Got crank/camshft seals, tmg chain replaced and now I have severely reduced power??

[Intrepid1]

Hello everyone, thanks for helping.

I have a 92 (or 91, I can never remember) Tercel that is approaching 200k miles. 4 speed manual. I have had the car for approx 10 years. I did have the engine swapped years ago and after that, in 2003 I think, I had a valve job/tmg chain replaced.

So lately I have been losing some oil and been putting in a quart from time to time. In the last week it went nuts losing oil so I took it to a mechanic. They replaced the crankshaft seal, camshaft seal, timing chain.

So I pick it up yesterday at closing time and I get down the road a little ways and realize that it doesnt have nearly the power it had before. The car had been running fine before even though it was losing oil. I drive to work everyday and pull hills no problem etc but when I picked it back up from them I have way less power.

Now it hesitates and sort of chokes out. I am half scared to even pull out in traffic and I dont really think it will pull the hills on the way to work in 4th gear. It wont even really wind out first gear.

When I got home from the garage and running errands I looked under the hood to see if maybe something wasnt attached correctly etc. There was smoke coming from somewhere and a slight rubbery burning smell. So I looked under the car from the front and the smoke was coming off of the exhaust pipe directly under the engine. I am not sure if that is related to the problem or if that was just oil burning off that was left over from the repair etc.

If it was a problem that just developed over time I see that spark plugs/wires/coil/dist cap/condensor/rotor have been discussed a lot.

BUT THIS PROBLEM DIDNT DEVELOP OVER TIME. It wasnt doing this before it got worked on. So did they just put it back together incorrectly? timing incorrect or possibly even spark plug wires in the wrong order? Anything else they could have done wrong?

I am sure it wouldnt hurt me to replace plugs/wires etc....but I dont want to just throw $$$ at it when it was working fine before the mechanics worked on it.

Any suggestions?

If I do replace plugs/wires, how can I be sure I put the wires on in the correct order (I dont want to just copy what is there now as it could be wrong?)


Thanks for any help given, Intrepid1

[Intrepid1]

I just went out and checked the spark plug wires and one of them was barely even on and when I pulled it off to look at it the tip (part that screws on) to the end of the plug is broken off and is stuck up in the plug wire boot. (probably been that way a while though, lol)

So I bought plugs/wire-cap kit, and rotor and will put them on in a bit.

I am not really that confident that this will fix this problem as these same old parts were working just fine when I let the mechanics work on my car.

[WilliamRobert]

Sounds to me like they messed up a little on the timing. That's the place that I would start before I bought any parts. If the timing is off, or the belt is off a couple of teeth, then you can buy all the parts in the world and you will still have the same problem.
The firing order is 1-3-4-2, counter-clockwise as you are looking at the end of the distributor. So that should help when you are changing your plug wires.

If you trust the mechanics to fix your car right the second time then it's probably best to take it back to them and tell them your problem and what you expect. Shit happens and everyone makes mistakes, some places will fix their mistakes, some won't. If you don't trust them, then you can take it to another place and pay for the job again, or if you are mechanically inclined you can adjust the timing/timing belt yourself.

The Haynes manual for the Tercel is one of the best I've seen, you don't have to be a mechanic to understand the steps. If you know how to use a wrench and how to follow instructions, then the Tercel is one of the easiest engines to work on.

If you decide to do the work yourself and run into problems, there are plenty of dudes here that will help you out.
Sometimes picking up vehicles at closing time is a shops' way of getting rid of their problems. By the time you turn around they are closed, and for the little mistakes, most people will just say screw it. Not saying that's what happened to you though

BillyBob

[Intrepid1]

Haha, I called the garage and got the old run around. I asked to speak to the mechanic and a mechanic came on the phone and said---> "The guy who worked on it wont be back until monday" etc.

I asked if there was anyone else there who could look at it since its my only car and im not going to be able to make it to work on Monday (30 miles away) on this car. "nawww, the guy who worked on it wont be back until Monday"


Disgust is too light of a word for what I feel

[Intrepid1]

just to finish the thought,

I put in new plugs, wires, cap, rotor. A guy came over to help me and basically he just adjusted the timing slightly by turning the dist-cap and now the car is running just fine.

Its still hard to see how the shop itself couldnt spend that extra 5 minutes to have a happy customer versus a pissed one


Anyway, thanks for the help

[96paseo]

Originally Posted by Intrepid1

just to finish the thought,

I put in new plugs, wires, cap, rotor. A guy came over to help me and basically he just adjusted the timing slightly by turning the dist-cap and now the car is running just fine.

Its still hard to see how the shop itself couldnt spend that extra 5 minutes to have a happy customer versus a pissed one


Anyway, thanks for the help

Not sure how the guy was doing that properly without a timing light. I'd bet the broken plug was the culprit. The shop probably broke it and didn't tell you.