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Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum (any kind of car forum) and am limited in my mechanical knowledge (very, very basic) but I'm desperate for some guidance as I don't want to give up my GT.
I bought my 2004 GT (see avatar) 6 years ago with ~52K miles, at the same dealership that had sold it originally. One prior owner and to my knowledge all they had done was have an alarm installed. It now has ~94K miles and up to about 3 months ago was running beautifully and still getting 30-32 mpg. I keep up on all its maintenance.
I am not mechanically savy enough to do any work on the car myself so I take it to a shop I've been using for the last 11 years and trust implicitly. Some of the guys there are Celica fans and have owned them in the past but don't currently own any.
Anyway, this will be a bit lengthy, but I will try to explain the problem as best I can...
About 3 months ago, the car suddenly shuddered twice driving around town. Startled the crap out of me - thought it was going to stall, but it didn't. No engine, warning lights of any kind came on. Drove the rest of the way home with no trouble. Two months of driving all over - no problem. Come home from class one day (university), a 30-40 min. drive depending on traffic, and after a 1 and 1/ 2 hour break, drove 5-6 minutes toward work and the car suddenly just turned off!! No warning lights of any kind prior to shut down. Coasted onto the shoulder and attempted to restart. Engine cranks, starts up and immediately shuts off. Tried it several times with same results. Towed it to the shop. Coded for a bad alternator, bad battery and a cam sensor. (sorry, don't have the exact codes) Had them replaced.
Drove beautifully - for one week. Died again after a 30-40 minute drive home from class. No warning lights on dash. Same results when attempting to restart. Towed to the shop. This time 3 coils are coding plus a second sensor (whose name I forgot) which works in conjunction with the first sensor (?) that was already replaced. Thankfully my coils were under warranty, so had them swapped and replaced the sensor. Drove it home, seemed fine. Didn't drive it the following day.
Four days later, died again after a 30-40 minute drive home from class. Same results on restart and no warning lights. Towed again. THIS time it has NO codes! So now the shop is wondering if its electrical because I mentioned that the stereo blinked on and off when I attempted to skip a song and the car shut off soon after that. (**I've never heard of this, but at this point I think we're all just scratching our heads. The deck has been having intermittent issues with this for a few months and I just assumed the buttons were worn out and was going to deal with it when the semester was over.) Anyway, they found what they thought was higher than normal voltage (I don't know the exact levels) coming from the old alarm and the stereo and recommended I take it to an audio/security install shop and have it checked out. I did that the very next day.
Wiring on the old alarm was "atrociously worn and rough" according to audio shop, so I had them strip it out and fix any wiring that needed it. Did NOT have a new alarm put in. The stereo had some iffy wiring (I'd had it installed at Best Buy about a year after I bought the car) but nothing they thought could be possibly causing the issue. The deck did have some worn out buttons and the detachable face was now loose with questionable fitting so I had them swap it out with a new deck (nothing ultra fancy - I just can't drive in complete silence) which was wired in properly to see if maybe the two were somehow causing the problem.
Drove beautifully on the way home and on the way to class the next morning. I was feeling very hopeful. I backed into a parking spot on campus and it sat in idle for a few minutes as I pulled my usb card out of the stereo and programmed some of the radio stations and just as I reached for the key to turn off the ignition, it died. I just sat there for a long time. I had class to deal with so I got out and told it that it would be really nice if it would just freaking behave already and that I'll deal with it after class. (Now I'm talking to my car...) After class (5 hours later), it started up with no trouble. I'm like WTF?! Drove home. What do you think happens now...? Yup. After 30-40 minutes driving home, I felt a few slight stutters, then a more pronounced stutter and then it dies again. Same results on restart attempts. Oh and I finally get an engine light on AFTER it dies.
It's now been at the shop since late Friday afternoon with a plea to try and find out what's wrong and see if it can be saved. I've not heard from them yet...
I love my GT and even if I didn't (which I can't imagine) I just can't afford a monthly car payment (new or used) so I need to try and keep this car going. I've looked through 34 pages of posts in this forum so far and nothing has come exactly close to this. Most seem to be issues after the car has been turned off for 15-20 minutes, not after 30-40 minutes of highway driving at 70-80mph, then transitioning to in town at 40-55mph.
Does anyone have ANY ideas or suggestions, or seen anything like this, that I can take to the shop and see if they have already checked out the suggestions?
