Car question

[glatt]

Originally Posted by glatt

Based on a few different posts at Toyota Nation, where people had this exact same problem, and the ECT sensor was the culprit, I'm fairly confident this is going to fix it. We'll know if the car doesn't stall before the end of March. 2 months is the longest it ever went without stalling. I may be eating my words. We'll see.

Did I mention that the car stalled again about two weeks ago, a month or so after switching that sensor?

So I widened my search of potential problems. I tried to take the Idle Air Control valve off to check it and possibly clean it. I had trouble because the phillips head screws are difficult to reach, and lock washers make them very hard to remove. I could feel that I was stripping them, so I stopped. Instead, I took off the entire throttle body, to which the IAC vavle was attached. Brought it inside, clamped it in my bench vise, and used vice grips to remove those now slightly stripped phillips head screws. I took the IAC valve apart, and cleaned it thoroughly. Also cleaned the throttle body. Both were a little dirty but not too bad.

Then I replaced the air filter. I had thought it wasn't dirty, but when I compared the new air filter to the old, the old was clearly pretty dirty.

A week went by with no stalling, but the cold start up idle is slower than it should be now. It's at about 800, which is normal for warm idle, but pretty slow for cold idle. Once it warms up, the idle stays at 800 and feels good. I'm hoping it's just that the computer needs to learn how to react to a clean IAC and it will fix itself after a while driving it.

Then on Sunday, I pulled the Exhaust Gas Recirculator to make sure it was clean. It was slightly dirty, but not bad. The valve seemed to open and close properly. But I cleaned it anyway and it's really nice now.

I keep being impressed with myself when I take all this stuff apart and put it back together and the engine fires up.

I think now I just drive it around for a while and see if it stalls again. It seems to go a month or two between stalls.

One thing I recently realized is that it only stalls for me. Something about the way my wife drives doesn't seem to bug it. So either my driving style is really hard for it, or moving my seat back sends some sort of electric signal to fuck it up, or perhaps most likely, my key chain is too heavy and it's messing up the ignition switch intermittently. How do I test for that? Wiggle the keys when it's stalling?

[tw]

Originally Posted by glatt

I think now I just drive it around for a while and see if it stalls again. It seems to go a month or two between stalls.

So what was Car Chip monitoring? And what did Car Chip record with the stall?

[glatt]

Yesterday I switched out the engine coolant temperature sensor. The car had been behaving normally for a few weeks, but based on my research and questions at a Toyota repair forum, I think an intermittent fault at this sensor was causing my stalling problems, and the bad spark plug wires were just a coincidence.

So I let the car cool off so I wouldn't burn myself on the coolant gushing out when I removed the sensor and quickly inserted the new one. And I made the switch.
New:


Old:

[xoxoxoBruce]

The old one has a copper washer, did the new one?

[glatt]

Nope. Coolant was gushing out of the hole when I pulled the old sensor out, and I didn't notice the old washer until after I got the new sensor in and saw the shiny washer had been flushed away onto the transaxle or something. I had lost roughly a cup or two of coolant, and didn't want to lose even more putting the washer back. I put plumbers tape on the threads of the new sensor, and it's not leaking, even after running the engine for a while.

I mopped up the spilled coolant with a rag the best I could, and hosed the rest away with plenty of water.

[glatt]

How do you know if it's critical to replace tires if there is plenty of tread left? When we bought this car over a year ago, the tires looked like this, and we have been driving around on them since then without incident. Mostly city driving. Occasionally highway.

I'd like new tires, but 4 new ones of respectable quality will cost about $650-$700 installed, so I only want to replace if necessary.

See the good tread? See all those little cracks? They all look like this. Are they ok?

[jimhelm]

no. that's dry rot. dangerous.

get new tires.

[glatt]

OK, do you expect that I'm better off ordering them from Tire Rack online and paying to have them installed, or do you think I'd get a better deal just going to a tire place? Obviously, I can make some phone calls to compare prices, but if you have insight, I'd be curious.

I'd probably choose Michelin Primacy MXV4 tires because Consumer Reports rated them highest, and they are about the same price as other top tires.

[lumberjim]

I'd order them, and take them to walmart for installation. or pep boys... tire sales are the life blood of many retail service centers. I got my Nitto Dura Grapplers from DiscountTiresDirect, had them shipped here, to my work, and got them installed. I buy the 2nd best tires, unless the price drop is minor... in which case, I buy the best.

[Clodfobble]

Crap... my tires look like glatt's, I didn't realize they were that bad off. How long are tires normally supposed to last? The car is only 18 months old. Is it because it came with cheap tires to begin with?

[lumberjim]

depends on your weather too... and the tires may be much older than the date they were installed. You gotta check that when you buy them... .make sure they aren't already 3 years old.... and then if you live in a hot dry place, keep them protected with Tire Dressing or Armor All or something.

[Clodfobble]

Yeah, it's probably time to replace all four. Do you have an opinion on Michelin Energy Saver A/S tires? That's the one the Lamb's tire guy is recommending based on how frequently I commute to Houston and back. (I'm at just under 30,000 miles in 16 months...)

[Beest]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Yeah, it's probably time to replace all four. Do you have an opinion on Michelin Energy Saver A/S tires? That's the one the Lamb's tire guy is recommending based on how frequently I commute to Houston and back. (I'm at just under 30,000 miles in 16 months...)

Just taken the Dodge! to the shop, 25K miles in a year almost to the day.
I just passed 40K on the Fit in 26 months, so that's 45K a year between the two!

[glatt]

At least you'll drive them into the ground before they have a chance to rust.

[lumberjim]

whook. that's a lot of driving. I'm not a tire expert... but in Houston... do you need an All Season Tire? what kind of car is it? year, make, model, sub model... engine type, please..