#7: 84 dlx dream terc

[dlb]

i posted this on the interim forum a week or so ago but am reposting it here because it's SUPER IMPORTANT. without further ado:

i finally laid my hands on a dream terc (aka one with manual steering and no sunroof). this one was up for sale here back in early july of '14 for $600 by the original owner. it had 382,000 km on it. i narrowly missed it, and was bummed.

fast forward to two weeks ago. my wife and i got home late from a vacation in hawaii and i couldn't sleep yet so i indulged in my old habit of tercel searching. found the very car i had missed out on, now just 5 minutes down the road from me, albeit with 9000 km more on it and now for $1300 at a used car dealership. dang. oh well, a dream terc is a dream terc. so i went and checked it out.

the driver seat is torn to hell but the rest of the interior is mint. even has the ever elusive cargo cover. heater sucks, only blows slightly warmer than ice cold so going to mess around with that asap. exterior has had lots of amateur bondo done so it looks pretty good from a distance but not so hot close up. that's fine by me. the original owner was obviously super diligent about staying on top of the rust and did a great job keeping it at bay. the trans shifts wonderfully, it's the smoothest i've owned. however it has a CV seal leak so i checked the level and it was low by about 1 liter so i topped it up and am parking with the offending side high until i can replace it. just got the seal today so will do it soon. the carb and engine run really smooth and strong, no visible smoking, but there is some pinging under load. also, the worst news so far, i did a compression test today. the plugs all looked pretty good but the compression results were 165, 140, 110, and 170. i didn't think to do a dribble down test but will do that soon. depending on the results, i may try using restore to bring the compression up since it worked so well on our truck. the car has a few clunks and rattles, like the classic shift clunk which i believe will be the strut mounts but i'm not going to get into that stuff until i decide to keep or sell the car.

here are the pics from the ad last july.





so it has officially begun: my head to head 4wd tercel vs 4wd corolla competition that will decide which one i keep. i've been looking forward to this for a long time so i'm excited to finally get to it.

[dlb]

then this was a follow-up post i made on the other forum after a week or so of driving:

did a coolant flush using 'heavy duty' cleaner meant for rust and scaling, did nothing. i think this is the second or third time i have used such stuff (prestone and gunk brands) with pitiful results. i want to get my hands on a water hammer tool like splatterdog got himself.

steam cleaned the engine by misting water into the primary barrel while holding the throttle open to keep the revs around 2000. seemed to work well, a bunch of grey came out the exhaust and i noticed no pinging on a road trip tonight.

first fill up is surprisingly good, 13.5 km/L (31.7 mpg). that's in temps just above freezing, about 60/40 hwy/city, and with 20-25 min idling around 3000 rpm during the coolant flush. i also notice the terc rolls much more freely than the corolla does. i imagine that plays a significant role in the mileage.

i also replaced all the dash lights with the proper green covers so it has the classic 'tercel green' light that i love so much. installed the inclinometer i bought off of dan a while back, and disabled the super annoying seatbelt/key in the ignition buzzer. the rain has finally stopped so i hope to do the axle seal in the next few days.

[marlinh]

Congrats on your new acquisition! Did you check that the heater doors are all in the proper position for full heat? I was lucky with Everett only needing a 'flush' with water through the heater core. Lots of heat.

So, how come you are contemplating selling it already if you JUST got your dream terc?

[dlb]

yup, all the heater doors are working correctly, and i adjusted the heater valve on the firewall so that it is as hot as it can get. still tepid. i was just looking on rockauto at a gates 91002 'powerclean' (what a stupid name) after splatterdog's glowing review of one. $460 with shipping here. i'll probably go for it.

i'm not thinking of selling the dream terc per se (did i just use that correctly? i never know), i am doing a side by side comparison between my fave version of a tercel with my ae95 corolla to determine which i prefer. i like both of them so much that it's come to this. it's really hard so far though because they are so different. the things i like about the corolla, the tercel totally lacks; the things i like about the tercel, the corolla totally lacks. so i really don't know where i'll end up with this but i'm not rushing it. going to get a car cover and store the corolla for a while, going to abort my previous idea and actually do the front end work on the tercel. i figure it can't be a fair competition if one car is in perfect working order while the other one has clunks, no heat, lame little wheels and tires, etc.

