New owner introduction

General discussion about our beloved Tercel 4WD cars
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mikeservations
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Joined: Fri Nov 02, 2018 4:10 pm
My tercel:: 1987 Toyota Tercel DLX Wagon
Location: Spokane, WA

New owner introduction

Post by mikeservations »

Just wanted to introduce myself as a new (June 2018) owner of a 1987 Tercel DLX wagon with about 140k miles. Although I didn't do the repairs myself, since buying it I've had the belts, muffler (dragging when I bought it), front & rear brakes, and front right axle all replaced. It's due for shocks and struts in the next few months, and I was also considering buying 14" rims to mount all-season tires (currently has stock 13" rims with winter tires).

Although I'm a fairly mechanically-inexperienced millennial (the extent of my prior firsthand experience being replacing a few starters, alternators, and sensors in other vehicles), I've found this site to be super helpful, and it has helped me replace my Tercel's blown speakers, missing gas cap and pre-heater hose, weak dome light (LED now!), and rather old fuel filter, as well as discover my local junk yard, where I found a replacement cargo cover (albeit mismatching). I hope this car is my entry point into becoming more mechanically handy, so I appreciate all the knowledge and helpfulness found on here.

Anyway, hello, thanks, and if anyone else is in the Spokane WA area, please let me know!
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NWMO
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Re: New owner introduction

Post by NWMO »

Welcome Mike,

The board appreciates the kind words and looks forward to providing more help, as well as receiving some from you when the occasion arises. Do you know if the roof rack is stock? I think it may be the shorter stock (possibly dealer option) rack. Looks good.


Chris
Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart"

In remembrance of my friend ARCHINSTL:

T4WD augury?
"Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit."
T.S. Eliot - "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

"Now and then we had a hope that, if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates."
Mark Twain
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Mattel
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Joined: Tue Aug 17, 2004 12:11 am
My tercel:: 1988 Corolla 4wd Wagon (AKA Corolla All-trac) 5speed, AC, Power Sunroof, Windows, Mirrors, Steering, Locking, Diff Lock, 14" Corolla SX Alloys with Silica Hankook Tyres, 4afe, King Springs, Upgraded Headlights, Full Synth oils, 210,000kms
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: New owner introduction

Post by Mattel »

Welcome Mike!
A great car to start working on. Looks really clean.
Plenty of our forum members in Washington State.
Previous: 83 Tercel SR5 4wd, 84 Tercel SR5 4wd
88 Corolla 4wd Wagon 5speed, All power options, Fact Sunroof, Diff Lock, 14" SX Alloys, Hankook Tyres, 4afe, King Springs, Upgraded Headlights, Full Synth oils, Tow Bar, 210,000kms
85tercel4wd
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Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:09 pm
My tercel:: 1985 4wd SR5

Re: New owner introduction

Post by 85tercel4wd »

Congrats on the car. Welcome!
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: New owner introduction

Post by Petros »

welcome to the forum!

Good for you. Taking on the task of doing all your own maintenance on an older car can be quite a challenge. OTOH, the Tercel4wd is much easier to work on that most other small cars, access is easy for most maintenance task and seldom are special tools required. Parts are inexpensive as well.

And of course you have come to the right place for repair advice, one of the best on the internet, and the only one for the Tercel4wd!

Not many people in your age group are interested in doing it yourself any more. Many do not even own a car. It is an unfortunate development, I have always maintained our cars (since about 1974 in High School!). It not only you saves you a lot of money (Triple A has determined the average car owner spends $7000 a year keeping a car on the road), but it gives you a lot of satisfaction and confidence to fix everything else around your house rather than throw it away and buy another one.

