Engine Turbo'd Rolla is Dying!

That's good to here. I would still take it in and get everything checked out as it sounds kinda strange that a battery would cause all those problems but stranger things have happened.

Have you taken the car to a toyota tech to check everything is working properly? I know it sounds strange taking a boosted car to a toyota service center but they can hook the car up to their computers and ensure everything is working right.

If you can't so that then maybe you can find a OBDII Datalogger and hook it up while you drive around...

Keep us posted...

Jeff

I've never taken the car into Toyota to have them to diagnostics like that on it.. just for an oil change...

Im working on finding a local shop in SoCal to do installations/dyno/tuning for everyone at their shop.. I'll post up when I find one.

Toyotaspeed, let me fill you in on some information about me... I'm a full time computer programmer, a reserve police officer, and a business owner (www.RacingSolution.com) ... I have my oil changed at the dealership because I dont have time, not because I'm "incompetent about cars" ... I had my exhaust system custom done by a muffler shop because they can do it quickly and they have the tools... I dont have time to waste by going and buying/renting all of the tools required to do the work...

my car always idled at 700 rpm and ran perfect...

well a lot of people dont do their own oil changes that have body kits, my car wont even drive up on a lift w/o the front bumper hitting the ramps. Therefore forcing me to take it to a shop w/ a pit and not many DIY garages around here have pits, mostly just lifts. So please take into consideration that everyone situation is different before criticizing.

from my perspective...... that is... being someone who does EVERYTHING on my cars myself..... i couldn't fathom making an unreliable situation like having a turbo car that isn't factory (which, as much as anyone in here can argue... makes the car less reliable) and being that incompetent about cars......

having a bodykit on the car and not doing an oil change is way different.....having a car that requires maintenance and not doing the simple stuff would be equivelant to having a nice bodykit on the car and not washing or waxing it yourself

where did mufflers come into question??? lol

i'm a full time student, along with being on an appeals board at my school, a full time employee... and for the last couple months of school before summer quarter started i was working 2 jobs.... and at that time i still managed to get work done on not one.... but both of my cars (not to mention all of my friends i help out)..... i know what it's like to be busy...

also..... if you thought your engine was dying and your battery turned out to be bad.... c'mon now

just a FYI (back on topic, to help you out here).... take your car to somewhere like autozone/schucks or whatever and have them test your electrical system... if the battery wasn't actually bad and the car was running badly, you may have an alternator with a bad diode (which means it will still run and charge, but not correctly... and just replacing the battery off the bat will make it seem fixed, but it's not always the case).

I mentioned the exhaust system because it was something I had done, instead of me doing myself.. and your big thing is doing all the work yourself... My point was its not worth doing myself.. I'd rather have a shop do it because I dont have the time.

Electrical tests came out fine.. the battery wasn't holding the charge...

And as far as me thinking the engine's dying and the battery turned out to be bad.... why did two people recommend compression tests? It could have been multiple things..

Guess if I had a battery tester and a compression tester, I could have figured it out myself, eh? Oh well.... Sears did it in 10 minutes for $10 bucks... Much cheaper than renting the equipment.

another FYI... you paid $10 too much.... all autoparts stores that i know of (and seeing that i work at one...) don't charge anything for electrical tests

and compression tests are always good to do to know what's going on with the motor...

also.... if your alternator is good, then when your car is running, it shouldn't have a funny idle because the alt should be at around 14.5 volts....

as strange as it sounds... MANY oil change places have been found to not changing the oil filter.... it cuts down on their costs

Like Jiffy Lube.

But everyone is different man.
I live in a apt complex and they dont want me changing my oil in the parking lot. Is still do it and am always get bitched out by management.

Some don't even change the fluids.....this place in MD got caught. Reps from the head of the company brought a car in with blue dye in the one of the fluids and then after it was all said and done...the y drained the fluid to find that the fluid was never changed. I don't remember which fluid it was.

