Hello guys.. I'm having a bit trouble with my 91 Toyota Soarer (Imported).. Last night I was driving out of my garage and when the first time I put my feet on the accelerator, I felt that something is not right. I went out of the garage and on my way up I found out that the car is not accelerating properly on the slope.. Last time I had this kind of problem was when i ran out of petrol. But this time I just got back filling up my tank. Any way.. coming to the point.. So I went out to pick up my friend from station.. and while I was driving on the straight road.. I felt the same.. something is wrong.. The car is not accelerating properly.. and the error message came in Japanese was "Alternator not charging the battery".. and the car was failed to go over 2000 RPM whenever it reaches in between 1500 to 2000 the rpm falls into 0 and the error message comes up. (Shown in the video) Well.. I got back picking my mate up from the station.. and when I stopped the car smoke came out from under my bonnet. And I opened it up and found out that something is red under the engine and heat coming out of that. I checked under the car.. the exhaust pipes from the manifold was red.. I freaked out..
took it to the garage this morning.. and the mechanic said i need to change the spark plugs and the alternator.. so he putted on a recondition alternator(with guarantor) and did the whole engine servicing and put platinum spark plugs.. changed air filter engine oil and filters and everything.. and charged me $900.00 But the problem is still there.. and now he is saying that the air flow computer is not working properly so I need to change it.. He shows me that when he take the connector out of the air flow computer (that's AFM I think) the car stays on.. while it should not be.. he is saying me that when you take the connector out of the AFM the car should go off straight away.. and it is not.. so there is problem with the AFM and i need to change it..
I'm wondering what might be the problem..
Please help me out.. I really love the car and don't want it to throw away..
Friday, May 28, 2010 - 09:42 pm, by: Peter Nitschke(Pen)
First, with the V8 if you have to recondition the alternator, there is a good chance you also need to do the P/S pump as they leak and kill the alternator. If you don't, the rebuilt alternator will die too.
The noise under the bonnet might just be the brake accumulator, normal though it seems to be going off a bit too often, it may need a nitrogen recharge.
The burning under the engine is probably the cats melting.
The cats melt due to over fuelling, often it's caused by a coil pack failing, but usually the engine runs really rough when that happens, as you lose 4 cylinders.
As Andrew said though, find a decent mechanic that understand that fixing a problem is only half the solution, you also need to fix what caused the problem.
Saturday, May 29, 2010 - 10:47 am, by: Lee Bettridge(Lethal)
As Peter said, one of the problems causing your symptoms can be coil failure. The engine will not run if the coil located front middle of the engine fails. However the engine will still run, albeit roughly, if the coil on the passenger side fails. (4 cylinders on each bank run) Therefore you are sending unburnt fuel from 2 cylinders down each header and the fuel is then burnt in headers and the cats. That would be the red hot glow you mentioned. The cats now may well be stuffed. When my coil, passenger side, went I also had the same symptoms, including the tacho reading all over the place. I would suggest replacing BOTH coils, they are the same, you just need to transfer the mounting brackets from the originals to the new coils.
Saturday, May 29, 2010 - 10:49 am, by: Matthew Sharpe(Madmatt)
Cats are probably rooted by now. For gods sake people, if you car is running that badly STOP DRIVING IT UNTIL IT IS FIXED or you will WRECK IT! Engine basics 101!
Could be all manner of things causing the problem, you need someone who knows what they are doing to diagnose it. One things for sure after driving it like that your cats will be cooked, and that won't be helping the situation.
Charcoal cannister may be suffering too, sounds like the cats are melting away because of a fuel issue relating to a coilpack or some sort of fuel delivery electric problem.
Sunday, May 30, 2010 - 05:17 pm, by: Ashley Sommer(Flubba86)
Please dont keep replacing parts just because your mechanic tells you to! He obviously knows nothing about soarers or 1UZ motors!
The alternator light coming on was probably just a symptom of your problem, Im willing to bet there was nothing wrong with your alternator at all, and you didnt need a rebuilt one.
It sounds to me (as the others have said) that it is something ignition related, so coils, distributor caps, distributor rotors, spark leads, and spark plugs. The mechanic done the easiest one.. replaced spark plugs, but you will ideally have to check/replace your spark leads, distributor rotors, distributor caps and coils. I recently had to replace everything just mentioned on my celsior, because it had very similar problems.
Now about the Mass Air Flow (MAF) sensor.. (To clarify, its not an AFM, that is an air-flow-meter, which is what Nissan and some other manufacturers use, its different.) The 1UZ ecu is designed to compensate for sudden MAF failure by switching on-the-fly to rpm/throttle-position-sensor based fueling (as opposed to MAF/rpm/tps).. its not very drivable, but it can get you home in an emergency and you certainly wont get the car to stall by simply unplugging the MAF plug!
Hi Arefeen I had the same symptoms and problems as what you are having. There is nothing wrong with alternator. You have a failed coil pack.
Check both and either unplug one and try starting it then do the same for the other. The one that does not start has failed. Or just measure the resistance with a multimeter.
My car is running fine now with no alternator problems.
Thanks Guys.. I took it to Niall Bond in botany, and that was the problem.. Coil failure.. but I had to change my spark leads as well cause they were 19 years old.. Changed the spark plugs before that with the FOOL mechanic.. Who made me spend extra $260 on the alternator and $225 on the MAF Sensor. I ended up spending $500 extra for the car to get running.. But the car is running super fine now..
A suggestion to all (from My personal experience) Don't take Soarers to any random mechanic.. Take it to some one who is passionate about Soarer and knows what to do with it..
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