elcidsurfer
New member
Hey y'all,
It's been a long while since I've been on here. After a new job, new baby, and wife going back to school full time, life has caught up with me and there's no time for the other things... Excuses are like A-holes though right?
Anyway, I've got a big issue, one that's plagued me since I bought my '87 T4R a few years back. A starting issues... I'll try to make a super long story short, but I feel the details are important since after hours of using the search function, I really can't find another case like mine.
I bought my '87 5-Speed 22RE back in August of 2010 with 230,000 miles and supposedly a re-built engine at 200,000 by the PO. Only issue he admitted it to having was an intermittent starting issue. So I drove her home and in about 20,000 miles started having those intermittent starting issues. She would crank and then not, and then crank and then not... no rhyme nor reason. I could wait 5-10 minutes and she would usually crank right up. Sometimes if I was in a hurry I would jump her and she’d fire right up too.
So I started trouble shooting first with a new battery and bingo worked... for well another 15,000 miles and then it was back, but this time with diming lights. So I replaced the Alternator and bingo again started fine for a while longer. Then after about another 15,000 miles later same thing, intermittent non-start, but without the diming lights. So I replaced the Starter. Again, started up like a charm some time. Another 10,000 miles goes by and it's back at it.
This time I take it to my mechanic, and he takes a look and says, “oh that starters no good, it's made in China, you need an OEM Toyota Starter.” So we put one on and it still doesn't work... so he says “hmmmm... may be a bad Toyota starter, let’s try a different one.” So we put that on and poof it works for well about another 20,000 miles this time.
So now were at 310,000 miles, one new battery, one new alternator, and three new starters... But this time were back to the lights diming while driving and not starting every time so I replace the Alternator again. Starts right up and works for another 10,000 miles and then doesn't. Which brings us to now, or should I say a few months ago....
By this time I was sick and tired of dealing with all of this and started to do more and more research. I found the "intermittent starting issue sticky" and decided try that fix by bypassing the factory relay. Unfortunately a few weeks ago someone broke into my car (where I had the bag of wires, relay, etc.) and stole everything.
Shortly thereafter I remembered that I had a battery charger, so before buying new parts for the relay bypass, I decided to try one more thing. I charged the battery overnight and poof everything worked about for about a week. I charged the battery again, and got another week out of it. Ok, I thought, we're getting somewhere.
So tonight I went to Autozone, bought a new battery put it in and nothing, car didn't start. I returned the battery put my old one back in and tried again. Nothing... Guy came out and said "hmmm... the battery has a charge, I bet it's your starter"... I almost screamed. I explained the whole story to the guy at Autozone and he explained to me that he thought since the Engine had 320,000 miles on it and was probably never really rebuilt that there was sludge in the engine and the starter was likely going bad because everytime it did crank it had to overwork itself. Seems reasonable I thought... Ok, I'll humor the idea of another starter.
So about 5 hours ago I replaced the starter and it cranked right up. Yippie I thought. So I went to eat dinner, came back to move my car and nothing... WTF!!!!! Again, good battery, good alternator, good starter and nothing... So as usual, when it wouldn't crank and I needed to get going I tried to jump it and nothing. Tried again, and nothing... So I grabed another set of cables, again nothing... I was just about to give up when I had an idea.
The guy from Autozone said there was sludge causing the motor not to start... So I put the car in 1st, put my foot on the clutch and started to roll (key was not in the ignition) then I popped the clutch, jarring the engine. I put the key in the ignition, turned it and she cranked right up.
So to recap…
230,000 miles – Purchased
250,000 miles – No Start = New battery
265,000 miles – No Start + Lights Diming = New Alternator
280,000 miles – No Start = New Starter
290,000 miles – No Start = Mechanic = New Starter
290,001 miles – No Start = Mechanic = New Starter
310,000 miles – No Start + Lights Diming = New Alternator
320,000 miles – No Start = New Battery
320,001 miles – No Start = New Starter
320,002 miles – No Start = Pop Clutch/Jar Engine?
A few other things I will mention…
I do have a very small oil leak coming from what looks like the timing cover/head gasket area. It is so small that I’ve never had to top my oil off between changes, but the oil is visibly leaking onto the Alternator and every time I would replace the Alternator it would be caked in Oil and Grime. I to believe the Oil Leak is the culprit for have the diming lights and having to change the alternator every 50,000 miles. But I don’t think the Alternator is related to the starting issue since I currently have a good Battery and Alternator and it still wouldn’t start tonight even when I tried to jump it.
I have also replaced other things throughout the process; spark plugs, wires, distributor cap, solenoid, fuses, etc….
Should I try the “relay by-bass fix”? Is the oil leak somehow related to bad oil pressure and somehow bogging down my engine? Is it the inter distributor itself? What is going on here? Can someone please help?
