Saturday, March 31, 2007 - 09:24 pm, by: Chris Firman(Digian)
After a great start i've ran into some early issues with the soarer ! Eek. Have only had her 2 days... :'(
Was driving around friday night and all of a sudden noticed the lights had gone out. Pulled over to also find the car was idling rather rough. Checked the battery terminals and could'nt seem to pin it down, the only thing I could put it down to was going over a bump when the lights went out. I started thinking maybe a loose wire ?
Couldnt get the lights on at all, normal or high beam turning the stick, BUT pulling the indicator stick back toward me the high beams worked so I got her home... very strange, since they wouldnt work when pushed forward for normal high beam method ?!? How would this allow the lights to work, somehow pulling back is an override on the lighting circuit ??
I noticed the lights flickered on and off when I came home over a railway line, so I was certain it had to be a loose wire ... ??
Anyway today I checked all the fuses and earths and found nothing. Car appeared to be running rough a cylinder short but no explanation
This afternoon I started getting the japanese engine electrical warning, after a few starts I had smoke pouring out from the coil pack cover ! OMG! Turns out the first coil pack has exploded, the plastic is pretty much bubbled out and its all cracked.
So that explains the car running rough, a cylinder down, but how about the headlights ? Does it sound like a logical series of steps for a coil pack going to take out the lights (pretty sure they still worked) and cause other sorts of shorts ?? If I replace the damaged coil pack, what else do I need to check in this scenario ?
Sunday, April 01, 2007 - 02:22 am, by: Simon Vella(Simon)
Hmmm...the rough idle would have definitely been a cracked coil pack. But i have never heard of one smoking as you described. You should be able to find a used coil pack for under $50. (try posting in the "want to buy" section as many members keep old coil packs as spares after replacing with new ones) Check the other ones while your at it, be sure to remove the rubber cap down the bottom of the coil pack and check thoroughly for small cracks. Any crack will cause spark to be lost and will reduce performance of your engine.
I wouldn't think the two issues are related. hopefully someone here can help you further with the headlight problem. Don't stress though. To me, neither sound like major problems or more importantly, expensive ones.
Monday, April 02, 2007 - 02:09 pm, by: Nathan Evans(Soarer7)
chris, even though your battery terminals dont seem to have anything wrong with them you should stil take both terminls off and get some hot water and baking soda and pour it over them and then put them back on tightly! then smear a little vasaline over them. It could have possibly been related to the coil pack shortiing or drawing current but it des sound like your terminals seeing as though your lights flicker as you go over a bump! good luck let us know how you go!
Tuesday, April 03, 2007 - 11:05 pm, by: Chris Firman(Digian)
Well.. I've replaced the coil and am on the road again, however the lights and dash etc still flicker over bumps, so im assuming its now an earth and this was probably the cause for the coil pack going so violently. Doh!
I've scrubbed the earth point dead centre on the firewall, and the air box, and scrubbed the battery terminals.
Plenty of people have said there are about 10 earth points in the soarer and i've read a lot of posts about earthing, but I cant find any actual list or diagram of all the earth points to check on the chassis ... has anybody got this list ?
Is there any common point that would link, lights, dash etc ?
Wednesday, April 04, 2007 - 12:20 am, by: Michael Howatt(Howatt)
EARTH POINTS ============ The symptoms described in this forum post turn up quite commonly. Other symptoms may range from the instrument cluster disappearing, clock and trip meters resetting through to engine cutout and recovery after a few moments. It usually happens when you put an electrical spike through the system, such as touching the brakes, using high beams, or just using the indicators. They are all symptomatic of an earthing problem.
One of the few less brilliant parts of Soarer design is the fact that many of the earth points rely on a bolt into the chassis, where the electrical contact depends entirely on the thread, with no electrical contact through the head of the bolt. This will be one of your targets but first, here is a complete list of V8 earth points:
LH fender Left fender apron RH Fender RH cylinder head rear Surge tank, lower LH cylinder head front Left cowl, side Radio RH Right cowl Console box LH Console box RH Centre floor crossmember RH Back panel centre Centre floor crossmember LH
Fortunately, most of these will not require work. The most significant targets are • Battery terminals, especially the negative terminal • The earth point on the chassis next to the battery • Cylinder head earths • In EMV-equipped cars, the earth on the floor below the console If your engine cuts out as one of the symptoms, concentrate especially on the first two.
Remove the terminals and thoroughly clean them and the battery posts, including disassembling the cables from the clips and cleaning them. If your terminal clips are cactus you can buy a new genuine set from Toyota for less than $40.
Remove the earth connection on the fender and sand back the paint where the bolt and earth ring touch it. Clean the earth and replace.
Tighten these carefully but hard.
Check tightness of the other main earths and clean anything that needed tightening. You should now have banished the problem. If it persists, then I am afraid it is more likely that you need to re-do the job more thoroughly than that there is another mysterious problem. Only when you are satisfied the earths are sound should you give too much thought to the battery or other potential issues.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 - 11:37 pm, by: Niall Hughes(Hughezy_10)
on the earth point below the console does this mean that the entire centre console must be removed? I am struggling to find an earth as my sound has all of a sudden dropped considerably and my amp seems to work fine, just low volume. I am assuming the earth below the emv is for the rest the entire stereo then?