What did you work on tonight? (2 Viewers)

[NMBound]

EGR related hoses, hard pipes and passageways tend to get clogged with soot so check all of them. The EGR system usually relies on a EGR temp sensor that tells the ECU that hot exhaust gasses are in fact reaching their destination, which is usually the intake for a second pass through the combustion. This lowers NO & CO2 for cleaner tail pipe emission.

If your temp sensor isn't achieving the setpoint, then the ECU knows this and will not set the flag, which I think is happening in your case. One of the cause of the buildup of soot is that the EGR valve isn't opening up when it should so the passageways might be clogged with soot. This could be due to the vac modulator valve that operates the EGR valve isn't doing its job. So, check all that.

Your vac hose routing under the hood will show you all this. This is tedious but well worth the effort. Blow through each hoses and passageways to make sure they're clear. Often times you have to clean out passageways with a thick copper wire, like a #12 solid copper ground wire made for a house. Some folks use a tiny drill bit to clean out short clogged passageways then blow out with an air comp. The FSM has detailed troubleshooting steps for modulators and VSVs as well as the temp sensor.

Hi Ali. Thanks for the detailed reply. I'm going to have to do all of that because I replaced the 3 components but the P0401 came back. I did not replace the temp sensor so I will look into that. I see a lot of rubber tubes that go into the throttle body. I read that I have to take all of that off and clean the passage ways. Obviously you don't want to go shoving soot buildup into there and jam it up even worse. I've attached the vacuum diagram under the hood. No temp sensor on there. I'll keep looking.

To make things even more chaotic, I have a wiring harness plug down by the fuel injectors and it has bare wires coming off of it with two twisted together. It could be something, or it could be a plug that was dropped down in there and never recovered. It could be a s***ty attempt by the last owner to relocate the VSV from the back of the engine to where it is now on the throttle body. I won't know until I get under the car and I need some ramps.


Lastly, I haven't been able to locate a FSM for this car. The best pdf manuals I can find are here: CelicaTech - powered by vBulletin - http://bgbonline.celicatech.com/#6th

I've gone through the service tech manual when looking for how to replace the EGR. It's all text format and where I found the procedure for removing the intake manifold and EGR to get to the fuel injectors. I need torque specs and diagrams but I'm not sure I'm looking in the right place. Please pardon this being amateur hour.

 

[NMBound]

**UPDATE**

I come from a place that used to say whatever you gotta do, just GIT-R-DONE!!!

We had dinner planned for tonight and then a car meet in Tucson, so at 7pm when my lovely wife was all ready to go, I had a white T and dirty hands blowing air with my mouth on a bunch of old vacuum tubes . And you know what? The previous owner installed OR relocated the VSV upside down and so he had the tubes crossed. I followed the vac diagram on the sticker and it was obvious. This was missed by the Toyota tech who then bought it from the previous owner, worked on it for a while, and then sold it to me.

I decided to drive it to the car meet anyway because it needs run time to process the engine self-checks in the ECU. On the way there, EGR came back complete meaning a) NOx emissions are lower, b) I didn't buy a bad engine, and c) this stuff isn't so intimidating anymore. I went through this learning process with computers and that's how I became very skilled at diagnosing and fixing them (and got paid for it).

Before the Toyotas, I had a bad history of car problems and stressors. My first car (1998 Accord LX) had a slew of suspension issues and blew a head gasket (I would not learn why until 2019). It had me every weekend flushing the coolant with Dawn dish soap until the milkshake was so bad it couldn't be saved. I had the engine replaced, and then it started to blow again before I sold it for cheap. Our first Scion XD was pretty reliable, but had me replacing wheel hub assemblies when I had no tools or work space in college. The 2014 Ford Escape Titanium. What the **** was I thinking getting into that car? Albeit this one is probably on me, but that salesman had us pegged to the board. That 6F35 automatic transmisson began to fail at around 120k while I was putting 600 miles a week on the thing going to school in a different city. The 2.0 turbo was fast though . Then I bought a 2000 Chevy Express Van LS to build into a camper. That was the dream. The dream turned to iron oxide VERY fast after I figured out it was from Illinois, and that engine had to be replaced too. I walked away from that deal negative 4000.

So I never thought I would own 4 Toyotas, let alone be comfortable working on them in my garage, rebuilding suspensions, draining just buckets of gear oil, fixing P0401 codes, and really coming out on top. I have a LOT to thank this club for that. You guys rock. I plan to use this Celica as a means to learn how to work on engines and manual transmissions in between off road adventures. Can't wait for Ouray.