I take my car to the local "Mr. Tire".....$10 oil changes, and I'm not aloud to change my oil in the parking lot of my apt. For $10, you can't beat that, but it doesn't mean I don't know how to do it. I won't get my gear oil changed at a shop though....it's like $60-$70........now that's something you need to do yourself....lol

Im an Operating Engineer who runs a 8800 ton Cantral Plant in Las Vegas, work avg. 55 hrs/week, I do a shitload of sidework(saving for a big plot of land in Pharump) and I find time to do all my own work. My car has been on one lift, that was so I could weld on my exhaust.

RS- I like you bro- you seem to not have your head up your ass like 90% of us here- but you gotta do your own fluid changes...

Quick story- 8 years ago I was getting ready for a trip back to Cali, didnt have time to do a tranny fluid change(on my Dodge Dakota). Took it to a reputable shop and had it done. Drove home, got my bags and headed out the door when I see a river of tranny fluid coming fom my truck. I check it out, and the pan was barely on- I called them and they told me to put 2 quarts extra into it and bring it back to the shop. I exploded on that guy and told him if he didnt have a tow truck in my driveway in 1/2 an hour there was gonna be a lawsuit. Needless to say they got it, did a free oil change(with me right next to him-rode back in the tow truck, talk about uncomfy silences) and that was the last time any car of mine has been in a shop, except to change tires. Learned that "professional" means a dude that gets paid for it, and nothing more. Thats why I get on people for taking work to a shop. Just my $.02....

heh...i had a shady mechanic rebuild the engine in my Civic 1500S (old carberated model)...

I drove 60 miles, and the engine blew up...

he forgot to put the oil plug back in...

To each there own... If you do it yourself.... You have to go buy the parts.. you have to go jack your car up, drain the pan, change the filter, put the new oil in.. then you have to get rid of the old oil.... At a shop... the parts are already there.. they'll put the proper amount of air pressure in your tires, and most of the time have snacks/drinks while you wait... I get parts at wholesale.. I could get oil change parts for a couple of dollars... but then I'd have to go pick them up... its not worth it to me..

I did install a transmission cooler myself... why, because labor for that install would be more than the cooler itself...

As far as the weird idle when you turn the car on...I have had that ever since I put my turbo kit on (1-7-04). That can be fixed with an Apexi SAFCII. Everytime I start my car I have to go into Settings and adjust the airflow to 2.6, then after the engine heats up, I have to bring it back down to 1.7 for daily driving.

I'm pretty sure the idle issue is a bad connection with the voltage clamp to the map sensor.. I may have to put a new wire into the map sensor so I have more wire to work with when putting a good connector on it.

i wipe my own ass

My interest in charging the car has gone up and down so much but one thing I always thought I would have to do is build the motor along with it (even running at a relatively low amount of boost). I can't have a daily driven car thats gonna have issues like that. Then again I don't want a car thats going to fail emissions because its spewing out more of everything than it should just so I could run a higher amount of boost. Thats another thing.... Nobody has given me any kind of emission information.

This is seriously what I was going to do.
-Order SF turbo kit
-Order used 1ZZFE engine w/VVTi
-Clean all oil passeges in used engine
-Build used engine and add on SF kit with added/necessary modifications. Replace timing chain
-Order used 4-spd auto w/OD transmission
-Send out Transmission for strengthening and have shift points modified

My sole intention was to run 8 psi on a daily basis reliably. Even If I ran no more than 3 psi, i would still build the engine because in my opinion it even has trouble taking abuse or stress in stock form. My car knocks and pings unless I run 93 octane which is BS for a near stock 1ZZ-FE motor.

I'm going to forward this to Derrick and reiterate that he should build his engine when he decides to turbo it.

I wonder what Travis thinks?

Bet that gets annoying

Yep... Yah travis.. I'm looking into getting an Emanage.. I think I have a air/fuel issue.. so I want to clean that up.. I'll have to download your emanage installation manual

It was at first but I have gotten used to it...It's no big deal anymore.

I just want to know why you would still consider ordering a kit from SF after reading this and all the other threads about it? Just wondering.

I wish Stafford came to this board still... he's busy salvaging his rep at the Scion message boards...

eManage rocks. Easy to see tuning & good real time capability. Good good mod.

System Error,
What kind of numbers are you getting with your t3 turbo?