just picked up a 1984 tercel 4wd sr5

[ARCHINSTL]

Ditto on the wheels! Nice CP contrast with the silver paint of the car.
Tom M.

[dlb]

Where fo you live? I've never paid over $100 for window tints all the way around and they always come out perfect. In Oakland, ca it seems like there is a tint shop on ever block lol. I just got my subaru done last week a d it was $80.

holy, that's unreal. i'm on vancouver island in bc, canada. not much tinting going on here so i guess there's no competition to keep prices reasonable. if i ever make it to a oakland i'll be sure to tint out whatever vehicle i happen to be in at those prices! i'd actually really like it for our VW van.

and double ditto on the wheels. they look great.

[andrewrenow]

Thanks for all of the positive feedback on the wheels guys. I have a few questions. My car idles very high when I start it sometimes all the way up to 3000rpms is there an easy fix for this problem?

[Petros]

that is normal for cars with automatic choke carburetors. There is a cold start cam on the throttle linkage that makes it run faster when it is cold, and as it warms up you have to jab the throttle to drop it down to a lower idle speed. Normal operation is on a cold start: stomp pedal to the floor 2 or 3 times and crank engine to start it, should idle about 1200-1400 rpm, and as it warms it will slowly climb up to 3000 rpms, until you jab the throttle. This will bring it back down, until it is fully warm (choke all the way open) it will not idle down to the normal 800 rpm. Sometimes fully warm it will be idling above this, could be a vacuum leak or just out of adjustment. There is both a fast idle adjustment and a normal warm idle adjustment. See the FSM on where to find these adjustments.

You are not only a newbie, you also must be a youngster that never drove a carburetor car with an automatic choke. Not a dig, just a guess, many mechanics today have never worked on cars with carburetors. They can also act quirky in very cold starts (15 or 20 deg F) or very hot starts (over 100 deg F).

[andrewrenow]

You are not only a newbie, you also must be a youngster that never drove a carburetor car with an automatic choke. Not a dig, just a guess, many mechanics today have never worked on cars with carburetors. They can also act quirky in very cold starts (15 or 20 deg F) or very hot starts (over 100 deg F).

hahahah you are 100% correct. im 23yr old and dont know much about working on cars besides oil changes, topping fluids, changing spark plugs, and tune ups like wires, cap and rotors, which i already did. thanks for the valuable info. im also trying to figure out why the car is leaking oil like crazy. it also smokes but never overheats. here are some pics. any info will help. thanks again.


i dont think the pic will help but when the car gets warm it smokes lot and its coming up from the back of the motor. there is also oil everywhere back there. also i see that i need to change the crank and camshaft seals ill do that once i change the timing belt.

[peter_tuning]

aaaaa
FM-stereo

[dlb]

i think peter tuning meant to post that pic in his other recent thread, unless i'm missing something.

best way to figure out where your oil leaks are coming from is to spray the whole engine and bay with a heavy duty cleaner and then spray the hell out of it with a garden house. just try to avoid the distributor or wrap it and the wires up with a plastic bag and elastic band because water in the cap will make it run rough for a little bit. then over the next few days you'll be able to see where the oil is creeping out of. oil leaks at the back of the engine are commonly from the distributor, fuel pump, and valve cover, but it could also be a rear main seal, which you can't access without pulling the engine or transmission.

smell the smoke coming form the back of the engine. is it burning oil or exhaust? i would guess it's probably exhaust.

the first pic of the underside of your car looks like it might also be leaking coolant. take a look at your rad, both hoses going from it to the engine, and the coolant reservoir on the passenger side fender and make sure none are leaking.

[Petros]

looks like you got a number of oil leaks, not unusual for leaking oil to get on the exhaust manifold or exhaust pipe and cause smoking. Not a serious problem except if you ever allow the level to get too low you can do severe damage to the engine.

Most common places for it to leak are the 1) valve cover gasket, easy fix-remove it and clean both side good and apply Permatex Form-A-Gasket; 2) Fuel pump gasket, fix not to hard- remove the fuel pump (2) 12mm bolts, clean all the surfaces including both sides of the plastic sheild/insulator (this part is important), and apply form-A-gasket to both sides of the insulator (you can make or buy new gaskets if you like but this works better). Or 3) the O-ring in the distributor, best to replace it. Not hard to replace but you will need to reset the timing with a timing light when you remove the distributor.

Front and rear seals can also leak, but by the looks of the engine it is coming from the other places. You also might add some "Restore" to the engine oil, it will renew the engine rings and the seals good enough so you can keep driving it for a while before you will need to do a major overhaul or replace the engine. Restore is pretty amazing stuff, I have used it as an interim fix a number of times and have been very impressed.

