Intermittent Start

#1
Hello all,
I have a 1993 Toyota Corolla DX with the 1.8L engine, five speed manual. I've owned the car for probably five or six years and have put close to 50,000 miles on it. Other than routine maintenance I've never had any problems, until now. The car has an issue with intermittent starting. Some days I can go out and crank it over and it'll fire right up. Other days I can crank until the cows come home and it won't fire. Other days it will start one minute, then won't start the next. So far I've replaced the distributor, cap, rotor, and wires. When it doesn't start, I've pulled the plug and determined it isn't getting any spark. I thought I had it fixed after the new distributor, even drove it for a couple of weeks without any issues, but now it's doing the same thing again. Has anyone had a similar problem? Any suggestions? Thanks for your help.
 
#2
Well I had the Same problem and I ended up cleaning my (Iacv) idle air control valve and of course it didn't help... Then one day it just stopped all together and I had to do a valve grind and now it starts every time..but now I seem to have acquired a new problem..I have a really bad miss n I mean really bad it misses from about 2-4k rpm n I've done everything I kno to fix it..do you have any ideas?
 
#4
Yeah,distributor cap rotor button plugs fuel injectors cleaned my egr,it's being a real pain..I'm stumped unless its in the timing..
 
#8
Because some ppl don't have the money to spend to have a mech. With a scanner to diagnose our problems..no offense money is kinda tight these days
But any way I'm just trying to get my car running correctly so I can drive back n forth to work..I kno for a fact that its running really rich..cause it's spitting flames out of the exhaust lol it doesn't have either O2 sensors in it so I kno that really can't be helping much can some body help plz
Thanks
 
#9
Even paying a professional automotive technician to correctly diagnose a car usually costs far less than the replacing parts routine and tossing perfectly good parts in the trash. That is a pure waste of money. The discount auto parts stores love it when people do this. I can't imagine why. :D

If the vehicle owner diagnoses the problem themselves, that's free and Advance Auto Parts or Autozone will scan a vehicles computer at no charge.
 
#10
It's hard to diagnose even one vehicle over the web, a dual thread like this one can be difficult. That's why it is suggested to start a fresh thread when introducing your problems.

Anyway, here goes:

Cales27, if your engine has a miss and has no 02 sensors, the likely candidates are: 1. It's running rich and so the plugs are fouled, and 2.) It's running rich and so the Catalytic Converter is clogged and causing a lot of backpressure. The fix is simple, reinstall the 02 sensors, clean or replace the spark plugs, and hope your Cat is still OK.

93CorollaDX, have you tried removing the engine-to-ground wire, cleaning it with a wire brush, degreasing it and where it mounts and replacing it?
 
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