93 Celica 5SFE -NEED HELP! - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Luja · 03-26-2008, 05:24 PM

Hello to everyone. It has been a while since I have been on here.
My story is this: I had just put a bunch of work into my celica at 238,636 miles including timing belt, rack and pinion and struts all around. She was running great, took her for an alignment and new shoes and then she took me to work for a couple of weeks. Then, suddenly when trying to pull out from a stoplight, she bogged down and died. I had to have her towed home.

After a lot of troubleshooting, I finally discovered that the timing had jumped a couple of teeth. I re-aligned everything and got her all back together and VROOOM, she started right up but the victory was cut short when a horrendous racket came forth from the timing belt cover along with smoke. Once again I took her all apart to discover the idler pulley had been eaten and spewed throughout the timing belt cover and the belt was a little toasty. So, this time, new timing belt and tensioner and idler. Got her all back together this morning and once again VROOOOM!

Now, the only issue after all of that is when I took her down the road for a test, she started the darn bogging down when I pushed the accelerator. Luckily I got her home and there she sits until tomorrow morning when I can take a look again.

What I have done throughout all the troubleshooting thus far is verify the fuel pump works, change fuel filter, ohmed out distributor and coil. The only thing I have not checked fully yet is the fuel rail pressure or injectors. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Pineapple · 03-26-2008, 05:26 PM

If you can rev slowly to redline but not fast, you need new ignition coil.

Luja · 03-27-2008, 11:55 AM

Pineapple,

If the ignition coil is bad, could it cause the engine to lose timing? I just checked her out this morning and it looks like it was about a tooth or two off.

Pineapple · 03-27-2008, 01:15 PM

Nop, it won't. Check and set timing again by rotating the disturbutor.
Unless you install the belt or didn't tight down the tensioner.

carmandan53 · 03-27-2008, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luja

Hello to everyone. It has been a while since I have been on here.
My story is this: I had just put a bunch of work into my celica at 238,636 miles including timing belt, rack and pinion and struts all around. She was running great, took her for an alignment and new shoes and then she took me to work for a couple of weeks. Then, suddenly when trying to pull out from a stoplight, she bogged down and died. I had to have her towed home.:sosad: After a lot of troubleshooting, I finally discovered that the timing had jumped a couple of teeth. I re-aligned everything and got her all back together and VROOOM, she started right up but the victory was cut short when a horrendous racket came forth from the timing belt cover along with smoke. Once again I took her all apart to discover the idler pulley had been eaten and spewed throughout the timing belt cover and the belt was a little toasty. So, this time, new timing belt and tensioner and idler. Got her all back together this morning and once again VROOOOM!:)

Now, the only issue after all of that is when I took her down the road for a test, she started the darn bogging down when I pushed the accelerator. Luckily I got her home and there she sits until tomorrow morning when I can take a look again.:confused: What I have done throughout all the troubleshooting thus far is verify the fuel pump works, change fuel filter, ohmed out distributor and coil. The only thing I have not checked fully yet is the fuel rail pressure or injectors. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

carmandan53 · 03-27-2008, 04:10 PM

It seems to me that the cam timing is off, especially since the engine bogs (by bog I am guessing you mean a s-l-o-w climb in rpm when you nail it). Just one tooth off, and the car wont get out of its own way. Lets retrace your steps. With the belt off, the cam sprocket will have two index marks at 9 oclock and 3 oclock (paint these with white out or something) that must run parallel with the valve cover surface, and the tiny hole at the top sprocket spoke (stamped "up") MUST index with the casting line in the first bearing cap when looking through that hole. The trouble is, its hard if not impossible, to look through that little hole because the strut tower is in the way. Get a paper clip and run it thru the hole and touch it to the casting line. If you can do that the cam is properly indexed. Now, the crank sprocket. Indexing the crank is fairly straightforward. At TDC, the crank key will run a parallel line up and down with the cylinder. This is where alot of mistakes happen. Up and down is not truly up and down. Remember, the cylinders sit back on a 15 degree slant to the rear. The imaginary line runs PARALLEL with the cylinders centerline, not to "real" up and down.To double check yourself, the crank sprocket will have a tiny notch on its outer edge, above the keyway. When installed, that notch will index with a casting line on the oil pump.The insane part of this procedure is getting the belt around the pulleys and sprockets WITHOUT disturbing the crank position, because if you have the right belt and even with the tensioner fully extended, the belt willl BARELY slip over the last pulley. It should be an extremly tight fit. If it falls together with no difficulty youre doing something wrong or you got the wrong belt. Once itis back together, let the tensioner snap in place. If anything moves out of place, start over. Dont be surprised if it takes a few tries. Once the tensioner is in place install the lower plastic belt cover and rotate the engine 2 revolutions. Check your timing marks on the plastic cover. At TDC on the plastic cover, the cam sprocket should be indexed the way its supposed to be (paper clip through the hole). If not, start over. Nobody said this was going to be easy. Good luck. BTW, it just occured to me that if the water pump is loose or failed altogether, that will throw the belt out of time. That is why you ALWAYS replace the water pump with a timing belt. While youre at it, 200K is alot of miles on the pulleys. You've gone this far, do it right.

Luja · 04-04-2008, 12:35 PM

OK,

I took the timing cover off and marked everything with nail polish to completely ensure that I was getting everything aligned perfectly, just to eliminate doubt. I tried to start her up again and nothing. Then I loosened distributor and moved all the way advanced and she started. Then I set the timing to where it is supposed to be with light.

but...
Everytime I depress the gas quickly it bogs down severely and almost dies. I am able to slowly depress gas and get it to redline as Pineapple suggested. Finally I depressed it one more time and it bogged and died. I re-adjusted timing forward with distributor again but this time no go. Dead in the water. Just to be sure, i removed timing belt cover once again and checked all the alignment. All marks are dead nuts.

So the big question is this: Is it really my coil or does anyone think it could be something more like maybe my computer? One thing to note, when I put in the jumper wire to see what code my check engine light registers i only get a constant flashing. No codes, just a neverending constant flash of the light.

Luja · 04-28-2008, 02:37 PM

Thanks guys for all of your help! I finally got it all worked out and it was in fact the ignition coil as Pineapple suggested. It seemed to me at the time that this couldn't be the problem because I was getting spark, not great spark but spark. Finally I broke down and dropped the 50 bucks for a new coil and viola, she is off and running again

.

On another note, I just got lucky with checking the timing belt and finding the idler bearing was frozen up. Good thing the 5SFE is non-interference. Word to the wise, ALWAYS change your idler bearing and tensioner bearing when you replace the timing belt! While you are at it, make sure the water pump is tip top as well.

Thanks all again.