So I'm a little sad, we sold Emerald. But happy new owner is happy!
Sorry
@sammybones if this the one you wanted for your daughter's 1st car.I t was in your price range. I did not listed it for sale! It was clients who request one for his sister, within specific price range. Which he quickly put down a deposits. I really gave away much to cheap, for the work I did on it and this market. But I feel it will be loved.
Although Emerald was not actually a restore project. I did want to tidy up a few issue before delivery day!
Here some of what services were done last year or so, and than last few days to tidy up:
- Coolant flush 1/7/21 at 571Km
- Fuel pressure regulator (FPR). 3/2/21 572Km. It was not really bad. Before fuel pressure gauge showed 2.6PSI above upper limit of static 44PSI spec limit at 46.6PSI, running 43PSI. After install Static 44.88PSI and running 42PSI. Those very minor difference could just be my fuel pressure gauge variation. R&R to see if made any difference in MPG. It did not!
- AC charge 6/16/21 574Km Never did find any leak, even dye has never shown leak point. Although kind of though I saw some green dye at compressor, it was to faint to make the call. AC system, each time I vacuumed, held vacuum the not only the spec 15 minutes, but 24 hrs and even 48 hrs. So I just kept topping each summer. Which was also done by PO at Dealerships, many time before my time.
- 44K in gas tank. Which I now use 2 can in a full tank of gas. 8/6/21 574Km. A good yearly PM.
- OF&L 12/11/21 576Km
- Air filter 12/11/21 576Km
- Door look motors R&R FL & RR 12/11/21 576Km w/motor in clam shell. FR was done 8/27/18 557Km motor only to test gluing (held) clam shell & motor (still works).
- AHC sensor arm repair, lube & adjust bringing heights down nearer to factory spec. Found rear sensor ball of arm frozen, so R&R arm. I then lubed each sensor arm ball, with a moly fortified HP greased, using a needle injector. Fronts 19 5/16" Rears 20 1/4" Pressure temp sensor (T-22) disconnected: front 6.9Mpa, Rear 5.9Mpa. Temp sensor (T88F) plugged in: front 6.9Mpa, rear 6.5Mpa, Acc 10.5Mpa. Flushed 1 more qt to refresh. 12/24/21 576Km.
- Windshield R&R. Had factory glass, but it finally cracked about 6 months ago. Hate have to deal with installer nicking and scratching paint. I would do all molding myself. But I must still have glass removed and installed for me. This time I had to reschedule and then drive 40 miles, to get done. As was only shop that 1 of the installers, had a rope crank remover/cutter tool. Interestingly, while in shop during install. Installer sold his near new rope removing tool to me. I paid to much, really. But the new tool will get one step closer to doing my own removal and install. I can now at least pull glass and prep for install. Or once I learn to use tool I can.
- Headlight polish. I had R&R headlights a few times. Last time was with plastic lenses (newer style). Lenses were very cloudy. Once polish with 3M kit, look very nice. I could than see reflectors were in great shape. Sweet!
The MPG was never been great on this one, at 12MPG. I was working through one possible contribute at a time to low MPG. Had all but 3 things remaining to try.
1 MAF sensor. Although test okay. I've did just replace one on my 07 (test rig), which tested okay. I did see a slight change in fuel trims after words, bring nearer to 0 fuel trims. So it does seem they get old and weak, but test okay. So this was going to be next test.
2. Fuel injector (FI) off vehicle sent out to FIS for testing and rebuilding. Poor FI spray patterns can reduce MPG. Typically we see more issue in low mileage vehicle. Why, they sit and moisture builds in FI rusting needles, same for FPR. This rig although high mileage, which is indicator was driven regularly. It did sit for a year or so in a field, just before I bought.
3. O2 sensors and or tried CATs. Here weak sensor and or CATs giving dated to fuel system. They could be signaling a sightly lean condition, resulting in enriching of fuel mixture. Here again all test to spec, so no know issue. Just ones of those I'd like to have tried one day. But this would be last as most costly for me.
I never did replace transmission neutral SW. I found my girlfriend would not pull E-brake hard enough, then was also shifting very lightly into P. Seems as it would roll back in driveway until transmission "P" lock pin would stop it. Then old rubber bushing of engine and transmission mounts, would allow further pull on shift arm (or so was my thinking). So SW did not actually seem bad, and test as good! I would have to recreate her parking style, for it to happen (no crank) to me. Which was lightly pull on E-brake, shifting to P, let off brake and allow to roll until transmission lock pin stopped roll. This is bad habit most drivers have.
Most driver are not aware, that using transmission as a parking brake/lock, is damaging.
Here is how I learned to use E-brake, to stop vehicle, and too keep pressure off the transmission lock pin.
- Stop with foot pressure on brake pedal.. keep pressure on pedal.
- Pull e-brake hard.
- Shift to "N"
- Release foot brake pedal.
- Let vehicle roll to a stop, catching E-brake shoe to do so. This takes just a few inches of roll! If vehicle seem to want to keep rolling, pull harder on E-brake handle until it stops rolling.
- Shift to "P".
I'm sure there a few services I performed on Emerald, I never posted. But 95% is posted. I'm also sure more issue will come up. It is 22 years old vehicle with nearly 600,000 Kilometres after all. But all in all it is a nice rig, and better than most I inspect with 1/2 the mileage and newer. I'd not hesitate to go coast to coast in the Emerald.
Door lock motors:
Green Camry arm needs to be swapped with with white d Cruiser/LX arm. There are 2 different motors/clams shell, a left and a right orientation. FR & RR are one orientation. Where as FR & RL are anther. Not sure which rear hatch is. Emeralds not has 3 (FR, FL, RR) of 5 lock motors done. I think biggest chance of failure is the white arm that must be swapped over. It could pop out. Second some say these replacement China made motor only good for 2 years. But the FR door lock was posted about in this thread, is on year 3 now.
Lubing AHC height sensor balls is something new I've just started as a PM:
Looking close (shin) you can see the gray moly fortified HP grease. I use a needle injector that clips in grease gun, just like a grease zerk does. I may also use marine grease, as it's so hard to wash out. I'm thinking the AHC 6 points (ball joints) should be annually greased at same time as OF&L service. So we go from 6 lube points of propeller shaft and add in 6 more for AHC, for a total of 12 point in stock rigs.
Windshield replacement was delayed, until I found shop with rope/wire cutting tool for removal. Last time I had a install done, guy used knife/blade to remove glass. He nick paint so many times, it was sicking. Bad enough they must cut down ploy with a blade, nicking paint as they tend too. I did want more nicks and cuts from removal. These guys count on painting nicks "they see". Unfortunately they paint with Sika primer, which is actually a ploy adhesion promoter 1st an poor metal primer second. It doesn't hold up well. Result is, we get rust under molding.
New glass in, before I installed molding. Which I never let this installer remove or install molding. They also mess it up, or all I've used did. Was nice to finally see through windshield. It had a zillion chips.
Bye bye at 575,789Km. Turned into a nice ride, after being a field find I had to tow home. Not bad at all with some TLC!