But at 144,053 miles, on a road trip, our engine started sounding like it had metal on the inside of it rattling around. Took us a day to get it trailered back to the repair shop here. I expect that we are going to have to scrap the Previa and I can't afford a replacement right now.
Charles of Kankakee
A failing SADS shaft on a Previa sounds almost like rod knock. The rubber isolators break down and then noises and vibrations get magnified. You may want to break out the stethoscope to find out where the noise is coming from. The good news is that a SADS shaft costs less than an engine, the bad news is it's not that much less :-(
A friend who replaced the SADS shaft on his AWD Previa said that it is an all-day job, requiring removal of the front drive shaft.
It is important to get the angle of the dangle on the SADS shaft just right or you will have noises and vibrations.
Schaumburg Toyota is open until midnight for service. If you go there for the work, send me an e-mail and I'll set you up with one of the advisors (different ones for day and night shift).
Good luck!
It's in Kankakee. I guess I could use the trailer (we still have it, U-haul hasn't come to pick it up yet. That's the nice thing about having the brother of a friend owing a U-Haul dealrship.) but I have nothing to pull it with to get it to Schaumburg, which is 90 miles from here. David Bruce is not someplace I would take the Toyota for service, we've had problems with them for 15 years now!.
Besides, why would it sound like a valve tic and then quit and then sound like metal marbles in the engine and then quit, and then sound like somethings loose in the engine and then get 'better'?
I know Schaumburg Toyota is open for service to midnight. My apartment is near there, but where I'm at while I'm recouperating from the bypass is in Kankakee, 90 miles south.
Charles
Kankakee to Schaumburg is a long tow, especially at today's gas prices!
The rubber in the SADS shaft isolates vibrations and when the rubber is shot, you can get metal-to-metal contact. That metal-to-metal contact, depending on RPM, load, etc. can sound like a valve tick or rod knock. If you're up to it, you can disconnect the SADS shaft and see if the noise goes away. Make sure you mark the alignment of the shaft to the engine and which bolt went in which hole so you don't get an out-of-balance or alignment problem when you put it together. There is a special tool you're supposed to use when you support the shaft but youn use bailing wire or twine to support it while you're experimenting. Make sure you don't let the shaft just dangle from the front or rear connection because you can damage the shaft.
The other possibility is the timing chain.
You may be able to isolate whether the noise is coming form the engine or not if you can lift the driver's seat, start the engine, and use a long metal rod like a stehoscope to listen to the engine. Before you do that and while you have the seat lifted, check the oil to make sure no metal particles are in there.
Hmmm, if the van was in Schaumburg, I'd come over and take a look for you. I live behind in the neighborhood behind the Marathon Station & stereo shop with the green roof. BTW, I have a '93 Previa factory repair manual if you ever need to borrow it.
Well I was planning to come up to Schaumburg tomorrow but with the Corolla, not the Previa.
Charles
The interesting thing here is, did you have an inkling it might be the SADS shaft when you posted this? ;)
Then something on the shaft shattered. It went through the distributor and there are bits of shrapnel all over the place.
I don't remember the SADS shaft behaving quite like that in the postings I've seen.
Charles
IIRC, the distributor is sticking horizontally out the back of the head so the block itself would shield it from the SADS shaft. More likely road debris got caught up underneath and the driveshaft flung whatever it was up against the distributor because that's the only thing moving back there, or something came off the driveshaft or u-joint. After that bit of additional information, I'd say the SADS shaft is not the culprit.
I'm out of anything but wild uninformed guesses without looking at the van.
Well I have my local mechanic looking at it. I'm trying to think how we threw somthing up there
Charles
Don't need the book now. Turns out the distributor shaft came 'loose' somehow and destroyed the distributor from the inside out. Very odd sort of break, never heard of that sort of thing before.
Charles
The good news is that a distributor is probably easier to change than the timing belt or SADS shaft. Hopefully, the camshaft didn't get ruined. I've never heard of that kind of problem either.
OK, I just got the Previa back from the shop. They put in a new distributor and retimed it. We will have to run it a bit to 'break it in' We saw the distributor before they sent it back. The bearing in the center of the distributor was wobbling. It didn't seem like much, but a couple extra millimeters was enough to destroy the cap . . . .
Charles of Kankakee
I'm glad the Previa is back on the road. Since the rotor actually touches the contacts in the cap, even a 1 mm wobble will destroy the cap. It's one of those deals where a little bit goes a long way!
I can imagine, it's just in 16 vehicles we've never had this happen before.
Charles of Kankakeeh
"Charles @ Kankakee" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:
Then you've never owned a mid-'90s Honda.
Not to be a nitpicker Ray but just for my own knowledge, I thought that those contacts didn't actually make physical contact but were close enough to allow the spark to jump across a small air gap...no?
Good point! I never thought about whether the rotor actually contacts the cap but there must be a very small air gap, otherwise, they would wear in no time.
No, I've not. As a matter of fact this is only one of 4 mid 90's Toyotas we have owned.
Charles
Not with the wobble, it actually was hitting the cap and eventually broke it.
Charles of Kankakee
I think so, now mind you, I'm sure that the centre contact (on the distributor cap) which comes from the coil DOES make physical contact, but it has a carbon brush contact which mates with the centre contact on the rotor...ahhh!...those old engines, one could get right in there and FIX the damned things...nowadays, you gotta have all kinds of diagnostic gizmos to work on them...like space ships..."Scotty, do a full digital datum diagnostic on the frammus functionary fillipino before we intercept the Borg again"...gee...
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