My girlfriend recently bought a 1991 Toyota Corolla and it has been working great up until about a month ago. When she first bought it, it never did this but now when we get up to speed the motor revs really loud as if it still has another gear to shift into. It does this at about 40 or 50+ mph and especially at highway speeds. It was never this loud but now it just seems to normally run with the engine higher up in the RPMs. I'm not quite sure where to start looking as I don't know too much about Corolla's in general. The car has 110K with the timing chain changed at 67K so I know I need to change that soon.
Not sure if this might be related, but the car also has difficulty starting. When the engine is cold, the motor just turns but does not fire until you stop cranking and crank again...then it will start up slowly puttering. When it is warm it does not have this problem.
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. I know Corolla's are good cars so I hope I will be able to fix this problem.
Ivan