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85 Corolla funny sound when cold, fuel economy?

891 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  Rectifier
Hi everyone!

I just picked myself up a '85 Corolla (SOHC 3 speed auto, crappiest of all :sosad: ) for a daily driver a few weeks ago. Private sale, $650CDN for what seems to be a good deal so far, no rust, good interior, runs fine, 120k.

Done all the usual new used car maintenance, plugs, air filter, that kind of easy cheap crap.

I also had to retard the timing back to around 10 BTDC from where someone had advanced it to 20, resulting in constant pinging even on premium gas. I'm not sure why as the previous owner was the stereotypical old lady who drove 10k/year (I downloaded the full records from emissions testing over the last 10 years, and that backs that up)

Anyways after doing that the car is being very smooth and reliable even in the cold, starts right away and runs well to go back and forth to work.

But, it's taking about 12--16L/100km, which seems high for what it is. I can't find efficiency specs anywhere on the carburated Corollas, can someone quote me what it should be? Maybe my old transmission is just being shitty on me. This is my first automatic car, and I only bought an auto because it was so cheap.

Anyways, my main issue is that on startup, until it's warmed up (about 5 min of driving, after idling until it lets me kick the fast idle off) it makes a funny gasping sound on any acceleration and has barely any power unless I put the pedal right down. The sound seems to suddenly go away and the power shows up when it reaches a certain point.

I'm at a loss other than that it's most likely something in the intake system, and probably a temp controlled valve. I don't feel like gutting it too far right now to find out, as I said it's my car to get me to work and back, so can anyone shed some light on what that might be?

Thanks all!

Alex
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congrats on gettin an AE86 alot of ppl will hate u for having one and cant find one of their own... lol ne ways sry im no hope to this.. but i know for sure alot of the guys on www.dorikaze.com will b able to help u out... (old school toyota cars) u will find alot of the AE86 guys in there aswell as alot of other old school toyotas... im sure u'll b able to find alot more info in there.
Rectifier said:
... it makes a funny gasping sound on any acceleration and has barely any power unless I put the pedal right down. The sound seems to suddenly go away and the power shows up when it reaches a certain point.
By a certian point do you mean temp of revs,

If its revs i'd check your leads / plugs.
If its temp i'm not really sure, I don't know much about the cold running setup on those cars, its a 3ac motor right?
is it carbeurated? if it is and it has no air filter or the air filter was put in wrong, it will make that gasping noise, might wanna check that over :ugh3:
Sorry, certain point of temp, right as the temp gauge seems to start moving up from the absolute bottom.
I was going to say "this is in relatively cold cold start conditions" as in below 0C, but then noticed many of you are from Canada, and colder parts of it than me :D

In any case, when it's above 0C outside, the problem is hardly there.

It is carburated, this is a 1.6L 4A-C motor.

One of the first orders of business after i bought it was to change the air filter as well as the plugs. Both are definately installed right.
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