I've owned this car for 6 years. It's never got worse.

PhantomS · 12-18-2007, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aolteach

I'm not exactly sure about he whistling sound...but I have say I thought I was the only one with that problem.

Hmmmmmm ... perhaps previous owner stuck a Turbonator (or whatever the pos is called) in the intake (or wherever it goes...)

I had to laugh - my brother scored a really nice '98 'Vette on eBay for a great price (was local pickup for him)....car is in perfect shape, low miles, and pretty brutally quick....upon his going over it after getting it home, he found the po had stuck a Turbonator in it... wtf were they thinking ??? ANYway, just a thought

McBoyko · 01-08-2008, 08:13 AM

wasn't a turbonator i grabbed some abs pipe from home depot and made her a new intake hose and painted it hot pink..... its what she wanted.... there was a giant crack in the old one but a good thing about the celica vs. my altima is that the maf is after the hose and not before so the crack didnt cause any other odd idle problems. after putting the new hose in nothing changed, whistle is still there.
i cant believe that the intake hose is only 2in. seems kinda small, but whatever. i just got back from a trip to omaha nebraska so im going to try and look at it a bit more and firgure what the heck is wrong with it.

florida weather is much more tolerable than omahatian weather. 80 deg instead of 4 deg is nice. t-shirt and jeans is much better than 2 sweaters and poofy pants and still cold.

as far as the cat being clogged, thats probably the first thing ill check, seems the easiest, and very cheap to do myself. emphasis on the "no cost at-all" aspect.

McBoyko · 01-08-2008, 08:17 AM

what do you guys think about that HG fix stuff. i found a brand that says if it doesnt fix your problem they'll give ur money back, seems promising since i really dont think it'll work on hers, it was blown pretty bad. cost 20 bucks tho, and if anyone has had bad experiences with the stuff screwing up major components of the engine i wont use it.

TBayToyotaBoy · 01-09-2008, 02:23 AM

I'm thinking about buying my first Celica (91 GT) so my experience may be irrelevant, but...that whistling sound happens on other different models. My 4-cyl Camry makes that sound under load or WOT, and my old Corollas (one that was carb'ed and one that was EFI) both did it under WOT. My V6 Camry does not.

I had kinda assumed it was just the way the intake was routed through the fender, all those bends and turns could make for a whistling sound when the engine is trying hardest to breathe...

McBoyko · 02-05-2008, 07:53 AM

the car runs fine now after i put the head gasket sealant in it!!!! its amazing. i haven't driven it a very long distance, only a couple of miles each time, but it hasn't overheated itself. as far as the whistling goes, its definitely a hole in the exhaust somewhere. i was behind the car after we put the sealant in, watching for steam, and i could tell back there what it was. so if someone has a minor leak in the head gasket try the stuff in the green bottle with the double money back guarantee, it worked for me but if it doesn't work for you you get you money back. but it does seems to work. also, i notices that one of the headlights doesn't rise up all the way, is there a common problem with that or am i pretty much forced to drive it like that. its very minor, maybe an inch lower than the other, but from 20 feet away the beams are 3 or 4 feet off. I'm thinking of just lowering the beam on one and raising the beam on the other so when she drives its at the same level.

well i just figured id let you guys know how it went

ill continue to fix it up on this thread, but once again i may be a while before i get back because engineering take a lot of my time

McBoyko · 02-06-2008, 06:14 PM

well,

it was running nice for two days... then while going down sr 434 at 45 mph it just stopped, didn't sound like anything broke, just stopped. popped it in neutral, engine cranked but didn't start, there was no smell of fuel out of the tail pipe while my girl friend cranked it but i could fee puffs of air. i read in the Hayne's manual if i bridge the F and B+ terminals in the diagnosis box i should hear the fuel return stuff going, and i did hear it. so i tried starting again and still nothing. checked all the connections. gas tank is half full. put my ear to the tank and i could hear the pump going... i think. maybe the injectors aren't opening? this is really confusing me. im thinking it has something to do with the fuel system since there is no gasoline smell from the tailpipe or engine bay. any ideas? its still the same 92 celica with a 5s-fe engine. would the timing belt be the cause maybe?

McBoyko · 02-12-2008, 08:14 AM

i did an extensive search and came up with the following results for the newest problem of just cranking and not starting.

-no fuel (fuel pump, injectors, filter, etc..)
-no spark (bad distro or plugs, yada yada...)
-timing belt (timing belt)

so i decided to go for the fuel pump, had my girlfriend turn the key to the "on" position,... stuck my head to the rear seat where the fuel pump/tank is and i could hear it going. wasn't the fuel pump. just to make sure i checked for pressure in the line, there was pressure. but i still couldn't smell gas out of the back. and i really didn't want to go all the way to the rail, because its stuck under the intake manif. what kinda of genius would do that? any way. i decided to check to make sure the distro was turning so i could check to make sure it wasn't destroyed and to rule out the timing belt. but, it didn't turn when we cranked the engine. so, apparently that means the timing belt has gone. probably within 2 weeks ill get the belt changed myself and ill let you guys know if that was the problem. hopefully she doesn't have any bent valves, man would that suck. is there enough clearance for the pistons to move if a valve is open? or do i really need to get the valves checked? and that HG stuff, if it only works for a couple months then ill replace the HG. but so far.... at least with the HG, no problems.

P.S.
thanks for all the input

McBoyko · 02-14-2008, 06:50 PM

do i really need the SST things to get the pulley's and other crap off? or can i just do it with a good set of wrenches?

i really want to get this out of the way so i can start and be comfortable with changing it. never done a timing belt before.

McBoyko · 09-15-2008, 08:38 AM

i got halfway done and i got caught up in studying and put it off for a while... now i'm back!

i got the old belt out and saw it had a clean break in it.... very strait, makes me worry that something had seized causing a portion of the belt to stop turning and breaking it. the rest of the belt looked perfectly fine... as if it were just changed

if anyone has experience with this let me know.

also... do i need a pulley puller to get the crank pulley off? or can i just do it by hand?

one more... does anyone know the size of the crank shaft nut thing? my biggest socket i had wasn't big enough. i need a specific size to get the correct size socket

TBayToyotaBoy · 09-19-2008, 10:07 PM

It's a good idea to use a pulley removal tool, or you may end up damaging the assembly. As far as I can remember, the pulley nut is only a 16mm or 17mm.