Urgent problem with 89 Celica GTS

[85HILUX2WD]

Thank you for reading my post. I've got what I feel is a pretty dire situation with my 89 Celica GTS. My celica is not a daily driver so it gets driven about once every week or so. It currently has 124k on the odometer. I usually change the oil every 500-1000 miles since that's 3-5 months. The other day I hopped in to take my once a week or so drive and she fired up no problem. I let her warm up for about 5 minutes in the driveway before taking off. I stopped to get some food and while waiting in the drive-thru I heard what souned like valve noise. I looked down and saw my oil pressure gauge has almost bottomed out completely. I immediately shut down the engine and checked all fluids. The engine was full of oil that was not milky or foamy and the coolant was full with red Toyota coolant. I had no new leaks to speak of. I limped the car home at about 1000 rpms and parked it. Next, I changed the oil with a $14 Mobil 1 filter and good Castrol high mileage oil. When I started the engine the oil pressure was almost non existent. I let it run for about 15 seconds to see if the pressure built but it never came up and the valve noise was starting again. I shut it all down and now I'm here. So does anyone have any thoughts? Could the oil pump have failed? What about the pressure relief spring and piston in the oil pump? No one around here knows anything about old Toyotas and I don't want to tow it to the dealership.

The Red Baron thanks you as do I,
Colin

[Rick89GTS]

If there are no obvious leaks, I think you may be right about the oil pump.

[85HILUX2WD]

So for an update***

Yesterday (10/25/09) my friend and I finally tore into the car. It took 7 hours of teardown before we found the problem. I've NEVER seen this happen before on a Toyota so if anyone else has please let me know so I can figure out if this is a fluke or what. Anyway, we dropped the oil pan to see if the oil pressure relief spring or piston had failed. After we dropped the pan and the screen assembly for the pump we pulled the piston and spring out......no problem, they were good. We then moved on to remove the cam belt and the actual pump. After getting the cam covers off we found that the cam belt was simply laying there loose! Thank God it had not jumped a tooth....I was lucky enough to limp it home at 1000 rpms without it jumping a tooth and seizing. Here's what happened......this oil pump, unlike the one for the 22re has a separate gear to run the pump instead of the crankshaft. The bolt on that cam gear came loose with no warning and sheared the keyway off the cam gear which let it just flop around releasing all tension on the belt. The internals of the pump were fine but this one bolt just about caused me to grenade my engine. We could tell that no one had ever had this paticular cam gear off before and the oil pan had the original gasket material on it from 89 so no one has been in this motor.....After 20+ years it just decided to back off one day with no warning. So, long story short....I'm getting a new pump assembly and replacing the cam seals and valve cover seals while the motor is torn apart. Any recommendations on pumps would be good is people have suggestions.....I'll start with the dealership, but I'm not spending $200 on a pump. I'll just go to the junkyard and pull this cam gear off and rebuild mine if it comes to it.

[Twintrucks]

I got all my parts from Parts Dinosaur.com. he list most every thing you might need. Hope this helps.

[Rick89GTS]

Wow. Sometimes you get funny things like that with old cars. At least now you know what caused it and your engine is recoverable.
Try www.1sttoyotaparts.com their prices are usually pretty good.

[85HILUX2WD]

So I thought I would update this thread. I was able to start the car again yesterday (11/16/09) and all seems back to normal. It took over 2 weeks for Toyota to get the proper cam gear for the oil pump. I fired the engine with no exhaust to make sure oil pressure was back and it came right back after about 5 seconds without any horrible knocking or bad engine sounds. I still have the lower cross-member to re-install along with a few brackets and final pieces along with the exhaust. Currently, my problem is locating the correct O2 sensor. While the whole thing was torn apart I figured I would replace everything I could....Crank Seal, both Cam Seals, Valve Cover Gaskets and the O2 sensor. I've pulled an O2 sensor code from the computer but its only a partial failure so I haven't replaced it but I figured now is a good time. All my local parts stores have is a single wire unit where my OEM unit is a 4 wire. Anyway, once I get a new sensor I should have it all back together in about an hour. I'm really excited to start driving it again. My Jeep Cherokee is awesome and has been uber reliable but it still is a moving brick on wheels. I'm tired of fill-ups every 12 days.

[RobMilkshakes]

I checked at work today, Advance, and we did list a direct fit 4 wire.I didn't have one in stock but our hub store did, as did our local warehouses, so it should be only a one day order.

Here's the Denso part number 234-4051 a few different parts stores carry denso O2 sensors so I hope that helped.

[85HILUX2WD]

Thanks so much for the part number and info Rob. I slammed the old sensor back in last night because after a month I was ready to be driving the car again. I was up until about midnight last night re-haning the exhaust, trans cross-member and a few other misc. items. I took it for a test drive and then was able to bring it to work this morning......so far so good. My oil pressure is back where it was, if not slightly higher. Thanks everyone for your tips and help during this process. Here's hoping our Celicas last forever....

[Rick89GTS]

Good job, glad everything worked out for you. Just an FYI, the 86-87 Celicas used the 1-wire O2 sensor; the 88-89 used the 4-wire. When you're done, throw up some pics of your 89GTS for us.