1993 Toyota Corolla 1.8L Mystery Intermittent Engine Failure - Dropping out & revving up & stall

amberjade
Mon, 01 Sep 2014 06:55:38 +0000
Maintenance/Repairs

Aloha from the Big Island of Hawaii! I have a 1993 Toyota Corolla 1.8L Automatic Engine model 7FAE conundrum I REALLY need your genius help on…

The car intermittently tries to stall. The engine drops out, like it is turned off, and then revs itself back up and increases the idle speed for a 30 seconds to a minute. On occasion it will die completely, usually when it does the drop out several times in a few seconds & then it can’t rev itself back up in time to keep running. 2 times it died & would not start at all for several weeks. This has been going on for MONTHS, and seems to be completely uninfluenced by the internal or external temp, the length of time the engine is running, stress (hills, etc) or if I hit the brakes, or if the tranny is shifting. I have lived with this by either revving the engine up or using the momentum of the car in transit to “help” the engine from completely dying out at speed. Usually it won’t die completely while running above 1500RPM, but lower than that (like at idle) it can. And then, sometimes it runs for a whole day & only does it a couple times. The check engine light will only sometimes flash on, but it isn’t holding any codes. Lately it has gotten so bad - dropping out every 3-5 seconds or so - the car is no longer drivable & is sitting on the side of the road @ some poor person’s property & must be moved. To boot, after the last mechanic “helped” me to the tune of $250 of diagnostics that didn’t go anywhere & I didn’t ask for, there is now while smoke coming out the tailpipe & the cracked exhaust manifold (this has been cracked the whole time I’ve owned the vehicle but hasn’t ever done this before.) The ONLY things I haven’t looked at (after much research on this site) are the ignition control module/relay (I asked the last mechanic to check that but he didn’t… don’t even know if & where this is on this model), defective IAC valve, or EGR (whatever that is) or throttle position sensor but I haven’t had a chance yet to see if these or an equivalent are relevant to this model.

Here’s the list of tests & work we’ve done on it. 5 mechanics and $1150 dollars in repairs & labor, and I’m now totally broke and can’t get anywhere. The car is only worth $800. Please PLEASE HELP!

2 new distributors
new spark plugs
checked spark plug wires
checked compression (great)
checked vacuum (drops out simultaneously with engine dropping out of course)
changed fuel filter
changed fuel pump
new fuel relay
checked & reseated top gasket
new OS
checked electrical system
checked battery
replaced the ECM (engine control module)
a couple new vacuum hoses
new air filter
pulled off the hose by the fuel pressure control module & nothing happened
opening the air filter makes no difference

Any ideas? This is complete torture. I’m going to start resorting to drugs to cope… ok, maybe not, but seriously, it is making me feel like I’m taking crazy pills. Thank you in advance for any suggestions!

12 posts - 9 participants