Here's an '84 Corvette I saw earlier.

 

[Pyro-boy]

I replaced the starter on my 80 with re-manufactured starter from Toyota. It now starts consistently!

 

[Pyro-boy]

That looks like fun!!



Here's an '84 Corvette I saw earlier.

View attachment 2660022

 

[marcfj60]

**UPDATE**

My first car (1998 Accord LX) had a slew of suspension issues and blew a head gasket (I would not learn why until 2019).

I want to hear more about this. I owned a '98 Accord EX (4cyl, 5 spd MT) for about 10 years and it was a pretty good car for me. But at 12 years old and 150K miles I had replaced the clutch once (poorly) and it needed another one, it burned about 1 qt of oil every 2K miles and the paint was fading something fierce (only the silver ones seemed to be affected this way).

 

[NMBound]

I want to hear more about this. I owned a '98 Accord EX (4cyl, 5 spd MT) for about 10 years and it was a pretty good car for me. But at 12 years old and 150K miles I had replaced the clutch once (poorly) and it needed another one, it burned about 1 qt of oil every 2K miles and the paint was fading something fierce (only the silver ones seemed to be affected this way).

V6 or I4?

 

[marcfj60]

V6 or I4?

I4

 

[NMBound]

I4

How old was the driver?

 

[NMBound]

I4

Perhaps I should illuminate. I was 15 going on 16 when I got my Honda Accord and I drove it as if hitting VTEC was a traffic requirement. Combine that with a general lack of understanding of how car engines work, what can go wrong with them or how to tell, and you have a recipe for disaster.


EDIT - the only real difference to this day, is that now I know how engines work and what to look for...kinda

 

[FJCTom]

Related to working on stuff, a really awesome wrenching buddy, (that now lives in TN but when we were both in NM did 10s of suspension+front end jobs together) sent me an awesome gift.

 

[FJCTom]

I need to open it up so I can slip the CV band SST inside.

 

[empty80]

Getting some chorin’ done before tomorrow’s task.

 

[evanz80]

Related to working on stuff, a really awesome wrenching buddy, (that now lives in TN but when we were both in NM did 10s of suspension+front end jobs together) sent me an awesome gift.

View attachment 2662014

That’s pretty cool! My wife would call that “garage art” and it’s definitely worth putting on display!

 

[marcfj60]

How old was the driver?

It was a family car that my wife and I drove (in our late 20's to late 30's with kids and car seats in the back). Your explanation of a 16 year old kids activating the VTEC every time you drove it makes more sense now.

 

[Dumpolina]

Getting some chorin’ done before tomorrow’s task.

View attachment 2662134

 

[Mauser]

Put new actuator seals in the transfer case for a 4th gen 4Runner. It really wasn't a hard job, but it was messy. If your actuator seals need to be done do it ASAP. The longer it leaks the messier things get. Took about 6 hours working at my pace. Only cussed at it a few times.

 

[alia176]

Only cussed at it a few times.

 

[Mauser]

In the garage with my nemesis again. Put this brand new $600 exhaust manifold on the wife's GX470 10 months ago. Broke again in the same place as the one it replaced. Checked engine mounts and exhaust hangers and they seem good. The only way I can explain it breaking is that it is a terrible design. I am going to put the old welded one back on and do my best to get Bell Lexus to warrantee this one.

If this ever happens again I am going to fix it permanently with 50 pounds of binary explosives, 10 gallons of gas and a pill from a Mauser at 200 yards. I HATE THIS TRUCK!

 

[Montijo505]

In the garage with my nemesis again. Put this brand new $600 exhaust manifold on the wife's GX470 10 months ago. Broke again in the same place as the one it replaced. Checked engine mounts and exhaust hangers and they seem good. The only way I can explain it breaking is that it is a terrible design. I am going to put the old welded one back on and do my best to get Bell Lexus to warrantee this one.

If this ever happens again I am going to fix it permanently with 50 pounds of binary explosives, 10 gallons of gas and a pill from a Mauser at 200 yards. I HATE THIS TRUCK!

View attachment 2675611

Only liked to unlike. Those things are a bear to get in and out!

 

[Mauser]

Only liked to unlike. Those things are a bear to get in and out!

They sure are! The heat shield is one of the worst parts. I'm not putting it back this time. I figure its not really necessary. A lot of people replace the manifold with headers and they have no heat shield.