4age and wet or cold weather

carina4age
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4age and wet or cold weather

Postby carina4age » Wed Dec 12, 2018 7:51 am

Hey,

Now new problem appeared, and my engine dont have spark anymore. All started few months ago, it was rainy day and i started the engine and one cylinder was gone. I let it warm up little bit and suddenly it runned perfect. Problem went worse after every rain. Few weeks ago i drove behind a car and the water from road fly straight on to me and suddenly my car started running on three or two cylinders. Now it cranks like normally but doesnt even try to start. Sorry for my bad english, im from finland :D

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Sprite
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Re: 4age and wet or cold weather

Postby Sprite » Wed Dec 12, 2018 10:04 am

Hey your English is pretty good. Much better than my Finnish or Swedish. Are you running a distributor? If so open up the cap and check for moisture, also check the wire ports on top of the cap for moisture. You can also check the coil connections and make sure that it has a good ground/earth contact.

I'm sure others will join in soon with more suggestions.
Rick

carina4age
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Re: 4age and wet or cold weather

Postby carina4age » Thu Dec 13, 2018 4:38 am

Yes, my engine is stock so i have stock distributor. I also checked grounds and they were fine. Last night i checked the cap but i didnt see any moisture. Today i heated engine up with block heater about 2 hours. After that i cranked it like 10 seconds and it fired up. Massive misfiring first but then pretty normal.

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Re: 4age and wet or cold weather

Postby taroroot » Thu Dec 13, 2018 8:15 pm

Yup sounds like water/moisture in the spark system. Distributor cap is most common. Also check the spark plug valleys in the engine head. There's the ignitor/coil too. Carefully check the wires for any cracks too.

carina4age
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Re: 4age and wet or cold weather

Postby carina4age » Fri Dec 14, 2018 6:23 am

Hey,

Does anyone know some website where i can order new distributor cap? I went to toyota dealer and they said that they dont have it?? Also local parts stores cant find it. I was going to replace also spark plug wires but toyota dont have those either.

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Re: 4age and wet or cold weather

Postby MisterJerk » Fri Dec 14, 2018 8:36 am

Rockauto.com
Amazon
Tor parts
Cabe toyota

They are available almost everywhere in USA.

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Sprite
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Re: 4age and wet or cold weather

Postby Sprite » Sat Dec 15, 2018 3:13 pm

Rick

carina4age
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Re: 4age and wet or cold weather

Postby carina4age » Tue Dec 18, 2018 10:44 pm

Hey, i did not find cap, rotor or wires from battlegarage

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Re: 4age and wet or cold weather

Postby Sprite » Fri Dec 21, 2018 6:33 am

Are we talking about a 20v engine? If so just follow this link and scroll down.
https://shop.battlegarage-rs.com/collec ... aintenance.
If not 20v let us know what engine you have and what year.
Rick

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Re: 4age and wet or cold weather

Postby carina4age » Sun Dec 23, 2018 9:11 am

My engine is 16v bigport from -88 ae92 corolla.

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Re: 4age and wet or cold weather

Postby Sprite » Sun Dec 23, 2018 7:39 pm

Sorry I was thinking you had the 20v engine. You are correct Battle Garage does not carry the parts you need. I would try Amazon. I believe these are the part numbers but not positive

Cap 19101-16140
https://www.amazon.com/WVE-NTK-5D1151-D ... 9101-16140

Rotor 19102-11031
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss ... 9102-11031
Rick

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Re: 4age and wet or cold weather

Postby jondee86 » Sun Dec 23, 2018 8:36 pm

Based on the fact that you only have a problem in cold/wet weather, and that
heating the engine got it going again, I think that for sure moisture is messing
with your electrics. So how does it do that ??

Water is a pretty good conductor of electricity, and a thin film of water on the
outside of a coil or distributor cap can make a good ground path for high voltage.
A good working coil can put out anywhere from 25 to 40,000 volts. Normally that
voltage gets to ground by first jumping rotor to cap gap and then by jumping the
sparkplug gap. There is also plug wire resistance to overcome.

High voltage is always looking for an easy route to ground... it will literally take
the path of least resistance. The rubber caps that cover the sparkplugs and the
ends of the wires that connect to the distributor cap and coil are there for a reson.
If they are old, perished, cracked or loose, moisture can create a path to ground
that has less resistance that going to ground by jumping the spark plug gap.

The high voltage can track to ground on the outside of the spark plug porcelain,
on the inside of the distributor cap, on the outside of the cap or on the outside
of the coil. Once this starts to occur the spark begins to form a track on the
surface from ionised carbon particles, and that track will allow the spark to short
to ground even when the surface is dry. If you run your engine at night with the
hood up, you can often see a blue spark where the high voltage jumps to ground.

So, what to do ?? Here is my suggested list...
1. Remove the distributor cap and wires... pull the wires out of the cap.
2. Using carb cleaner or similar, thoroughly clean both the inside and outside of
the cap. Clean inside the sockets for the wires. Check inside and outside for a
thin black trail that might run from one of the pins to the bottom edge of the
cap. If you find any of these, your cap is pretty much done for as the carbon track
is almost impossible to remove. If no tracks then...
3. Using whatever works for you, clean any oxide "fuzz" off the edges of the
metal pins inside the cap.
4. Do the same to the brass tip on the rotor. You want clean, sharp edges. Remove
any oxidation from the spot on the rotor where the carbon button rubs. Make sure
you still have a carbon button and that it is free to move.
5. Clean the outside of the plug wires and check for any signs of cracking or shorting
from the wire to ground. Clean and dry inside the rubber caps also.
6. Clean the outside of the coil and look for tracking. Clean and dry inside the
socket for the high tension lead. Clean the lead as above.
7. If you are high tech, check the end to end resistance of the plug wires. As a rough
guide you are looking for about 1kOhm (1000 Ohms) per inch.
8. Look to see if there is water/oil/dust collected around the spark plugs. Clean
that out before removing the plugs for inspection. If the spark end is OK then clean
the porcelain and reinstall.
9. Reassemble the distributor cap and install. Use a thin smear of dielectric grease
inside each rubber cap. Dielectric grease does not conduct electricity so you do not
want it to get between any of the metal parts that are supposed to be conducting
electricity. Just a smear to prevent the caps from sticking and help keep moisture out.

In an emergency, the use of a water-displacing spray such as WD-40 on the outside
of of the distributor and coil can help start a system that has been killed by water
splashing under the hood.

Happy holidays.... cheers... jondee86
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.

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Re: 4age and wet or cold weather

Postby totta crolla » Wed Dec 26, 2018 1:08 am

A good graphical illustration of what Jondee says is available by watching the engine run in complete darkness, if it won't run have someone try to start it while you watch all of the pretty little sparks, the pretty little sparks that should really be going to the spark plugs.