Thanks in advance for reading through a lengthy post.
I bought my 2004 GT (see avatar) 6 years ago with ~52K miles, at the same dealership that had sold it originally. One prior owner and to my knowledge all they had done was have an alarm installed. It now has ~94K miles and up to about 3 months ago was running beautifully and still getting 30-32 mpg. I keep up on all its maintenance.
I am not mechanically savy enough to do any work on the car myself so I take it to a shop I've been using for the last 11 years and trust implicitly. Some of the guys there are Celica fans and have owned them in the past but don't currently own any.
Anyway, this will be a bit lengthy, but I will try to explain the problem as best I can...
About 3 months ago, the car suddenly shuddered twice driving around town. Startled the crap out of me - thought it was going to stall, but it didn't. No engine, warning lights of any kind came on. Drove the rest of the way home with no trouble. Two months of driving all over - no problem. Come home from class one day (university), a 30-40 min. drive depending on traffic, and after a 1 and 1/ 2 hour break, drove 5-6 minutes toward work and the car suddenly just turned off!! No warning lights of any kind prior to shut down. Coasted onto the shoulder and attempted to restart. Engine cranks, starts up and immediately shuts off. Tried it several times with same results. Towed it to the shop. Coded for a bad alternator, bad battery and a cam sensor. (sorry, don't have the exact codes) Had them replaced.
Drove beautifully - for one week. Died again after a 30-40 minute drive home from class. No warning lights on dash. Same results when attempting to restart. Towed to the shop. This time 3 coils are coding plus a second sensor (whose name I forgot) which works in conjunction with the first sensor (?) that was already replaced. Thankfully my coils were under warranty, so had them swapped and replaced the sensor. Drove it home, seemed fine. Didn't drive it the following day.
Four days later, died again after a 30-40 minute drive home from class. Same results on restart and no warning lights. Towed again. THIS time it has NO codes! So now the shop is wondering if its electrical because I mentioned that the stereo blinked on and off when I attempted to skip a song and the car shut off soon after that. (**I've never heard of this, but at this point I think we're all just scratching our heads. The deck has been having intermittent issues with this for a few months and I just assumed the buttons were worn out and was going to deal with it when the semester was over.) Anyway, they found what they thought was higher than normal voltage (I don't know the exact levels) coming from the old alarm and the stereo and recommended I take it to an audio/security install shop and have it checked out. I did that the very next day.
Wiring on the old alarm was "atrociously worn and rough" according to audio shop, so I had them strip it out and fix any wiring that needed it. Did NOT have a new alarm put in. The stereo had some iffy wiring (I'd had it installed at Best Buy about a year after I bought the car) but nothing they thought could be possibly causing the issue. The deck did have some worn out buttons and the detachable face was now loose with questionable fitting so I had them swap it out with a new deck (nothing ultra fancy - I just can't drive in complete silence) which was wired in properly to see if maybe the two were somehow causing the problem.
Drove beautifully on the way home and on the way to class the next morning. I was feeling very hopeful. I backed into a parking spot on campus and it sat in idle for a few minutes as I pulled my usb card out of the stereo and programmed some of the radio stations and just as I reached for the key to turn off the ignition, it died. I just sat there for a long time. I had class to deal with so I got out and told it that it would be really nice if it would just freaking behave already and that I'll deal with it after class. (Now I'm talking to my car...) After class (5 hours later), it started up with no trouble. I'm like WTF?! Drove home. What do you think happens now...? Yup. After 30-40 minutes driving home, I felt a few slight stutters, then a more pronounced stutter and then it dies again. Same results on restart attempts. Oh and I finally get an engine light on AFTER it dies.
It's now been at the shop since late Friday afternoon with a plea to try and find out what's wrong and see if it can be saved. I've not heard from them yet...
I love my GT and even if I didn't (which I can't imagine) I just can't afford a monthly car payment (new or used) so I need to try and keep this car going. I've looked through 34 pages of posts in this forum so far and nothing has come exactly close to this. Most seem to be issues after the car has been turned off for 15-20 minutes, not after 30-40 minutes of highway driving at 70-80mph, then transitioning to in town at 40-55mph.
Does anyone have ANY ideas or suggestions, or seen anything like this, that I can take to the shop and see if they have already checked out the suggestions?
Thanks in advance for reading through a lengthy post.
