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Mystery Diagnosis

by heathbo, December 11, 2008



My engine light went on, and my car is also shuttering a little. The people at Autozone hooked up their hand held device and told me that one of my cylinders was misfiring. With the advise from people in this forum I took my 2000 corolla to a real mechanic. They've told me the error messages says that cylinder 3 is misfiring. They've replaced the plugs and the coils. Its still acting up. It also goes through a lot of oil. The mechanics have had it in their shop for 4 days, trying to figure out whats going on.

Any idea?

Thanks

The mechanic had it in the shop for 4 days?? These Toyota guys or general mechanics? With a Toyota handheld diagnostic scanner (pulls codes, freeze frame data, puts the ECM into test mode, etc.) - they could rule out quite a few things in a matter of hours.

As for what it could be, could be any number of things - what else did the shop do? Did they even do the basics, i.e. check for fuel and fire?

Did they check compression?

Did they test for adequate fuel to the affected cylinder?

Check the injector?

Check power to coil pack?

What did the old plugs show - were they wet with gas, oil, completely dry?

How old were the original plugs?

How many miles on the car?

Good maintenance history?

Did they test the gasoline?

Did they try and pump in some fresh gas?

Checked induction system (air filter, air box, MAF sensor, etc.)?

I could go on...

How did they mechanic determine that coil was truely bad? Did he check for spark? Did he check for power? I hope you are keeping all the original parts - as this looks like it will be a parts swapping type of experience, blinding replacing parts until you hit upon the culprit. This sounds like it could be an expensive fix for a potentially simple problem.

I have a feeling that they will rule it as burning oil. I just talked to them and they say it seems fine in the morning but rides rough in the afternoon. So they think it has something to do with temperature. As for parts. Their putting all my original parts back in if it doesn't fix it. I guess I'll have to take it to a Toyota shop to fix it. I just didn't want to pay the outrages price they charge. They wanted $80.00 to just hook my car up to the machine. What a bunch of crooks.

I have a feeling that they will rule it as burning oil. I just talked to them and they say it seems fine in the morning but rides rough in the afternoon. So they think it has something to do with temperature. As for parts. Their putting all my original parts back in if it doesn't fix it. I guess I'll have to take it to a Toyota shop to fix it. I just didn't want to pay the outrages price they charge. They wanted $80.00 to just hook my car up to the machine. What a bunch of crooks.

so find a foreign car mechanic. it sounds like old valve seals and or carbon caked rings. classic 1.8 oil burning conditions. as far as the shuddering expo is right. it could be anything from a bad injector ,coil, wire, sensor,air box. drive ability problems are a nightmare. even good mechanics get stumped. you need to find someone with toyota experience . we have a bunch of private foreign car shops. they charge about 1/2-3/4 of dealer prices. I sometimes find guys on craigslist . they charge about $35 an hour. a recent timing belt /water pump /seals/ pulleys , was $1000 at the dealer. how about $93 parts and $165 labor. plus the guy can fix anything. you get lucky sometimes.

hell, it could be an injector issue on that cylinder.

hell, it could be an injector issue on that cylinder.

I totally agree with Bitter!!!!That's what I think it sounds like. Those individual injectors and/ or coils go bad quite a bit and that could cause the the problem you just described!



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