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I have an 89 Toyota with 126000 miles,that has 2 things wrong with it and I am hoping based on your experience you may be able to give me some suggestions before I take it to a mechanic.First there is a major oil leak,some coming from the valve cover gasket ,the rest from somewhere under the motor .some of the oil is landing near my drive belts,and without opening the timing cover,possibly onto the timing belt but of course I don't know.The car is using a quart of oil about every 150 miles and I am sure due to the age of the motor some is also being burned to.Also since I have a major engine problem,I have not fixed a leak in my exhaust system.the section of pipe going from the muffler to the catalytic converter,the car has always had a hesitation problem and nothing I have had done,major tune up,Motorvac,which is supposed to remove carbon deposits.Plus BG fuel induction? still problem still remains,But the engine has always aside from initial takeoff has run smooth.Now I am getting a misfire in the motor,usually for the first 5 to 10 minutes I drive the car,I commute 40-50 minutes,then runs fine.OK I just installed new spark plugs but have 40000 miles since I last replaced,cap,rotor and wires,but first of all if the exhaust system is not functioning properly ,wouldn,t that cause the sputtering and miss when I accelerate,can oil be getting on my timing beltcausing it to "slip" or do they just break,is my timing off,is it the carberator,should I replace the wires? I truthfully have had alot of bad experiences with shops where they have replaced parts ,said the parts were bad but the symptoms still remained so I just want to really know what to do in this situation before I spend money,I have put over $2000 in repairs in the last 2 years and the estimate for the exhaust repair,is about $300,the oil leak my brother who lives out of town is quite sure it is the crankshaft seal and possibly the oil pan gasket,an expensive repair I am sure .so I have that wrong before I even mess with the miss in the motor.Hope you can help.I tried to explain everything best as I can.I know it is my decision but if there are such major repairs needed to the motor maybe it is time to ditch the car,plus engine pings on moderate to heavy acceleration mostly when hot!! And hard to believe I always maintained my car and did all the preventive maitenance when it was supposed to be done.
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wow!!!! hello pete. where should i start? i'm going to give you my "moral" opinion!!! get rid of it!!! . i will tell u why i say that. from what you have told me i can see that you really need a new engine. you can only put so much money into a vehicle. it is just not going to do you justice to put anymore into it. Now if you had to keep this car going for whatever reason and you have the money to throw around . i would put a used engine in it. i would not put anymore $ into the engine you got, it has too many thing going wrong, and they are major things like pinging, misfire and heavy oil leaks. these are expensive heavy labor fixes. and if you were to fix the oil leaks you might as well do the timing belt and the waterpump.
if your vehicle was in my shop and u wanted to fix all of it. it would probably run around $5000.00 and that would include re-ringing the pistons in the engine,all oil leaks,plugs,timing the whole nine-yards.
i hope this gives you an idea of what you are in for
i hope i helped.Hi,well if I was in your shop and you told me it would cost $5000 I would tell you your nuts! Seriously I could live with the oil leak,(adding a quart of oil a week is way cheaper than springing for a late model used car)!can't the pinging and missing be something as simple as a timing adjustment? And like I said I have almost 126000 miles on it and I looked at my repair records and it was at 80000 miles when I replaced the wires,distributor cap.(it is one unit on that engine) I am just thinking it wouldn't hurt to check those two things.But if push comes to shove and I do need to buy another car any recomendations on a reliable economical reasonably priced Japanese or even domestic if you know of any mid-size or small car? I still wouldn't hesitate to buy a Toyota or Nissan,Hondas are a bit pricy.
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i'd buy a toyota they are really the most durable and are known to go 400,000 miles.I don't want to hear another person say these cars would go to 200000 miles and more,sure it would if you spend the equivalent of another used car!
AnswerLIKE I SAID I'M GIVING AN OPINION BASED ON A QUESTION USING MY EXPERIANCE AS A MASTER TECHICIAN. I BASE MY OPINIONS ON FACTS AND THE YEARS OF TRAINING AND SCHOOLING. I ALSO BELIEVE IN FIXING A PROBLEM AND NOT PUTTING A BAND-AID ON IT. I WANT PEOPLE TO BE HAPPY AND CONFIDENT WHEN THEY ALLOW ME TO FIX THERE VEHICLES. I TELL IT HOW IT IS!THE $5000.00 ESTIMATE IS BASED ON A LOBOR RATE OF $100.00 AN HOUR PLUS PARTS. REMEMBER THIS, I WORK FOR A TOYOTA DEALER. I DO NOT WORK FOR AN OUT-SIDE SHOP. I BELIEVE IN ORIGINAL PARTS AND FIXING TO FACTORY SPECS.
BUT I DO UNDERSTAND WHAT U ARE GETTING AT I WAS JUST TRYING TO GIVE YOU THE BEST INFO I CAN OFFER. I WOULD CHANGE THE WIRES,PLUGS AND CAP.EVERY 60000 MILES NORMALLY. TIMING ON THAT ENGINE DOES NOT REALLY GO OFF EASILY. I WOULD ALSO LOOK AT THE OLD PLUGS WHEN U PULL THEM OUT AND SEE IF YOU HAVE A FOUL. LET ME KNOW HOW U MAKE OUT. PAUL P.
