Need Help with a Car repair

Strauss said that they took the spark plugs out and reinstalled them and they said my brother in law did a good job installing the spark plugs and ignition wires.

I’ll just throw in my two cents.

From your description it will fall into two categories.

If the engine shuts-off instantly; there is a high probability it being the Idle Air Control Valve. This component is designed to adjust and meter the amount of air that is injected into the cylinders when there is no manual acceleration. When it fails, it will cause erratic idling and random shut-off. It may be possible that the part was either disconnected from the ECM connection. You can do a quick look in a Hayne’s Repair manual to see what it looks like and where exactly it sits, or stop at a parts shop and they can print you an image of it, and an exploded diagram so you can locate it.

If the engine idles oddly then slowly dies out; still possible to be the IACV but also consider that a vacuum line (sometimes plastic, sometimes nitrile) could be disconnected, off the top of my head I don’t know exactly how many vacuum lines there are, but there are a handful at least. The engine requires exact internal pressure to continue to run, a vacuum leak will cause similar issues. Usually the MAP (manifold absolute pressure) sensor will turn on the check engine light to let you know there is a pressure imbalance.

Now if you can star the Corolla up immediately after dying out, it will eliminate fuel and ignition systems from fault. If you have to wait a while for the car to cool down it could be a fault in one of the fuel or ignition components. On some cars, the ECM will refuse to turn-over if the Engine Coolant Temperature sensor is reading high while the car is off.

One last thing to be aware of during a small plug tune up is you have to use the correct brand of plugs, the correct grade of plugs, the correct gapping, and the proper installation torque. For you’re car the plugs should be nothing but NGK Copper (you can also use base Platinum as well) or if available Denso Copper, I don’t know what you’re gapping is at or what the torque spec is either but you can call up a parts store for that.

Quote:

Originally posted by Kanzen

I�ll just throw in my two cents.

From your description it will fall into two categories.

If the engine shuts-off instantly; there is a high probability it being the Idle Air Control Valve. This component is designed to adjust and meter the amount of air that is injected into the cylinders when there is no manual acceleration. When it fails, it will cause erratic idling and random shut-off. It may be possible that the part was either disconnected from the ECM connection. You can do a quick look in a Hayne�s Repair manual to see what it looks like and where exactly it sits, or stop at a parts shop and they can print you an image of it, and an exploded diagram so you can locate it.

If the engine idles oddly then slowly dies out; still possible to be the IACV but also consider that a vacuum line (sometimes plastic, sometimes nitrile) could be disconnected, off the top of my head I don�t know exactly how many vacuum lines there are, but there are a handful at least. The engine requires exact internal pressure to continue to run, a vacuum leak will cause similar issues. Usually the MAP (manifold absolute pressure) sensor will turn on the check engine light to let you know there is a pressure imbalance.

Now if you can star the Corolla up immediately after dying out, it will eliminate fuel and ignition systems from fault. If you have to wait a while for the car to cool down it could be a fault in one of the fuel or ignition components. On some cars, the ECM will refuse to turn-over if the Engine Coolant Temperature sensor is reading high while the car is off.

One last thing to be aware of during a small plug tune up is you have to use the correct brand of plugs, the correct grade of plugs, the correct gapping, and the proper installation torque. For you�re car the plugs should be nothing but NGK Copper (you can also use base Platinum as well) or if available Denso Copper, I don�t know what you�re gapping is at or what the torque spec is either but you can call up a parts store for that.

Kanzen you are a guru of the computer world, you may just have to keep that thought as I tell you that the things you say are not relevant in this case. Read the OP and then think for a minute. It ran before, now it will run with the throtle held open a bit.

Kanzen, the engine shuts off immediately after taking your foot off the gas....

Yeah, Kanzen is the fucking business, I came in here to get down to some business...


....but there's nothing really left to be said.

Then I would lean towards the IACV, either the connector was disconnected or the proportioning valve inside is stuck.

I have a friend, he's something of an inventor type guy, he deals with this shit once in awhile.

He recently modded out an old car, which is pretty badass.

He said his car had a similar problem, he was driving on a back road and couldn't get any speed.

He switched out the flux capacitor. It changed the whole car, apparently at "88mph you see some serious shit".





















I'm sorry.

I hit 88, now I'm a troll.

So has the car issue been resolved, just wondered what the problem was...

I took my car to a repair shop close to me job that had did a good job recently for me when I was towed there when my AC Compressor went. They spend about half an hour looking at it, and told me that my brother in law put the spark plugs in clockwise instead of counter clockwise, they put them in correctly and charged me $114, Straus wanted at least $300 and told me it could be as much as $1K

Got the plug wires on in the wrong order, I'd love to say I've never done that

Glad ya got it fixed mate, and cheaper than you thought (beer)

Ummm, spark plugs only install in one direction, clockwise. Do you mean they claimed he connected the wires incorrectly? If that were true the car would misfire on every cylinder and not only that you wouldn’t be able to get the engine to run past the first cycle regardless of holding the pedal to the ground. If he crossed up two wires, the engine would misfire every cycle, not cut off entirely. If he accidentally installed three or all four of the wires incorrectly the car would not run period. As soon as the starter disengaged the flywheel, the car would cut-off half a second later. Ninety percent of the 4-cylinder inline engines will continue to run with just two cylinders firing. You would know if two cylinders were misfiring because the engine would be making an awful racket and the drive would chug as only two cylinders were running the transmission.

I install my spark plugs upside down. And connect them with fishing string.

Quote:

Originally posted by EricLindros

I install my spark plugs upside down. And connect them with fishing string.

Trollbustion engine, eh?

@Dros and Kanzen.

I lol'd super fucking hard.