It's been a long while since I've been on here. After a new job, new baby, and wife going back to school full time, life has caught up with me and there's no time for the other things... Excuses are like A-holes though right?
Anyway, I've got a big issue, one that's plagued me since I bought my '87 T4R a few years back. A starting issues... I'll try to make a super long story short, but I feel the details are important since after hours of using the search function, I really can't find another case like mine.
I bought my '87 5-Speed 22RE back in August of 2010 with 230,000 miles and supposedly a re-built engine at 200,000 by the PO. Only issue he admitted it to having was an intermittent starting issue. So I drove her home and in about 20,000 miles started having those intermittent starting issues. She would crank and then not, and then crank and then not... no rhyme nor reason. I could wait 5-10 minutes and she would usually crank right up. Sometimes if I was in a hurry I would jump her and she’d fire right up too.
So I started trouble shooting first with a new battery and bingo worked... for well another 15,000 miles and then it was back, but this time with diming lights. So I replaced the Alternator and bingo again started fine for a while longer. Then after about another 15,000 miles later same thing, intermittent non-start, but without the diming lights. So I replaced the Starter. Again, started up like a charm some time. Another 10,000 miles goes by and it's back at it.
This time I take it to my mechanic, and he takes a look and says, “oh that starters no good, it's made in China, you need an OEM Toyota Starter.” So we put one on and it still doesn't work... so he says “hmmmm... may be a bad Toyota starter, let’s try a different one.” So we put that on and poof it works for well about another 20,000 miles this time.
So now were at 310,000 miles, one new battery, one new alternator, and three new starters... But this time were back to the lights diming while driving and not starting every time so I replace the Alternator again. Starts right up and works for another 10,000 miles and then doesn't. Which brings us to now, or should I say a few months ago....
By this time I was sick and tired of dealing with all of this and started to do more and more research. I found the "intermittent starting issue sticky" and decided try that fix by bypassing the factory relay. Unfortunately a few weeks ago someone broke into my car (where I had the bag of wires, relay, etc.) and stole everything.
Shortly thereafter I remembered that I had a battery charger, so before buying new parts for the relay bypass, I decided to try one more thing. I charged the battery overnight and poof everything worked about for about a week. I charged the battery again, and got another week out of it. Ok, I thought, we're getting somewhere.
So tonight I went to Autozone, bought a new battery put it in and nothing, car didn't start. I returned the battery put my old one back in and tried again. Nothing... Guy came out and said "hmmm... the battery has a charge, I bet it's your starter"... I almost screamed. I explained the whole story to the guy at Autozone and he explained to me that he thought since the Engine had 320,000 miles on it and was probably never really rebuilt that there was sludge in the engine and the starter was likely going bad because everytime it did crank it had to overwork itself. Seems reasonable I thought... Ok, I'll humor the idea of another starter.
So about 5 hours ago I replaced the starter and it cranked right up. Yippie I thought. So I went to eat dinner, came back to move my car and nothing... WTF!!!!! Again, good battery, good alternator, good starter and nothing... So as usual, when it wouldn't crank and I needed to get going I tried to jump it and nothing. Tried again, and nothing... So I grabed another set of cables, again nothing... I was just about to give up when I had an idea.
The guy from Autozone said there was sludge causing the motor not to start... So I put the car in 1st, put my foot on the clutch and started to roll (key was not in the ignition) then I popped the clutch, jarring the engine. I put the key in the ignition, turned it and she cranked right up.
So to recap…
230,000 miles – Purchased
250,000 miles – No Start = New battery
265,000 miles – No Start + Lights Diming = New Alternator
280,000 miles – No Start = New Starter
290,000 miles – No Start = Mechanic = New Starter
290,001 miles – No Start = Mechanic = New Starter
310,000 miles – No Start + Lights Diming = New Alternator
320,000 miles – No Start = New Battery
320,001 miles – No Start = New Starter
320,002 miles – No Start = Pop Clutch/Jar Engine?
A few other things I will mention…
I do have a very small oil leak coming from what looks like the timing cover/head gasket area. It is so small that I’ve never had to top my oil off between changes, but the oil is visibly leaking onto the Alternator and every time I would replace the Alternator it would be caked in Oil and Grime. I to believe the Oil Leak is the culprit for have the diming lights and having to change the alternator every 50,000 miles. But I don’t think the Alternator is related to the starting issue since I currently have a good Battery and Alternator and it still wouldn’t start tonight even when I tried to jump it.
I have also replaced other things throughout the process; spark plugs, wires, distributor cap, solenoid, fuses, etc….
Should I try the “relay by-bass fix”? Is the oil leak somehow related to bad oil pressure and somehow bogging down my engine? Is it the inter distributor itself? What is going on here? Can someone please help?
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