1986 Toyota Tercel Wagon, Stock. New Seattle Owner!

[terceleration]

Hello,

My name is Chris. Over the weekend I bought a 1986 Toyota Tercel Wagon 4WD, white. This is my first Toyota, and my second Japanese car. I've owned a classic Cadillac, a VW Golf, a Datsun B210, a Ford Escort SW, and now this car. I'm pretty happy with it so far.

So here's the story. I saw the ad for this on craigslist. The car was listed at $900, which I ended up paying because the woman wouldn't budge and I didn't want to keep looking for a new car. (Plus she was kinda crazy.) It has 246,000 miles, but a new engine was put in at 204,000, with a $2500 receipt for it. The woman had all her maintenance receipts, including the original sale sheet from the car dealer. The car sold for $10,500 brand new back in 1986. (I'll scan the sheet and post it to the site when I get a chance, it's pretty cool.) I also got the owner's manual, and all the paperwork from the dealership. As far as I can tell, it's stock. It has the 5 speed, with EL as well. All the lights, door handles, windows, etc all work, except the radio is AM only, the PM went out (suck). It's in pretty good condition cosmetically. The dash pad is super nice.

When I got it home, I changed the brake fluid, the oil, flushed the radiator, etc. Then I washed and waxed it. I've ordered a water pump from O'Reilly's that will be here on Tuesday. I will also need to do my CVs, but I'm going to wait until the end of August, just before the crummy weather starts and I end up with a bunch of dirt in the boots. The clutch is going to need to be replaced in anywhere from about 10,000 miles to 40,000. We'll see. Any advice when it comes to clutch work on these bad boys? That about sums it up. So I figure for around $1500 (with the repairs), I got a car that will drive to 350,000.

Take a look at my pictures I took. I posted them to http://www.tercel4wd.com/upload. OR:
http://tercel4wd.com/upload/browse/terceleration/40
Hopefully you can see the pictures. A nice clean stock one.

[Petros]

Welcome to the list. Great looking car. $900 sounds like a bargin for the condition it is in, too bad it is not an SR5.

[takza]

I have some advice on clutch work....DON'T. The clutch in my wagon acted marginal to say the least when I first drove it...but after driving it a while it has gone ~60K and is still acting about the same...95% good. I think the car sat a while...so after it was driven some...it shaped up. Might check the clutch adjustment?

[splatterdog]

Take a closer look at the engine receipt. An engine at 204k without a clutch at the same time is not thinking proactively. Unless of course it checked out, but still...

I thought my first T4's clutch was getting close when I got it at 162k. Almost 100k later it's still going.

Don't forget to check/change the trans fluid. That's the most important fluid as it protects the rarest part on your car. I highly recommend synthetic.

[Petros]

There is a simple clutch test: put on the parking brake hard, and press on the brake hard, "heel-toe" the throttle and rev it up to 3000-4000 rpm, and put it in first gear and let out the clutch. If the engine stalls, the clutch is good, if it just bogs down but keeps running, you need a clutch. DO NOT DO THIS VERY OFTEN. It s only a test.

Sometimes the clutch feels weak, but will run a lot more miles than you expect. The first one I owned I changed the clutch (lots of work) and the one that came out did not look bad at all. And I was wondering why I felt it needed a new clutch.

BTW, I would recommend using 50/50 mix of regular mineral gear oil and synthetic gear oil. The synthetic is so slippery the syncros are less effective and you get gear clashing with the shifts, this trans was not designed for synthetic oil. I have found that the mixture gives you wear protection but has enough friction to allow it shift normally.

[hberdan]

That is one nice looking Tercel wagon. You did very well.

[dlb]

i know this is off topic but while you guys are mentioning it: could someone give me a quick run through on how to change transmission fluid? i've never done it before. from what i can see it looks like i just undo a low-sitting bolt/plug and drain the fluid out, put the bolt/plug back, remove a bolt/plug that sits up higher, and fill it with fluid until it reaches the level of the bolt hole. this is done for both the front and rear axles.

please correct me where i'm wrong so i can go do this. i have no idea when it was last done on my car, if ever. thanks!

[takza]

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=283

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1719&p=13855#p13855

[ARCHINSTL]

And - Read ALL posts !
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2160&p=17053&hilit= ... ill#p17053
Just to reinforce - be certain the filler plugs are removable before draining!
Tom M.

[dlb]

after reading all those posts i'm still a little unclear on the procedure so i've reactivated one of the old threads with a few questions for clarification. thanks!

[terceleration]

Thanks for the comments, guys. I flushed the rear diff, and the tranny fluid (I didn't go synthetic), and changed the thermostat. I also flushed the radiator again, because it keeps coming out nasty.

Also, about a week ago, I changed the water pump. The bearing was shot to shi*. It made the running engine sound way better, and it bumped my fuel economy a little bit. The first tank I averaged 27.1, but that was mostly town driving. The last two times I have filled up, I have averaged 30.2 and 30.4, but that was on trips to Bellingham and back on 90, 405, and I-5, so almost all highway. I'm pretty happy with it.

[terceleration]

Last night I changed my starter, thermostat, cap and rotor, spark plugs, fuel filter. To be honest, I am surprised my car even started at all. The plugs were nasty, the cap was rusty, and the starter wasn't even properly aligned with the teeth. Wow. She runs like a champ now. I hope that's all I have to do, besides the CVs, for a long while.

O'Reilly's Auto Parts:

Water Pump $30
Thermostat and Gasket $7
Cap $20 (ouch)
Rotor $4
Plugs $10 (ouch, expensive)
Starter $60, even after the core return
Fuel Filter $6

About $145 after sales tax. But now she runs great, and I will make that $145 back in gas in the coming months.

So, funny story, I looked through the previous owners receipts, and all the repairs I did last night (I did the water pump last week) cost her $800 at a mechanics. The worst was they charged her $100 just to change the cap. Is that gouging or what?
It cost me about $110 and about 4 hours of my time (those bolts on the thermostat were a pain to get off).