QuestionI have had an ongoing problem with losing power on my car. It takes forever for it to get up to speed, and then sometimes it will even decrease in speed while your driving. I have had it put on the scope twice, have had the cataltic converter checked, new plugs & wires and dist. cap, have had all the sensors checked. The last place I took it put in a new air flow thing and that was not it either. That guy said he couldn't figure out what it was, but he had reset the timing. Strangely enough that made it all better, for about a month...now the timing is out again. Today I called the toyota dealership, he said that maybe the distributor assembly might need replacing. Is this possible??? And if so would that not have shown up in the scope thingy??? And if it is this distributor thing, a friend of mine said that it was easy to replace, but I was wondering if he did replace that, and had no means of setting the timing afterward, will the car run and allow me to take it somewhere to have the timing set??? Thx
AnswerThe distributor controls the base timing of the engine by how it's oriented (you can rotate it). They almost all unbolt via ta pair of 12mm bolts. If you're capible of "lefty loosey, righty tighty". & can take the air hose off to get access to it (Quite easy, just don't break any of the old rubber hoses.) you can change it.
Check it for vacuum leaks. Warm the engine up & check the compression.
Check the mechanical timing (Camshaft oriented to the crankshaft), and the ingition timing.
The ignition timing is checked by setting diagnostic mode (Conenct TE1 & E1 in the DIANGNOSTIC port), and putting a timing light on the #1 spark plug.
It should read 10*btdc.
I'd almost bet money the timing belt is old & has slipped timing. Which drastically shifts the powerband if it slipped alot. The distribtor does not move on it's own if noone's played with it!!!!
Get back with me, but I bet the belt slipped from age. (Or it was changed & aligned incorrectly.)