[snephi11]

Nice! I want to see inside her...

[Jarf]

DLB - I would advise AGAINST the car cover. Better off getting a potable garage.
When I put our Jag into longterm storage, I put a hi-tech outdoor ($250) cover on it, thought I was doing it a good turn.
It was in a semi-protected area and the cover was well secured.
After one year of that cover being on it, I pulled it off (to show to a prospective buyer) and was appalled by the condition of the paint.
Prior to the cover going on it looked decent, not perfect but decent for an Ontario car that was 20yrs old and had original paint (no winters mind you)
Wear and tear scratches here and there, but the shine was good.
After the cover incident, the shine was gone and replaced by what looked like a full sanding job done with 120grit paper.
I tried to wax and buff, but the scratches were so deep the factory grey primer was showing though and wax made it look worse!
I ended up selling it that way and took a major bath on it, because the paint was destroyed.

I will NEVER EVER use a cover again, at least for anything that will be stored outside.
You can pick up a tarp garage on sale for about the same money as good quality car cover and it gives you the added bonus of being able to check on it without removing the stupid cover.
My current "garage" is protecting Red at the moment and has allowed me to work on it during some rather harsh weather that would have normally kept me indoors.

As to the wind factor, I have 8x 9L jugs filled with water weighing down the framework. I have also tied off all 4 corners of the car to the frame.
With that configuration, it has withstood several wind storms (sustained 50kph winds and gusts as high as 90kph) without issue.
We did have one storm this past fall that saw gusts in excess of 100kph, during that event the whole garage walked forward about 4 inches, but no damage.
A long broom has been beneficial for clearing the snow off, but that said, we went away one time and came back to find a foot of (wet) snow on it, it was noticeably stressed but didn't fail and once cleared, returned to its "normal" stance, but I surely wouldn't have wanted to push it any further, as it was close to collapse.

[Jarf]

By the way, congrats on finding your dream car.

As nice as the Rolla is, my money is on the Terc winning the comparison test.
My GV is a very nice car, quiet, stable, comfy and the 4wd works great, but it is no T4.
No where near as tough (or as much fun to drive) and the gas mileage SUCKS (decent for an SUV but horrid compared to the T4) AND it has less interior volume.
At least the engine is mounted the correct way.

[irowiki]

$460? That's nuts, wouldn't a heater core be far cheaper, even with the labor?

the things i like about the corolla, the tercel totally lacks; the things i like about the tercel, the corolla totally lacks

Do tell!

[dlb]

$460? That's nuts, wouldn't a heater core be far cheaper, even with the labor?

i think i saw someone say a heater core was $100-$150. bear in mind i'm in canada and everything is a bit more expensive here than in the US. also, my pal's tercel also has pitiful heat and he wants to fix it. so this would potentially save me 16 hrs work and $200-$300 in parts. plus i anticipate i will use it a fair amount in the future since i tend to buy old cars with issues. plus this not only treats heater cores, but entire cooling systems. think of the radiators i would not have to buy and replace. sure, it's way more expensive to start with but in the long term, i think it might be worthwhile.

the things i like about the corolla, the tercel totally lacks; the things i like about the tercel, the corolla totally lacks

Do tell!

i'm working on a list as we speak! will post it and ask for everyone's input soon.

[Petros]

congrats on the new tercel. I did a year comparison with a decent all-trac corolla wagon that I rebuilt, and a my daily driver tercel4wd. I liked driving the Tercel much better, and I thought about what I liked about the corral all-trac (EFI, better brakes, quiet drive, modern twin cam engine), and realized I could always up grade a tercel4wd to get those things, but I could never make a Corroal a Tercel. So I sold the all-trac, and have been slowly working towards my "ideal" twin cam, EFI, Tercel4wd with improved seats and brakes. I have not regretted my choice.

You might try a vinigar soak, I did it both on my tercel and our Mazda MPV. I disconnected the heater hoses and flushed and blew out the flush water, filled the heater core with white vinegar for 2-3 hours, flushed it with fresh water (I ran the flush water into a bucket to see what I got, lots of calcium deposits came out). than reconnected the hoses and topped up system with coolant. I had to do it twice on my Tercel, but both blow hot now. Much easier than replacing the core.

