Tercel 94 hard to start when cooling down.

Feb 04, 2006 3 Replies

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PN 20 years ago

Hi all,

My Tercel is exposing a behavior that is quite hard to understand. Basically, it's hard to start after a trip (engine is hot) within the time frame of 15 minute to an hour.

No matter what the temperature outside, it start fine when engine is cold, going a a trip, leave it off for a while, if it's turned on within 15 minute to an hour duration, it has hard time to start (starter runs fine, but engine won't catch).

Normal tune up is done (new spark plugs, air filter, rotor & cap...).

I suspect the coolant temp sensor, but the resistance is still in the range from 2700 ohm to 350 ohm as specified by Haynes.

Other things can be ignition coil, ignitor... but those are expensive to replace without a strong reasoning :-)

Any body has any expierence to a direction ?

Thanks.

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Ray O 20 years ago

Beg, borrow, or rent a fuel pressure gauge with the proper banjo fittings and record fuel pressure when cold and when the condition occurs. If the fuel pressure is low, check the fuel pressure regulator to see if it is leaking down.

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PN 20 years ago

Thanks Ray,

I agree that the fuel delivery system is the very next thing to be looked at closely...

Fortunately, over the week-end, while I was monitoring the coolant sensor, I saw this thing behaves very strange. Earlier, I just checked the resistance at the very ends (hot and cold) of the temp range.

This time I happen to measure the resistance on the way the sensor cool down and the resistance is in the scale of 200 KOhms (way out of spec) in the range of 40 deg Cel to 70 deg Cel...

This is very repeatable, even taking it out of the engine. I guess this would explain my problem. The new one came in and so far so good :-)

Crossing the finger, thanks for your attention.

Ray O wrote:

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Ray O 20 years ago

You're welcome and thanks for the update. I've never heard of those results before, so I'll try to keep them in mind the next time a probablem like that crops up!

Good luck with the car!

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