Caldina GTT Questions

[BZG Wagon]

Okay, I've just bought a '97 Caldina GTT & had it for about a week now. I have a few questions - ya know, all the little noises and things that bug you when you first get a new car (my BZ it was the oil consumption and the funny miss thing when coming off the throttle ).

1) The engine makes a pinking / knocking noise between 2500rpm and 3500rpm (which I didn't notice it when testing). I thought it might be the fuel; but even after filling it up with 98 octane its still doing it. I vaguely remember my sisters RAV-4 making similar sounds - anything to worry about / any way to solve it? Seems to be worse under heavy throttle within that rev-range.

2) It doesn't pull below 2000RPM in 4th or 5th. I thought a 2L engine would have meant lots of torque low down, but it doesn't seem the case with the GTT. Is this normal? Frustrating because I cant drive at 50kph in 4th.

3) This one has me a little anxious - the acceleration isn't always smooth on boost, particularly when full throttle from low RPM. Its almost like its missing, but not quite as violent as a miss (and no backfire). Boost leak maybe?

What are the symptoms of the warped manifold issue?

[GTTpower]

the turbo is quite big on these so there may be some excessive lag which would create no torque down low

[AJz]

1 - not too sure.

2 - yes its turbo......the turbo cant spool below that. I can drive 50 kmh in 4th, ur just a wuss

3 - could be leak, dodgy spark plugs, i recently changed mine cos i got surging under WOT. not cheap to replace, but it fixed it. Id say look for leak, could be joiner between turb and interwarmer, usually a hard one to find.

[Dell'Orto]

Is it auto or manual? I would have though that even below 2000rpm it'd still pull alright, I mean its still a reasonably decent compression 2 litre. MR2's can quite happily pull from below 2000rpm, maybe you need to lose 200 odd kg's from it?

[BZG Wagon]

Its a manual. I've noticed 1st, 2nd and 3rd are fine, but in 4th or 5th if it drops below 2k on even the slightest upward incline the engine will struggle.

Im beginning to wonder if something is up with the engine. I'll have to bring it to the next toyspeed meet or take it into Albany Toyota. Im more concerned with 1) and 3) though.

Can someone who's had the manifold fault tell me what the symptoms are?

[gleem]

when i got mine it was making a real bad noise that i couldn't get to sleep over, it ended up being the exhaust bracket rattling , as for the warped manifold how many kms has it done? you can check if its already been fixed by taking off the heat shield.

[sleepy]

To take the heat shield off is a mission and half.... Goodluck to you my friend.

I tried to take the heat shield off my oldman's gt-t, but I could only take off the right bolt, the other bolt was a b****h. I gave up . I ended up rouding it as well.

*Need better tools*

[Simon K]

Might pay to change the fuel filter if it hasn't been done already. A blocked one can lead to some hesitation and it's not uncommon for this to happen on fresh imports(my GSR for example) Would also check the plugs and their gaps.

[gleem]

To take the heat shield off is a mission and half.... Goodluck to you my friend.

I tried to take the heat shield off my oldman's gt-t, but I could only take off the right bolt, the other bolt was a b****h. I gave up . I ended up rouding it as well.

*Need better tools*

ha same here

[BZG Wagon]

Its done 98,000kms. I think I will book it in with Toyota and see if they can figure out what it is.

To the best of my (and my GF's) knowledge it wasn't doing (1 & 3) when I tested it - its only been since the mechanical check / when collected the car. I wasn't present for the test so I only noticed these things after I picked up the car and put it down to bad fuel (the seller agreed to put some petrol in it as part of the deal; I figured he put 91 in it to save money and just left it).

I had no idea the manifold / turbo thing costs $2k to fix!?! That would be an insane amount of money to spend on a newly purchased car.

[BZG Wagon]

On a side note; as far as the mechanical check went I specifically asked the mechanic to check for the manifold fault and asked him about the condition of the manifold / turbo, to which he said was perfect. I know that as an accountant if someone asked me something specifically relating to area I held specialist knowledge in, and if they acted on the information I supplied, in short I would be held liable for any losses if what I said was wrong (and any other reasonable accountant in the same position would have picked it up).
Does anyone know if something similar applies to all services? I.e. if it was the manifold at fault, and I specifically asked the mechanic to check it and he said it was ok could I recover the full extent of my losses from him as he would have been acting in negligence and without exercising a reasonable duty of care?

[gleem]

i see and from the people i know its happened too its happened to around those kms too you had the cambelt done yet?

[BZG Wagon]

i see and from the people i know its happened too its happened to around those kms too you had the cambelt done yet?

No. I was going to book the cambelt in at the end of the month. I'm incredibly busy at work, so its only getting a little bit of use in the weekends for the time being.

[snwtoy]

For reference, mine sits at 50 in 4th very happily. Can cruise at 60 in 5th too, but any incline requires a change down.

[BZG Wagon]

Just a quick update on this:

I took the car to Toyota for a quick diagnosis and their mechanic noted that the knocking sound between 2500rpm to 3500rpm is (quite bad) pinking. He thought it was probably due to the type of petrol, but im running a mix of 96 / 98 which should dispel that theory. He said there could be flexing in the cambelt causing the timing to be slightly out (cambelt gets replaced next week) but I think that answer was a bit of a stretch, or he said it could be a dirty throttle body (I doubt that too, but i'll clean it out this weekend anyways). I'll also chuck some octane booster in the next time I fill up to see what happens.

I've noticed it doesn't do it so much when the car is cold so im wondering if its the plugs. Apart from that im out of ideas?!? Voltage issue maybe??? Vaccuume pipe blocked somewhere???

It wasn't doing it a couple of nights before it had a mechanical check carried out on it, which makes me think it could be a pipe or leak of some sort?

[fivebob]

Check the plugs because none of those ideas sound feasible, or would cause such a noise.

GT-T's are tuned to run on 100 octane gas, so it might be the gas, but there are plenty of GT-T's running on 96

I wouldn't try octane booster unless it's just pure Toluene. Most common octane boosters will leave deposits on the plugs which causes them to foul later on.

[Mr Revhead]

fyi plugs should be denso pk20r8 or ngk bkr6ep8

[BZG Wagon]

Another update on this: had a look at it with a mechanic mate of mine tonight - it turns out the air sensor thing that plugs into the back of the air-box was broken (im assuming it was the guy that did the mechanical check). We replaced it and its not knocking anywhere near as bad as it was. In fact i'd say its almost gone apart from the odd little sound every now and again - my mate isnt sure whether its detonation or just a rattle.

However... its still surging on boost between 3000rpm and 4500rpm at WOT and there was a bit of play in the turbo, as well as a small amount of oil sitting in there. Im wondering how much play is normal for a turbo - you could move it maybe 1 or 2 millimeters in any direction

The plugs looked fine, but the rocker gasket cover is leaking oil into the top of the cylinder.