[dlb]

here's my +/- list of al25's vs ae95's. everyone, please feel free to make suggestions for or against each one, as i'm sure i've neglected to consider various aspects.

tercel:
+ easy to work on
+ quirky, fun feel
+ extra low gear is awesome
+ inclinometer
+ slightly better mileage?

- ugly, but will probably improve to the sort of ugly i like with different tires/wheels, and bedliner on the lower portion
- not very comfortable
- feels smaller, more cramped up front
- cargo wings in the back need to be removed when moving lots of stuff, then reinstalled if i want rear speakers

corolla:
+ exterior looks cool, like a space ship (i've loved them since i was a kid)
+ amazingly reliable FI system
+ better braking power
+ smoother ride
+ AWD is nice on steep, tight turns that transition from gravel to cement (which i encounter a surprising amount here)
+ comfortable seats
+ i have a large assortment of spare parts from a parts car i had

- engine bay is tight, very little room to work
- interior is boring

[Petros]

the tercel has better visibility out the windows, and more ground clearance.

the brake up grade on the Tercel is easy once you get the parts. Improved seats are not difficult nor costly to find and install.

[dlb]

i don't find the tercel or corolla to have better visibility. the tercel has bigger windows in the cargo area but part of it is blocked by the rear seats, and from the driver seat those windows don't provide much view anyway. so i give that one a draw.

i just measured the ground clearance on the tercel and corolla, both at the lip on the underside of the doors, and both are just over 9". another draw.

i'm not interested in modifying the brakes.

i think the sr5 seats are cool because of the goofy patterns, handles for rear passengers, and adjustability, but both they and the dlx seats make my back sore on long drives. maybe i could look at swapping in sr5 seats and adding extra padding for lumbar support, i'd be into that.

[Petros]

on several of my T4wd I replaced the seat cover and the foam was rather tired, so I added some extra layers of foam under the thigh and in the lumbar area. An easy fix and makes a noticeable difference. It made the seat much more comfortable. for some reason the '85 and newer seats seem more comfortable to me, even though the '83-84 look the same shape (different patterns), the later ones always seemed more firm.

[dlb]

just finished doing the primary work on the dream terc. this included

- replacing leaking passenger side CV axle seal
- replacing passenger side CV (lots of rotational play made a huge shift clunk)
- replacing passenger side ball joing (lots of slop)
- replacing passenger side inner tie rod needlessly (play is from a worn bushing inside the rack housing)
- replacing 1 sway bar end bushing and both collars
- checking all other front end components
- refilling trans oil for what was lost from leak (already did this once when i first got the car)
- checking and bleeding all brakes

also did some fun stuff, like lubing all the doors and painting the inclinometer cover. it was originally grey and was extremely sun damaged. i took a brown trim piece to a model and hobby shop and found some model spray paint that matched pretty well. turned out really good. the rad fan was also missing the mounting bushings so it made a horrible sound when it came on once. without the bushings, it has at least 1/4" to move back and forth. i wonder how someone managed to forget those when they put it in there. i just used a few washers for each screw. the stock steel wheels on the dream terc were rusty and ugly so i put my old ae95 alloys and tires on instead. i don't think they suit the terc well but they're better than the uglies, which i will flat black eventually. need new front seat covers too, the current ones are almost as bad as the driver seat underneath them.

still have more things to do, like a seafoam oil treatment followed by an oil change and a can of restore to try to bring the compression up. i noticed the inside of the air filter housing is covered in oil so the crappy compression on cylinders 2 and 3 is making itself very evident. the engine has lots of pep though, i was really surprised by the compression test results. still planning on getting a coolant system water hammer tool to clean the rad and heater core out. might put synthetic gear oil in the trans and diff. eventually going to flat black a lot of trim and give the bottom portion a bedliner treatment but probably not till the weather warms up a bit. have a nice stereo kicking around here but am waiting for an amp wiring kit to show up in the mail and will install those both at the same time.

here's some pics i took tonight.

















you can see in the last pic that the original owner cut some plywood to fit the cargo area. i'm not sure how useful it is, but i like it anyway.