prepping L wagon for cross country and back trip

[0perose]

well... got to work on prepping the wagon for cross-country-ness after it's been sitting for a year

we got it insured and registered, and then I got dropped off at the place I was storing the car. battery was flat so we jump started it with the battery charger, let it warm up/charge for a few minutes and then drove a few miles to warm up the oil a bit more...

changed oil and filter, added air to all four tires as they were a little low, put in $15 in gas and drove the 30 miles home. the gas gauge was at 3/4 when I put in the gas and it went up to full

we put 100 or so miles on the first day without doing anything but change the oil (probably not a good idea) and everything seemed fine, and the A/C even started to blow cold. drove another 100 miles the second day and there was still nothing unusual except a "shimmy" at 60+MPH that I hope someone can help me diagnose as I'll probably be spending 6000 miles above 60MPH

also the fuel gauge is a little dodgy still.. seems to be working better the more gas I run through it.

today I changed air filter, fuel filter, replaced non fuel-injection rated fuel lines with good ones (plus actual fuel line clamps not plumbing clamps that cut the hoses causing gas to spray all over the engine bay (long story)) changed spark plugs, got given the wrong spark plug wires by parts store and didn't notice until I got home..

my friend and I put in my aiwa cd deck with aux. input so I can play my cd's and hookup my laptop to play mp3's...

saturday I need to change timing belts and drive belts, and was wondering if anyone had any advice on where to buy them online with fast shipping as the dealer wanted $87 total for t-belts and drive belts and that seems crazy.

also plan to change upper and lower radiator hoses which I bought today. everything that comes off the car goes in a box in the back for a spare.


long rant over for now

[scottzg]

the shimmy is probably the tires being a little flatspotted from sitting so long. it should go away as you drive the car.

[0perose]

where can I get cheap OEM timing belts online with fast shipping?

[subawhatsubawho]

Your local autoparts store..

[0perose]

not for very cheap

[0perose]

good thing I decided to change the timing belt....

got napa t-belt, and when I went to take the bolt out of the crank pully, no torque was required with a 3/8" ratchet and 22mm socket. in other words the thing has been rattling practically loose since the previous owner had the t-belts changed or whatever. the keyway is buggered, and is about twice the size it should be. key is all screwed up and the keyway in the sprocket that turns the t-belt is a little screwed. we put locktite on the bolt and torqued it down to 110ft-lbs. spec said 80-90 in crappy haynes manual. we're hoping this will hold, but this is my plea for emergency contact info in case the thing breaks and maybe someone can help fix it because I have no idea how to. I tried to get the key out of the crank sprocket that turns the t-belt and it wiggled but wouldn't come out.

so if there's anyone in new york, pennsylvania, ohio, indiana, illinois, iowa, south dakota, montana, washington, oregon, california, utah, nevada, colorado, or surrounding areas that could lend a hand if we're in trouble, let me know how to get ahold of you

[vrg3]

About when do you expect to be passing through NY, PA, and OH?

[LaureltheQueen]

We're in washington. More than willing to help out. I even have AAA.

PM me for contact info

[0perose]

About when do you expect to be passing through NY, PA, and OH?

we're in upstate NY now, so whenever we leave we'll be passing through NY, PA, and OH... the car just died at an intersection tonight and is sitting in overnight parking... vaccuum leak or bad coil is suspect.

laurel. pm sent

[vrg3]

I'm in upstate NY right now! But only until Thursday afternoon...

Are you anywhere near Ithaca? I'll PM you my cell phone number.

[0perose]

here are the cars symptoms as of it leaving me stranded yesterday:

the car was running relatively fine, and I was going through some stop and go 30mph traffic, but it started to "sputter" like it wasn't getting enough gas or something, so if i kept "butterflying" the throttle (rapidly jam it down then let it off, repeat) it would go back to normal. this would last 3-10 seconds usually after taking off from a stop-light and once I got to about 3000rpm.

after the first time it happened, it stopped relatively quickly and all seemed normal. it then happened a couple of more times, and eventually happened so badly that I had to "nurse" the car into a parking lot.

it will now start for a very short period of time, running rough all the while, and then quit. however, if I butterfly the throttle still, it will run (horribly, though) for seemingly as long as I do this.

