Please Help Me Save My 1991 Toyota Corolla - Pre-1997 Toyota Corolla and Geo Prizm

Guest steve1

Hi,

I am really hoping someone can help me on this board. My 1991 (automatic) Toyota Corolla has not had any major problems up until now. Out of the blue, it stalled out on me on the highway. It lost power and did not want to go over 50 miles an hour. It then stalled. I was able to start it shortly thereafter and continued on my way without any problem. I took it to my mechanic who is good. He couldn't find any problems but he suggested a tune up. The tune up was done. Right after the tune up, I drove to work. I made it about 25 miles and the car stalled out on my as I pulled slowly away from a red light. I spent about an hour trying to restart without success. I called a tow truck and went back to the mechanic. He drove it away from the tow truck without a problem. He says he idled the car for quite a while and took it on some short trips. It never cut out on him. His educated guess was to replace the distributor. This was done. I drove a few miles home from his shop without a problem. I took the car on a short trip to run some errands..made several stops. On my way to the last stop, the car cut out on me again as I pulled away from a light. It started a short time later and made it home without a problem. Does anybody have any idea what could be wrong? I trust my mechanic. He can't seem to find anything. I am really hoping to save this car. It has been great until now. I believe it has about 119,000 miles or so on it.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

hows the fuel pump?

does it just stall or does it like sputter before it stalls? or doesnt it sputter when at 50% throttle?

I'm assume that this all happens after you drive some distance and get the car up to operating temps - could be the ignition coil pack, as it sounds temperature dependant. Car stalls, hard to start - tow it back home or letting it sit for awhile seems to bring it back. If the coil gets too hot - it will drop a spark and the car will stall. Easy way to check - if it stalls again - try pulling a sparkplug wire out, stick in an old sparkplug and ground it against the chassis while you crnk the engine over. If you get spark - then the coil is probably not the culprit - fuel delivery might then be suspect, like Bitter mentioned, check the fuel pump.

i've seen fuel pumps work and then not work, work fine on a full tank and not work at 1/4 tank. the pumps get hot and a winding opens and the pump stops working.

Guest steve1

Thanks Everyone for your replies. I am going to look into all of these options. In answer to a question, it does not sputter before it stalls. It is running perfectly fine when it stalls. Hopefully, this can be fixed.

Bikeman982

I had the exact same thing happen to me in a 1992 Camry that I drove.

Someone said it was the air flow meter and I had no idea what that was, but they said it was expensive to buy.

I ended up selling it just to avoid paying to get it fixed, and also because I did not want it to leave me stranded someplace.

That's when I switched to Corollas and also bought a car dolly. I have never been stranded with the Corollas.

Since then, I have been buying cars from e-Bay and also sold a couple there.

I have one I am working on now (I changed out an engine, but it won't start).

I drove a 1991 Corolla for a while and then a 1992. Now I am stuck on the 7th Generation (1993-1997).

It would be hard to determine the exact cause of your cars trouble - due to it being intermittent.

I suspect a bad fuel pump or even an electrical problem, such as bad distributor, rotor or ignition coil.

I think all the suggestions provided are a good place to look and I will contribute my 2 cents worth.

I had an old Dodge Omni that would run 5 or 10 miles at a time and then sputter and lose power, slow down considerably and then die. Once it died, it would not restart at all, until, it sat for a couple of hours, then the process would start all over again!

Turned out to be a bad distributor. It was fine as long as the car was relatively cold. Once things started to heat up under the hood, the distributor would expand somwhow and the car would miss and progressively get worse until it quit. Once it cooled off enough, I imagine that it would return to it's original condition.

I think fishexpo and bikeman gave you the solution to the problem. You'll just have to be patient while you cull through all the possibilties, though, but, I'm sure one of the aforementioned items will turn out to be the culprit!!!

Good luck with it!!!

regards,

timkedz

Bikeman982

I had a Dodge Omni once, that I bought off a neighbor for a negotiated price of $250.00. It had a bad differential - would not go in any gear.

I bought the same year Plymouth Horizon (a basket case - engine was dissassembled and dumped in the back seat) in an auction for $12.50.

I opened up the differential on the Omni and found a bad pin - all the gears were good. I took the pin from the Horizon and used it on the Omni.

Gave the Horizon to a local junkyard and sold the Omni for $1000.00. That was my pre-Toyota years. Thought those cars were neat.

There are components, such as distributors, ignition coils, ignition wires, etc. that break down when they get heated and fail to work.

I have to agree with you Bikeman, Omnis and Horizons were neat.........when they would run, that is!!

I had so many many problems with my Omni during the 3 or 4 years that I owned it and they were mostly all big ticket items. I had to replace the engine and the transmissiion. I couldn't keep the A/C functioning for longer than one summer at a time. The front end never stayed aligned for long.......I could go on and on, but, I'm sure you get the picture!!

The Horizon was newer and faired a little better!! Although that one was a nightmare for keeping the carb adjusted correctly. It never did idle right!!

Oh, and let's not forget corrosion issues!!! Both cars had absolutely NO floorboards at all when I finally retired them. I have no idea what held them together anymore!!! I'm sure that would no be an issue in California, but when you live in the rust-belt like I do, yikes!!!

To be fair, I did enjoy my Omni in some respects when I first got it. It was a very roomy car with the squared off body and nearly flat floor. Plus, it had to be one of the easiest cars to park!! Acceleration wasn't too shabby, either, especially with the 2.2 liter engine!!!

All in all, it wasn't the worst car that I've ever owned, but, now that I've switched to Toyota, I can honestly say that I probably will never be a mopar guy ever again!!!

Bikeman982

I have to agree with you Bikeman, Omnis and Horizons were neat.........when they would run, that is!!
I had so many many problems with my Omni during the 3 or 4 years that I owned it and they were mostly all big ticket items. I had to replace the engine and the transmissiion. I couldn't keep the A/C functioning for longer than one summer at a time. The front end never stayed aligned for long.......I could go on and on, but, I'm sure you get the picture!!
The Horizon was newer and faired a little better!! Although that one was a nightmare for keeping the carb adjusted correctly. It never did idle right!!
Oh, and let's not forget corrosion issues!!! Both cars had absolutely NO floorboards at all when I finally retired them. I have no idea what held them together anymore!!! I'm sure that would no be an issue in California, but when you live in the rust-belt like I do, yikes!!!
To be fair, I did enjoy my Omni in some respects when I first got it. It was a very roomy car with the squared off body and nearly flat floor. Plus, it had to be one of the easiest cars to park!! Acceleration wasn't too shabby, either, especially with the 2.2 liter engine!!!
All in all, it wasn't the worst car that I've ever owned, but, now that I've switched to Toyota, I can honestly say that I probably will never be a mopar guy ever again!!!

I never drove one or had one long enough to worry about it. I bought it, fixed it and sold it, without really driving it.

I did think they looked neat and would be easy to park as well as good on gas.

The Corollas are pretty good on gas, fairly good size and are a decent car to own.