I think there is a lot of marketing propaganda running around that "modern cars" are too hard to maintain yourself. What BS. my wife drives a newer Lexus with all the electronic gismos, I replace sensors, servos, and switches on it all the time. No different, just requires correct knowledge of where to look and what to test. That is where forums like this are such a great resource. For example, the Airflow sensor on the Lexus lasts about 2 years, dealer wants $270 to replace it, my cost is about $60 for a new one, and it only takes about ten min to replace. Autozone gives me a diagnostic code for free, but I have my own code reader, but I usually just have Autozone check it for me. as they say Down Under, easy peasy.
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
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mikeservations
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Joined: Fri Nov 02, 2018 4:10 pm
My tercel:: 1987 Toyota Tercel DLX Wagon
Location: Spokane, WA

Re: New owner introduction

Post by mikeservations »

Thanks everyone - I appreciate the welcome! I definitely agree that not many people my age are interested in learning how to work on their own cars, but it's always made me nervous that I didn't know how to, that I didn't understand how things work. While my carburetor is certainly a mystery to me, I hope to ease into learning everything else.

I've attached some more photos to give you better idea of the current state of my Tercel. Don't mind the back seat and door covers (we have a few dogs) or the 2x4 (the back hatch doesn't stay up on its own).

Chris - I'm not sure if the rack is stock. I included a photo of the rack, so perhaps that gives you a better idea.

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irowiki
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Location: Farmington, NM

Re: New owner introduction

Post by irowiki »

Petros wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 1:15 am
I think there is a lot of marketing propaganda running around that "modern cars" are too hard to maintain yourself.
Well Peter, for sure, transverse engines are a pain to work on compared to the longitudinal engine in the Tercel!

Trying to do Timing belt / serpentine belt / anything on that side of the engine is just a pain. So much so I had my 95's V6 timing belt done at a shop as we didn't have "time" for it to be down for a few days to fix it ourselves.

Having done multiple Tercel (longitudinal) and Camry (transverse) engine swaps, I'd take the Tercel engine layout ANYTIME! :lol:
Former Tercel Enthusiast (not a practical family car anymore but they still have a place in my heart)

Site administrator, if something is broken, PM me!

87 Corolla FX16, 105k
94 Jamboree RV (Ford E-350), 90k
95 Camry Wagon, 170k
97 4runner, 275k
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marlinh
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My tercel:: 'Everett' Blue 87 4WD Wagon (Rocky 86, recently retired)
Location: Kootenays

Re: New owner introduction

Post by marlinh »

Welcome to the club Mike. Next time I am in Spokane I will keep my eyes peeled.
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mikeservations
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My tercel:: 1987 Toyota Tercel DLX Wagon
Location: Spokane, WA

Re: New owner introduction

Post by mikeservations »

Thanks marlinh. I've seen a few other Tercels in Spokane, aside from my tan one. There's a guy down the block with an older Blue SR5, a coworker has a white one in his neighborhood, and I've seen a brown one occasionally parked on the street along a main arterial. There was also a 1987 at the junk yard last time I was there (where I found the cargo cover). I'm meaning to go back to see if it's still there, and if so, maybe pull some parts (while inherently getting a test run at the repair before I try it on my car).