[andrewrenow]

Thanks for the info guys. I'm new to all of this. One reason why I bought this car is so I can work on it myself and also learn during the process. I will get everything cleaned then figure out where to go from there. Thanks again guys.

[tercel4wdrules]

Thanks for the info guys. I'm new to all of this. One reason why I bought this car is so I can work on it myself and also learn during the process. I will get everything cleaned then figure out where to go from there. Thanks again guys.

I'm sure you will find a lot to learn in the process, I sure have. Then again, maybe I have too many Tercels. Is there such a thing?

You can rent a cooling system pressure tester and see if any of the coolant hoses are leaking. This is especially important for an older car, because if any of those hoses fails, it can overheat and cause severe engine damage. If any of those hoses are questionable I would replace them.

Replacing the timing belt taught me quite a bit. It's not a difficult repair. By the looks of it, the valve cover gasket is the culprit for most of the oil leakage. Replacing the timing belt was the first involved repair I did on my own on my first Tercel before I could even drive it legally.

[larry mcgrath]

Great buy and Welcome.Lots of good folks hear and good info on these cars. About your oil leak the oil pressure sender which is on the block (behind and under the altinator, drivers side front) is a real common source of an oil ieak, the sending unit has one wire coming from it. good luck Nice Wheels!! Larry:

[deejay1272]

Looks great with those Prius wheels! Are those 14" wheels?

[andrewrenow]

ok so i recently bought a 1988 landcruiser fj62 for 900 i was contemplating on which one i was going to keep since i only need one camping vehicle, i choose to keep the tercel. i sold the land cruiser for 1500 the next day. ive been driving tercel and it hasnt let me down yet. i love this car. although i sill need to put some work into this to make it run perfect im keeping it. if i were to sell it i know i would regret it for years.

here is what happend when i smogged it. if you know what this mean please help. it failed the HC (PPM) at 15mph it measured at 210 and the max is 148. the only other thing that it failed was the timimg they said it was at 11BTDC and it is suppose to be at 5. any info will help thanks

[dlb]

yeah, i think someone saw your tercel ad the other day. they posted a link to it here so i was wondering if you were done with it.

i don't know about the smog stuff but carlos or 4WDC will likely be able to help with that. the timing is easy, you just need a timing light from any auto or tool place. with the car idling @ approx 850 rpm, hook the timing light up to your battery terminals and put the clip on the first spark plug wire. the light should start flashing in time with the signal sent through the spark plug wire. now point the light down at the lowest spinning pulley on the engine, which is the crank pulley. you should notice a line or mark on the pulley that stays in the same spot more or less, and some raised #s on the block of the engine. whatever # the mark is next to is the degree of advance you are running. so since you are currently at 11* before top dead center, the mark should be just a little after the '10' on the block.

to adjust the timing, use a 12 mm wrench and loosen the bolt at the bottom of the distributor until you can just turn the distributor back and forth a little bit. do this with the engine running and then you will turn the distributor just slightly towards the front of the car, or counter clockwise. you should hear the RPMs rise or drop a little with the adjustment. tighten the dizzy bolt (but not too tight, just snug) and then recheck the timing. repeat these steps until it's right at 5* BTDC.

sounds confusing here but once you take a look and find all the things you need to mess with, it's super easy. only take a few minutes.

[tercel4wdrules]

dlb did a good job with explaining how to do the timing. Other members have said that sometimes the smog check station will not check the timing correctly (they fail to unplug the vacuum advance port). There's a possibility that advanced ignition timing could result in higher HC.

It would be better if you could post up the other numbers as well - CO, CO2, O2, etc. I would also reset the base timing back down to 5 degrees BTDC (which means with the vacuum advance lines disconnected and plugged). I know that cleaning the combustion chamber with SeaFoam (Deep Creep is good for spraying down the carb, following the directions and running 1/3rd of a pint of SeaFoam in the gas) or similar usually helps with lowering HC (unburnt fuel) readings, unless there's another issue. There are other things that could be going on, but if you can post up the other readings, another member could chime in with some ideas. Also, I would make sure there are no vacuum leaks and verify that all the vacuum hoses are routed properly as well, this is quite important as well. If you haven't already changed the oil, it would help too. I would also have a fresh set of spark plugs as well. It's important that the car be fully warmed up, a good 20 min drive at freeway speeds should do it and I would have them run it on manual reading mode instead of getting another official inspection until you're sure it will pass.