Fun with the Tercel

Lately I have been running around in a 96' Tercel borrowed from my sister while I am looking for a new car and she is away at college. I have been using it for about two weeks now and come across two problems I would like to fix one is what I think to be an engine miss and another a rear bearing issue.

I had been hearing an occasional squeak from the rear of the car and though maybe the tiny brake shoes had finally been used up and it would be a good time to check them out. I bought new shoes and hardware yesterday only to get five minutes down the road from the parts store and hear a horrible noise from the back of the car. I thought something had finally broken loose, and perfect timing too. I limped the car home and found that the outer bearing died and welded itself to the axle shaft. Somehow my sister managed to remove nearly all of the grease from the bearings and start them rusting. That'll all be fixed today.

But what I need some help on is the miss. In an average week of driving I'll feel it maybe twice for a split second. It always happens on flat land/light incline, low load situations, where you have been cruising at a constant speed. Ambient temperature doesn't seem to make a difference as it happens year round, but coolant temperature is always at normal operating temp, not cold. As you are driving it feels like the engine stops firing the plugs for one second and resumes normal operation immediately after. No OBD codes have been logged for months and the plugs are about 20k old. One person thinks it could be a bad oxygen sensor?

I doubt a bad oxygen sensor would make it miss like that. I'd look more to plug wires. Ground a screwdriver with an aligator clip. Hold the handle, run the shaft over the wires, look/listen for an arc. This is a lot less painfull than the secondary method: Grab ahold of each plug wire with your bare hand. You'll know when you find the bad one.

I will agree with the Doc on this one, sounds like an ignition issue. Had a 240SX do the same thing, one of the long rubber boots had developed a hairline crack that would arc out every once in a while and cause a misfire under load. I would just go ahead and replace the wires,distributor cap and rotor button, if they have not been changed in a while. A bad o2 sensor would probably cause a CEL and you might be able to smell gas from the car running a little rich.

I lean toward plug wires etc as well.

One dumb question: is it a manual tranny? Reason I ask, lots of cars with fuel injection and a manual tranny have a 'fuel cut' on deceleration for emissions reasons, you back off the gas, the car decels against engine compression and approx 1/2 second later you feel the PCM cut fuel and this feels like a jerk or snatch in the drivetrain.

Well I couldn't see the picture you had posted from work, but now I'm home... I hope you buy some gloss black paint for those wheels when you go pick up the plug wires!

I have little to add, but the car brings back fond memories of the '98 Tercel coupe on which I rang up 180k miles. Still kicking myself for selling it.

Side note: I have NIB KYB GR2s for '95-'98s, dirt cheap for a challenger if anyone wants 'em.

This car is a 1.5L/3spd auto, I wish it had a manual trans though.

It has an odd ignition setup too, two coil on plug and a wire running from each COP out to the other two cylinders. I'll have to take a closer look at them.

Nitroracer wrote: It has an odd ignition setup too, two coil on plug and a wire running from each COP out to the other two cylinders. I'll have to take a closer look at them.

Naaa Just the Toyota version of wast spark.

Yeah, that's a good waste spark setup. I run it on my 20v with Megasquirt. It's not CoP if there's a plug wire.