Icy Stream Crossing causes rough idle

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TuffGong
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Posts: 59
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:27 pm
My tercel:: 1984 Toyota Tercel SR5 6 sp.
Location: Crested Butte, CO

Icy Stream Crossing causes rough idle

Post by TuffGong »

Hi everybody,

cliffnotes: Froze the front of my car up crossing icy stream and now I get a rough idle (revs high then low, then high, then low) and stalls out when going slow and making a turn for example.

Well I decided to go up Gothic Rd. last friday in Crested Butte, CO. Left at 5am with trusty dog. Headed all the way up till you come to a river crossing. I've never been that far up, only biked 401 before and saw fresh tire tracks that didn't look to burly coming out the other side of this stream. It was also still a little dark and didn't look that intimidating. I decide to cross it and it instantly dropped me into water a foot to a foot and a half deep with thick ice.

I kind of panicked and was afraid to try and reverse out of it, I don't know why, so I just perserved on through. At the other side...I had to reverse about 7 times to get over the huge hump of ice but she finally made it. I left it on and drove it a little longer until it started to overheat. I then turned it off and preceded to pull 3" pieces of ice out of my grill. No damage to the radiator but it did freeze the front end of the car. Very cold morning. I took my dog on a hike up Maroon Bells East while waiting for it to cool down.

Preceded back over the stream and went home. Lesson learned, could have been way worse. :?

Now when I start it, there's a rough idle. Fine when driving but will stall out on slow turns or stops.

Checked the carb & vacuum leaks so far. Possible the water got in and did some damage but how to precede from here?

Thanks,
Mike
84' SR5 Tercel wagon 4wd w/carb mods & a PCV jar.
TuffGong
Advanced Member
Posts: 59
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:27 pm
My tercel:: 1984 Toyota Tercel SR5 6 sp.
Location: Crested Butte, CO

Re: Icy Stream Crossing causes rough idle

Post by TuffGong »

OK,

I'm going to buy a new fuel and air filter tomorrow. I also think I have water in the exhaust.

If I'm still have problems I'm gonna get a compression check on Thursday.
84' SR5 Tercel wagon 4wd w/carb mods & a PCV jar.
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Neu
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My tercel:: 1985 SR5 No Mods
Location: Hillsboro, Oregon, USA
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Re: Icy Stream Crossing causes rough idle

Post by Neu »

Check a lot of your vaccuum components, you may have cracked some plastic.
takza
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Location: Tibetan plateau

Re: Icy Stream Crossing causes rough idle

Post by takza »

Probably water in the distributor? I'd pull the cap off and dry it out with a paper towel and let it air dry good...then check your plug wires? A hair dryer would help dry it out.

I think I know that stream from many moons ago...a pass you you get to by going west from CB and there is a stream crossing above a narrow canyon where you follow the stream down....otherwise you have to drive way around on a state highway? AT that time a bunch of kids in a jeep got killed and injured after losing it from getting their brakes wet in the stream.
Give a boy a gun-give a biatch a cell phone-and pretty soon you almost got yourself a police state.

Orwell said: War is peace! Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength...

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TuffGong
Advanced Member
Posts: 59
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:27 pm
My tercel:: 1984 Toyota Tercel SR5 6 sp.
Location: Crested Butte, CO

Re: Icy Stream Crossing causes rough idle

Post by TuffGong »

Ok,

So I thought more about the symptoms and the probable causes of the problem.

Decided that maybe there's not water in my exhaust that causing the stalling but the choke isn't being turned on and it's probably electrical. My friend and I couldn't find the fuse or fuse linkage that was bad but I wasn't getting power to the main engine fuse. So we took a hot wire from the antenna and stuck it into the main engine fuse along w/the cooling fan's fuse as I was starting to overheat to easy w/out it on especially idling for longer than 7-8 min's.

Running smooth now. :mrgreen:
84' SR5 Tercel wagon 4wd w/carb mods & a PCV jar.
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