Hi there guys. A great community you have here for our great little cars
Recently I was given a Tercel for my 30th birthday. The backstory is that my two first cars were Tercels and I have not been able to shut up about them since. A few of my friends were tired of this and tried to shut me up by giving me one :p
It's a 1986 wagon in brown. Has around 200.000 km on it and rusty front wings as you'd expect
The plan has always been to restore one of these cars and this one seems to be a good candidate.
Not sure you can see the pictures below:
The unveiling
Last edited by egillgu on Wed Jul 03, 2013 5:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Great friends you have man! Welcome to the board, Im new here as well so this is unofficial lol. Lets see more photos of that beauty! I cant see much, but she looks to be in great shape!
welcome, egillgu. where are you located? i notice the light on the driver fender which is typically a euro thing but i know some north american owners have added it to their tercs, and your steering wheel is LHD.
car looks great from here. that would definitely make for a happy birthday!
WOW - what a neat present! And, needless to say, you are fortunate to have such a bunch of friends.
Welcome to the Club!
Tom M.
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
Thank you for the warm welcome guys. Yeah those nutty friends are pretty great.
I'm from (and in) Iceland. Those cars were all over the place when I was growing up butt you hardly see them around anymore.
I have to take some pictures next weekend. It's in pretty good condition, considering that it was left standing from 2005. All that was needed to get it running was a battery and it fired right up lol. And get this: after a little brake job it flew through the mot
And the Interior is basically like new.
It's not running like new though. After hard acceleration it starts to hesitate and run really rough to the point I need to turn the ignition off and start it back up. After that it's fine untill I accelerate a little too aggressively for it's liking again :p
wow, Iceland, not sure we have had any members from Iceland. What is the population of Iceland, how many cars are there on your island. Seems reliable and economical little 4x4 cars like the Tercel4wd would be ideal for such a place. Are car parts a problem?
I would also guess partially plugged fuel filter, or even the tank pick-up screen (easy to inspect from under the carpet in the rear, remove the hatch and you can get to the top of the tank). It could also be a weak coil that starts breaking down when it gets hot, turning it off gives it a chance to cool down. Could also be loose crud floating around inside the carb.
yes, if the car has been sitting for a long time, there is the possibility of a lot of rust in the gas tank. you can opt to repair or replace the tank, but the fuel filters are so cheap and easy to replace ($5 and 5 minutes or less under the hood) that i would probably live with the rusty tank and replace the filter whenever it started to act up.
in case you haven't already, check the FAQ page, egillgu. in addition to the usual tune up stuff you should do on a new-to-you older car (filters, oil, brake check, spark plugs, etc), there are other things like anti-sway bar end bushings that need to be checked on the t4 as well. that stuff is mentioned in the FAQ so here's the link.
egillgu -
Inactive member Challenger is from Iceland; his last visit was in the fall of 2012.
Go to his Profile and send him a PM.
Tom M.
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
There are around 320 thousand people on the island and it's said to be two cars per person. Parts can be a headache but the dealer still has some Tercel parts and then there are a few breakers yards that still get a Tercel or two per year.
I will have to sort out the fuel system when I get to the car this weekend and see if that's the problem. The first thing that came to mind was a weak spark but fuel makes good sense. I just hope it's not the carb since I'm not sure I'd be able to source parts for that very quickly.
I just got a quote for the insurance per year: 120 $ (cars over 25 years old get this sort of deals)
$120 per year! that's incredible! i think i pay about $750. i guess i'm moving to iceland, haha.
your bogging after hard driving could be a clogged fuel filter but you should still check the plugs, along with everything else involved in a tune up. i would plan on taking the time to check each system out and replace/repair anything that looks suspect. you'd hate to be driving on a highway before you realized that your brakes were worn out, or that you had a leak in a brake line.
the carbs on these cars actually pretty solid. mechanics who are not familiar with carbs will often replace them but i have never had to replace any of the ones i have worked on. most problems tend to be caused by incorrect vacuum hose routing or vacuum leaks, which are easy fixes. it's just a matter of learning which hoses go where.
Welcome to the club, egillgu. I wish I had friends like yours, mine just to tell to shut up and fix their cars. I've heard The Land of Ice is very beautiful, but you have to be careful: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013 ... t/2093649/ Remember to always wear a condom, the life you save could be your cousin's!
It's a scientific fact that in a twin engine aircraft, when one engine fails there is always enough power in the remaining engine to make it all the way to the crash site.
I've started going over the Tercel this weekend. Changed almost everything in the drum brakes. Those were pretty much shot. Got it to run a little better by changing the fuel filter but there is still a little "putt-putt" to the engine I don't like. I have to check the fuel pump for dirt and pull the plugs to see what they look like. It's running on all fours tho.
Don't have the thingies to measure the valve gaps (don't know what you call them) but the valves are chatting a bit. Planning on doing a search for vaccum leaks this evening.
A quick pic. Just had to put the skis there to try the rack out
that's awesome. i love the front grill, and the running boards. is the grill stock or does it look home made? there's a great link here with scans of german tercel brochures. that's the only time i've seen running boards on a terc before so you might be the first on the forum with them!
rather than checking the pump for dirt, you might want to check the float bowl of the carb. it's pretty easy to do and there's a factory service manual (FSM) available here on the forum that walks through the steps on a carb tear down/rebuild. here's the link to the FSM.
also, forum member xirdneh wrote a guide on how to rebuild a carb. that's in the guide section. i would check for vacuum leaks before doing any of that stuff though. there is so much vacuum stuff on these carbs that there's usually a cracked, disconnected, or mis-routed hose somewhere. sometimes it can have a minor effect, sometimes it can have a big effect.
