Somebody suggested to me today the enginbe might need a cam sensor. It was a random suggestion but one worth following up I think, a few questions Do cam sensor's normally fail on older AE86's ? If the cam sensorf failed would it prevent the car from starting and are they expensive/difficult to fit ?
Sadly mate, the 4AG has no camshaft sensor. As far as I know, the only time you have a camshaft or crankshaft sensor on a car is when you have direct ignition, which the 4AG doesn't have. The ignition timing on the 4AG is done through sensors in the distributor and since you get a spark its very unlikely that you have a problem with the distributor (it is possible that the ECU isn't picking up the signal from the distributor, its just less likely than what I explain below). You have said already that the car has spark, but spark plugs draw more current when they are in the car and the engines running. So you might actually have leads or plugs or igniter which are worn out and not getting enough current through them to ignite the fuel. Changing the leads or plugs would be the first thing I'd do and if that doesn't work then I'd change the igniter (those three things are not difficult parts to change if you know what you're doing). The only other thing I can think of that can cause your problem is a cold start injector failure. When starting an engine from cold, fuel condenses and becomes more difficult to ignite (the problem gets worse at this time of year) so a cold start injector is fitted so that more fuel is pumped in on startup. Once warmed up, the cold start injector stops pumping the extra fuel in. Having said that, I have absoltely no way of telling whether or not I'm right because I can't see the car. So don't blame me if my suggestion is wrong, I'm just trying to be helpful, I can't be held responsible for getting it wrong.
I want as many suggestions as possible the more the better. I know there is nowt wrong with her and all the mechanics Ive met are tossers so going to try and solve it myself. This has already been done with no results I dont think its this as it was fine one day and the next it just died. I think if it was this it would be more of a problem that got worse with time. I feel as though its a loose connection or sensor somewhere. Today she started up (not tried to start her for 2 days) sounded really rough and then died.
If it is a loose connection then its likely to be either the connection between the distributor and the ECU or the connection from the ECU to the ignitor.
sounds like a really weird one. too much or too little fuel? have you got rac membership? if so get them to tow it to someone who knows what they are doing. like the guy ian mentioned in Derby.
Sunny the man has a point Mine came back from the man today with a nice Micro Oil Filter, new oil, new toyota red mix coolant, slightly colder nice plugs, handbrake cable adjustment etc. She sounds sweet as a nut but not had an chance to use the loud pedal yet. Would be a shame to let it go if its something simple. I think Final Stage CorollaRWD knows a good 4age person too could be better positioned for you in the country. Try a toyota dealer (if you haven't already) ?
Definately worth getting it to someone who knows their shit. Especially as its worth the money. Dont give up!!
Would RAC tow me to Derby from Yorkshire ? Its a fair distance to go. Last time they just towed me to the nearest mechanic who knew f**** all. It was the mechanic RAC towed me to that caused me so much grief. What pi**ed me off about the mechanic was he suggested a new engine without finding out whats wrong with the other. He even said the pressure test was OK. He couldnt even tell me if a UK 4AGE would work, then said he would try a UK 4age (charge me 200) and if it didnt charge me another 200 to refit old one. He expected me to buy a 4AGE so he could 'try' it. He never checked any sensors,ECU or anything else. Basically he did everything I had done i.e. sparkplugs, ht leads, distributor cap etc. After doing exactly what I did he turned around told me to buy a new engine and started fixing a van This week gonna give a real good go at finding the problem..it has to be something minor. The engine can not go from running sweet to not starting, surely a damaged engine would degrade. I was also sliding around in the wet the night before so maybe some connection fell out
I wanted the mechanic to do this I will try again tomorrow but last time I got nothing. The dashboard lights did not flash. Please re-confirm how its done. I must be doing something wrong. My car is a 1984 JDM levin.
Depending on what cover you have im not sure. I was driving from london to nottingham a couple of years ago and three of my wheel studs snapped. No way i was carrying on driving on 2 studs. This was about 30 miles from my house in london but i had to be in nottingham the same night. So when i spoke to the RAC person on the phone and they asked me where i was going i said notts. about 4 hours later i had saved 30 quid on petrol and got to nottingham no probs. Like i said thou depends on cover.
This is deffo sounding like an electrical problem and not a mechanical one. Do you happen the have access to the Toyota workshop manuals ? They are available if you need them. Sunny - give the chap I told you about a ring and see what he can suggest over the phone. I mentioned your car to him yesterday. Is your car running the standard ECU or something else ? I know my car won't play when you try and get fault codes out because the factory ECU isn't there. Double check everything you've already checked, earthing points, the dizzy, the ht leads - are they into the correct plugs from the dizzy ? , all fuses, all relays, fuel pump etc.
Ian buddy, you should know better then that : http://www.aeu86.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=194 Sunny,wish I could be of more help..
I'm not sure if this will help at all but i thought i'd post anyway as any help for you would be good. I used to have a mk1 MR2, the 4age engined one, and i had a real problem with it. I would drive it about for a while and it would be fine, 15/20 minutes or so, then it would start running like a bag of shite, losing power etc until eventually it just cut out. Now i didn't and still don't know anything about car engines, but my uncle who was a mechanic looked at it and found that the connecters to the ecu were filthy from being old. He cleaned these up and after this it ran fine without problems. I'm sorry i can't be any more specific to what the actual issue was but i know it was to do with dirty connectors. Hope this helps in some way, even if it just sparks a new idea.
Mux, I *did* know better - but I didn't want to draw too much attention to their actual location in case the entire world started to cane your bandwidth to obtain them. only thinking of your server buddy
SunnyZx, Where abouts in Yorkshire are you? Im in Wakefield, and can come armed with loads of new bits, my Toyota manual and any other relevet stuff i have. Email me your number and lets sort out your 86. Jamey hotversionj@v21mail.co.uk
Just sent you a message mate. If you fixed my car I would more than happily pay you for your troubles. You would also make me the happiest member on Driftworks
