88 tercel problems

[ragin_murphy]

Hi people, i've been having some issues with my 1988 toyota tercel ez and i was hoping someone could shed some light.

The car has the 3E 1.5L engine, with carburetor.
4spd manual trans
135k miles

Basically, maybe 3 out of 5 times, the engine will diesel.
When the car is cold, it hesitates, but only when it is cold. When the car warms up, there is absolutely no hesitation
Just recently it has not been idling very well. It idles at low rpm, and sounds as if it is about to shut off. However revving the engine sounds perfect.

What i've done about it so far:
replaced air filter
replaced spark plugs
replaced spark plug wires
replaced rotor
replaced distributor cap
sprayed carb cleaner into the carb in hopes of cleaning out any carbon deposits.
Checked the timing, which seems to be fine.

So what else can i do to help out my car? The dieseling and the hesitation are very annoying and don't seem to be very healthy.

Thanks for your help!

[Daox]

Originally Posted by ragin_murphy

Basically, maybe 3 out of 5 times, the engine will diesel.
When the car is cold, it hesitates, but only when it is cold. When the car warms up, there is absolutely no hesitation
Just recently it has not been idling very well. It idles at low rpm, and sounds as if it is about to shut off. However revving the engine sounds perfect.

The car hesitating in the cold is normal for a carburated engine.
The other problems could be carburator problems. I'd probably try to run some carburator cleaner through it (the kind you put in the gas tank) to clean the jets.

Start there and see what happens. If it continues let us know.

[Helps]

ignition.

[davecl]

points condensor and rebuild carb.

[ragin_murphy]

thanks for the replies

I added some fuel additives (two bottles on two separate occasions). But the car is still having problems with the rough idle and dieseling. One thing to note is that the car idles fine when it is cold, contrary to a similar problem i've seen on this forum. When the car is warm, thats when the rough idling begins.

Dieseling still happens at seemingly random occasions.

Any other suggestions?

[blacksmith04]

It might be a float in the carb that needs to be replaced with the needle valve. I would re build the carb. Most carbs only take a few hours to rebuild other then letting it soak in cleaner over night.

[ToyotaTechGeek]

do you have a catalytic convertor on this car? how miles are on it?

[ivrunner]

Originally Posted by ToyotaTechGeek

do you have a catalytic convertor on this car? how miles are on it?

Would having a catalytic convertor matter?

[ToyotaTechGeek]

yes, possibly.

[ragin_murphy]

Originally Posted by ToyotaTechGeek

do you have a catalytic convertor on this car? how miles are on it?

it has about 136k miles and i don't know about the catalytic converter

[ivrunner]

toyotatechgeek, could you explain? i have the same car as ragin_murphy and it does have some problems. I ask because we do not have emmissions here, so when replacing the exhuast i eliminated the cat.

[ivrunner]

ragin_murphy, i also had problems with dieseling and still have cold start issues. After making sure the vacuums were routed correctly the dieseling stopped immediately. i also replaced a couple that were worn out. if you check out my thread: help with my 3e feedback carb you can see the vacuum routing diagram found under the hood from the factory.

[ragin_murphy]

Originally Posted by ivrunner

ragin_murphy, i also had problems with dieseling and still have cold start issues. After making sure the vacuums were routed correctly the dieseling stopped immediately. i also replaced a couple that were worn out. if you check out my thread: help with my 3e feedback carb you can see the vacuum routing diagram found under the hood from the factory.

Thanks bro i'll check this out as soon as the rain stops. I'll get back when i verify all this is good or not.