While it's worth noting that I don't have a garage, so I'm a bit limited by the weather on when I can go work on the car (parked on the street), in looking through a bunch of threads on here (including an especially helpful "Total Novice's" post from someone with similar little mechanical experience), it seems like my list of repairs and evaluation should be -
  • Change the oil myself: Inspect and potentially replace the drain plug and gasket, use a Pure1 or Wix filter (I've seen some hearty debate on this), and use 15w40 oil. The neighborhood shop has already changed the oil for me once back in September, and I requested 15w40 oil (which seemed to reduce a slow burn-off of oil - I had added about a quart between buying the car in June and that oil change in September). I've seen heavier weight suggested, but with some colder temperatures here, 15w40 seems like a good choice.
  • Check for leaks: It seems like cleaning out the engine bay using some degreaser and the spray attachment to my garden hose (while careful not to spray the battery, distributor, and attached wires) would be the first step so I can more easily see any fluid leaks. I've had to add coolant twice since I bought the car in June - once pretty early on after buying it (and I can't remember how low it was) and again just this week, where the reservoir was about midway between full and low. As an aside here, the car puts out a fair amount exhaust upon a cold start in the morning, but it disappears once the engine is warmed up (where the dash gauge reads just starting to touch the left-hand side of the temperature logo in the middle of the gauge). It seems like it's possible this is condensation build up (I have to scrape off my windows most days this time of year); however, with the small loss of coolant, I'm going to more closely watch the reservoir level over the next few weeks and hope it's not a head gasket.
  • Check for loose or cracked hoses: I've visually inspected the hoses (which led to reattaching the missing preheater hose), but a more thorough check would likely be spraying carb cleaner around hoses to check for vacuum leaks and also using a diagram of the vacuum lines to confirm things are in the right places. My mileage hasn't been awesome - maybe mid 20s - but I also let it warm up a fair amount and have to climb a two mile hill on my way to work.
  • Adjust the timing to +10 BDTC: There are a lot of thorough descriptions of this to be found on the site, so I'm fairly confident I can figure it out without prior experience.
  • Fix the heater slider: The slider only moves about 3/4 of the way to the right (about midway in the heating zone). When the engine is warm, the heater definitely puts out heat, but living in a colder climate, I would like to fix this if I can. It sounds like checking the junk yard for backup parts (in case I break something) would be a good first step.
According to the neighborhood shop (who has done the oil change, rear brakes, belts, and muffler) and the alignment/brake shop (where I had the front brakes done), I need to replace the shocks and struts (and I would agree based on the clunky ride). The neighborhood shop quoted me about $900-1,000 for the work. I've considered attempting the work myself, but the danger of the springs and the combination of my lack of experience with something pretty important like the suspension makes me err towards having the shop do the work. However, it's still a good chunk of change, so I'd to be somewhat confident it's worthwhile (mostly by doing the things above and keeping an eye out for any other red flags) beforehand. I will also need some all season tires (the former owner seems to have run winter tires all year because that's what he had on what I bought it in June), which is another decent amount of money.

I know there are often posts like this, where newer owners list their plans, ideas, and repair lists, so I hope this isn't just unnecessary noise, but I would appreciate any input from the knowledgeable and experienced folks here. If anyone happens to be coming through the Spokane area, I would also really appreciate a walk-through of where everything is on my car - it would definitely make me feel more confident that I'm actually doing what I intend to be doing. Thanks again!
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NWMO
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Re: New owner introduction

Post by NWMO »

Mike,

Here is a link from my heater core replacement as well as heater control repair. The pics will give you an idea of what lies ahead. As I recall, it wasn't bad, just a PITA due to the difficult location, etc.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12472&p=96389#p96389

Suspension repair isn't that bad, you can get all/most of the needed tools through one of the "free rental" programs at the local parts store. It would be nice to have a spot "off-street" where you could work and let it set a day or two.

Chris
Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart"

In remembrance of my friend ARCHINSTL:

T4WD augury?
"Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit."
T.S. Eliot - "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

"Now and then we had a hope that, if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates."
Mark Twain
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Abletobecain
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Posts: 415
Joined: Sun Dec 09, 2018 9:18 am
My tercel:: 1983 4WD DLX, 1986 4WD SR5, 1985 4WD SR5, 1983 4WD SR5
Location: Kitsap County
Contact:

Re: New owner introduction

Post by Abletobecain »

Welcome Mike!

I'm pretty new here myself but it's a great place with a wealth of information and really helpful, encouraging folks.

When you go back to see if that 87 is still at your parts yard, could you check if there's a good condition passenger door panel?
1977 BMW R100S 1WD ("Brunhilda"/Summer Fun)
1983 DLX Tercel Wagon 4WD ("Charlie"/Daily Driver)
1987 SR5 Tercel Wagon 4WD ("Sprocket"/Off-road-Camping)
1985 SR5 Tercel Wagon 4WD ("Lucky"/Project)
1983 SR5 Tercel Wagon 4WD ("Cadaver"/Parts Car)
1985 Ford F250 6.9IDI ("Franklin"/Hauler)
1987 SR5 Tercel Wagon 4WD ("Ravensburger"/in a million pieces)
2006 BMW 530XI Wagon ("Inga"/Roadtripper)
1969 Mercury Montego MX Convertible ("Big Ed"/My Dad's Old Car)
1983 SR5 Tercel Wagon 4WD ("Al"/for sale soon)
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Abletobecain
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Joined: Sun Dec 09, 2018 9:18 am
My tercel:: 1983 4WD DLX, 1986 4WD SR5, 1985 4WD SR5, 1983 4WD SR5
Location: Kitsap County
Contact:

