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1994 Geo Prizm/Toyota Corolla Not Accelerating


Wease

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My daughter drives this car, she came home from school yesterday and said it was acting strange. The engine was idling kinda rough and when I drove it, it wouldn't accelerate very fast. Seemed to bog down a lot, like it wasn't getting enough fuel. Now when it was out of gear (it's an auto), I could step on the gas and it would accelerate past the rough part and be fine in the upper RPM range. I thought one of two things: Fuel filter or clogged injectors. The car does have 200K on it, but runs and drives great, until yesterday. Thoughts? :confused:
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Not running right under a load? Automatic? When you put an Auto in gear there is a ton of vaccuum stuff that does on, I would listen for a vaccuum leak.

 

at 200k a new fuel filter is probably a good idea anyway though.

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Not running right under a load? Automatic? When you put an Auto in gear there is a ton of vaccuum stuff that does on, I would listen for a vaccuum leak.

 

at 200k a new fuel filter is probably a good idea anyway though.

 

Even not under load it's still idling rough. But if I get it enough gas, it seems fine when it hits that upper RPM range.

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Blah Mines over 300K just finally had a water pump and thats the only engine part its ever had.

 

The problem sounds like a bad spark plug and/or wires. Engines take fuel, air, and fire to run. Your forgetting fire:-) I'd pull out the plugs and scrape off the gunk:-) Thats what I've done. Never changed the plugs either.

 

Evan

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I've had the same trouble with my swapped civic. I replaced fuel filter, fuel pump, fixed timing, spark plugs, wires, dizzy cap, IACV, replaced all belts, and it still did it. The ECU kept going into limp mode from what I could get at it.

 

Question for you... when it is running rough if you turn off the car then turn it back on does it run normal? I had that issue.

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check all your basic tune up stuff first then check compression

 

Deffinatly start checking plugs, wires, excetera. Fuel pressure, possible cam or crank sensor going bad. start with the simple stuff and go from there

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OK, I found the issue. Not sure what's causing it, but there was oil down in the plugs. I've had that happen before, I changed the leaking valve cover gasket which seemed to fix it, but now there's more oil down there. I've got to figure out why that's happening... :(
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Did you replace the valve cover gasket along with the spark plug hole gaskets? They are kinda hard to get out with just a screw driver and hammer, but it works. The holes I"m referring to are on the valve cover where the spark plug boots would pass through.

 

Evan

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Did you replace the valve cover gasket along with the spark plug hole gaskets? They are kinda hard to get out with just a screw driver and hammer, but it works. The holes I"m referring to are on the valve cover where the spark plug boots would pass through.

 

Evan

 

+1 This is likely your culprit.

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I believe those also leak from the bottom of the spark plug tubes. You have to use a pipe wrench to pull the tubes out and put teflon tape around the threads and put them back in.
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Sounds stupid, but could it be the head gasket? I had damn near the same problem with my 87 Chevy Nova (in 87 and 88 it was the same as the Toyota Corolla). It was a head gasket. My Toyota 4wd did the same thing. It was a head gasket. My 88 Chevy Nova, head gasket. Easy as cake to replace, but annoying as fuck. I won't own another Toyota product again.
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