I am leaning towards fuel, spark, or vaccuum issues after reading my haynes manual. unfortunately it started to rain and I did not have much time to troubleshoot.

there is seemingly plenty of fuel pressure AFTER the fuel filter, and before the engine.

I did not have a multi-meter with me to test the coil. I do not have a vaccuum gauge to check the vaccuum, but can borrow one. any input would be appreciated. and I'll probably copy/paste this into a new thread to see if anyone else has any ideas before I go try to fix the car in the parking lot

[vrg3]

That's weird... It just randomly started for no apparent reason?

It could be as simple as a bad tank of gas.

You checked that all the plug wires are snapped onto the plugs well and are in decent shape?

A vacuum gauge won't really help you. If the engine is idling badly, manifold vacuum will be low. I usually use the starting fluid test to find a vacuum leak, but it does require the engine to be able to idle more or less on its own. You could try getting someone to feather the throttle for you while you spray the starting fluid around. But you have to have a pretty bad vacuum leak for it to be like this.

You've looked to see that there aren't any obviously disconnected things? Like if somehow the IAC hose popped off, you'd get almost exactly what you're decribing.

[LaureltheQueen]

pour a can of seafoam in your gas tank and hope for the best. :-p

[0perose]

so it seems like it might be the coil... primary resistance is listed in the haynes manual as 0.63 to 0.77ohms for the hitachi coil and 0.62 to 0.76 ohms for the diamond coil....

I'm not sure if I have hitachi or diamond, but the numbers are close, and the primary resistance on my coil is showing up as more like .9 to 1.3 ohms

secondary resistance is listed as 10.4 to 15.6 k-ohms for hitachi and 17.9 to 24.5 k-ohms for diamond... mine shows up as around 14 k-ohms

so if it's diamond coil pack both the primary and secondary resistance are wrong, but if it's the hitachi, just the primary resistance is wrong... how do I tell which it is?

[0perose]

well, the car is running again... today I went with a gas can and a can of sea-foam and dumped it in the tank. I then started the car and it did it's usual stumblestumble dieunlessIgiveitrapidlyvaryingamountsofgasoverandoveragain...

then I unplugged the MAF and started the car, and it ran great and then all of the sudden died.

after this I made sure all the vaccuum hoses were connected for the millionth time, and unplugged the TPS and plugged it back in..

then I started the car and it ran fine, and continues to run fine. I've put about 20 miles on it so far and it is running pretty good for a 4cyl with 4eat

[Legacy777]

did you plug the maf back in?

[0perose]

most definately. the car wouldn't run before when I left the MAF unplugged..

after driving the car about 50 miles the problem recurred today and it now sits beside the road. tomorrow I'll go and check/clear the codes

but the bad thing is that the inspection ran out yesterday and I have an appointment to get it inspected tomorrow

[0perose]

today when it happened, I warmed the car up to about 1/4 on the temp gauge and then left because I was in a hurry.... I made it about 6 miles before the engine started doing it's sputtery-dying thing.

so what I'm saying is that it could be dependent on engine temp... maybe coolant temp sensor? how much does one of those suckers run at the dealer?

[vrg3]

Yeah, it could be the temperature sensor... they list for around $30.

[0perose]

damn..

[0perose]

damn.. how would I know for sure?

[0perose]

I just pulled the codes and it blinks steadily which I think means crank angle sensor.... any clues on ho w I wo uld test such a thing?

[vrg3]

Blinking steadily means no trouble codes.

The simplest way to check the temperature sensor is to hook up my scan tool... You don't have access to a laptop with a parallel port, do you?

[0perose]

not really.. unless my brother's that runs freebsd has a parallel port, or his girlfriend's that runs mac osX... not sure what you wrote the scan tool in

[vrg3]

Macs don't have parallel ports, but your brother's laptop might. As long as it's an x86 and can boot from a CD or a floppy disk, it shouldn't matter what operating system it's running.