Re: New owner introduction

Post by Abletobecain »

*front passenger
1977 BMW R100S 1WD ("Brunhilda"/Summer Fun)
1983 DLX Tercel Wagon 4WD ("Charlie"/Daily Driver)
1987 SR5 Tercel Wagon 4WD ("Sprocket"/Off-road-Camping)
1985 SR5 Tercel Wagon 4WD ("Lucky"/Project)
1983 SR5 Tercel Wagon 4WD ("Cadaver"/Parts Car)
1985 Ford F250 6.9IDI ("Franklin"/Hauler)
1987 SR5 Tercel Wagon 4WD ("Ravensburger"/in a million pieces)
2006 BMW 530XI Wagon ("Inga"/Roadtripper)
1969 Mercury Montego MX Convertible ("Big Ed"/My Dad's Old Car)
1983 SR5 Tercel Wagon 4WD ("Al"/for sale soon)
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splatterdog
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Location: Minnesota, USA

Re: New owner introduction

Post by splatterdog »

Man I've always been jealous. The PNW is hoarding central for this hemisphere. Gotta get out there some time.

The hot/cold air door is easily seen/reached from under the passenger side of the dash to check it for full swing to hot, my lever is broke too.. If he's not too far away, member dlb has a heater core flush gun that works wonders. Almost ANY older car will see an improvement, maybe significant. My current driver took took two flush attacks and some chemical flushing in between but it just passed the test real good after our few days in the minus 20s. At idle in these temps the heater won't let the temp gauge above half normal.
Another thing to check for is dust,fuzz,leaves, mouse nest,etc in the heater box. I just did my blower and blew out a ton of crap while the blower housing is out. Note- don't try to pull the blower motor without pulling the whole blower housing like I did the first time. If the car doesn't have a/c that makes cleaning a lot easier. The connector duct between the blower housing and heater box comes out easy and if your flexible you can see the intake side of the core. Always thought it was neat how they segmented the whole heater assembly.

You picked a cheap car as far as tire prices.

And last thing first! CHECK AND/OR CHANGE THE TRANS FLUID!!!!
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LowBuckCanuck
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My tercel:: 1986 DLX 4wd Wagon "Jenny"

Re: New owner introduction

Post by LowBuckCanuck »

splatterdog wrote: Thu Jan 31, 2019 7:05 pm And last thing first! CHECK AND/OR CHANGE THE TRANS FLUID!!!!
And if you do that, don't get any on your sleeves. My plaid work hoodie still smells like sh*t after a couple washings!
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: New owner introduction

Post by Petros »

watch that head gasket, even if compromised you can keep driving it as long as you keep it topped up. but if it consumes more and more coolant each week, you need to plan on doing a head gasket. if you drive out this way you are welcome to bring it to my place and we can do it together. it will only take 3-4 hours (I have more than enough of the right tools), and you only need about $25 worth of parts and supplies. Or you can take it on yourself, an experienced friend would be a good idea so you get it back together. go read my head gasket repair guild in the Repair guide section, and no matter who does it, make sure they follow that procedure. Personally I would not trust a repair shop to do it, and they would charge you $700-900 and want it for a week (they send a lot of parts out to be checked, resurfaced, etc.).

That seems to me a completely unreasonable price to replaced the struts, I can do it in my gravel drive way with hand tools in about an hour, or hour and a half, each side. Good struts are about $60 each from Rockauto.com. It is really not that bad of a job, I use two sets of spring compressors on the strut for safety (I do not trust them much, but having three or more on each one holds much safer). There is no hurry for the struts as long as you take it easy on rought roads so you are not bottoming out. But I would be happy to help you out if you want to bring out to my place.

I do not get to spoken much these days, as I recall it is about 5 to 6 hour drive from Spokane to where I live. So it is a bit of a road trip. but consider, it would save you perhaps $1800 to do it yourself, and I would be happy to help if you bring it out this way.

if that Tercel4wd in the local yard has a manual trans in it, it would be a good investment to buy it. it will make an important spare, and even if worn out, it will have many good parts in it that can be used to repair another tercel trans.
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
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