GTSSportCoupe
New Member
Hi all, this is my first post on this forum. I've been a '80s-'90s Toyota enthusiast for years, but have been attracted to the legendary SHO recently. I'm looking to buy a fast fun family hauler, and I think the SHO is right up my alley. I should mention I'm a capable 'backyard' mechanic, and there isn't much that I haven't done to a vehicle before. Many of Toyota's engines are co-designed with Yamaha also... I hope that I can buy this car, learn about it, and contribute to this great forum. I've done a lot of searches on the forum already to try to learn more (especially about the problem I'm going to describe). It seems like a knowledgeable and respectful bunch of people here.
So, I went to look at a 93 ATX SHO yesterday (my wife wants auto
). The body and interior are mint. It has 216,000kms. It has new tires, windshield, battery and brakes. The owner has only had it for a short while, as he got it on a trade-in, so he doesn't know too much of the history. He stated that the car's check engine light was on before I came to look at it. The car has been sitting lots recently. He was asking $1500 OBO.
Upon starting the car and test driving it, an interesting turn of events occurred. I was hoping that you guys could give me an idea of what I'm up against before I buy the car. Here's what happened:
- I started the car. It took about 6 cranks to start which concerned me. I looked for any burning oil out the tail pipes. I didn't see any, so assume the valve seals etc. are ok. As I expected the check engine light was on.
- The engine sounded fairly smooth (even compression). The valve train was quiet and not rattly.
- I tried revving the engine, and it had a bad lag before finally revving up.
- I took it for a drive. Again, it had bad throttle response (lag), and didn't pull nearly as well as I would have expected. Everything else seemed fine though. Car felt nice and solid - had good braking.
- While driving I wanted to get a feel for handling and also check for clunking from the CV joints. So I went a round a cul-de-sac (turning left) a few times pretty hard. Car handled awesome and had no knocking.
- As I drove back to the fellows house, I noted that the HVAC display was blinking on and off. The lights were dimming on the car. This seemed to indicate that the voltage was dropping.
- When I arrived back at the house, I left the car running for a bit. Then shut off and tried to start again. All I got was a click from the solenoid. The lights in the car were dim, hvac display still screwed and non responsive. ABS, Airbag, and CEL lights were on at this point.
- So we started looking under the hood. I noticed a bunch of fresh oil on the passenger side inner CV boot and around the general area. Presumably this occurred when I was pulling hard around the cul-de-sac. I noticed lots of oil all around the bottom of the engine. It was hard to tell where it was coming from. Looks like there had been oil leaks for a while.
- We noticed that the engine bay illumination light was flickering like there was an electrical short somewhere. So we immediately disconnected the battery to make sure nothing caught fire.
- I felt bad that I left the car with these issues, but it's probably likely that they are all related and would have happened eventually anyhow. I told the guy I'd come back to troubleshoot further, and was still interested in the car. And of course, there is now the chance that I could get this car really cheap.
So, I want to get an idea of what I'm up against. I'd like to go back and check the engine codes as described here: http://www.shophoenixproject.com/eec/eec.htm Although with the shorting issues, i'm not even sure I could get codes out of the ECU.
I'm not afraid to buy this car, have it towed to my place and try to fix the problems. But I do want to make sure I'm not going to be up against impossible electrical problems or fatal engine issues.
I am hoping you guys might have some ideas as to what would cause these problems? I'm wondering if the oil leak is causing all the issues. Maybe oil in the starter shorting something out? Maybe oil in the crank sensor caused the original engine starting and lag problems?
I was already expecting to do the standard 60,000mile tune up anyhow (especially not knowing the history). So maybe replacing some oil seals while I'm doing the timing belt will solve the issues?
If you made it this far, thanks a lot. Maybe I wrote too much detail...haha!
Cheers,
Nick
So, I went to look at a 93 ATX SHO yesterday (my wife wants auto
). The body and interior are mint. It has 216,000kms. It has new tires, windshield, battery and brakes. The owner has only had it for a short while, as he got it on a trade-in, so he doesn't know too much of the history. He stated that the car's check engine light was on before I came to look at it. The car has been sitting lots recently. He was asking $1500 OBO.Upon starting the car and test driving it, an interesting turn of events occurred. I was hoping that you guys could give me an idea of what I'm up against before I buy the car. Here's what happened:
- I started the car. It took about 6 cranks to start which concerned me. I looked for any burning oil out the tail pipes. I didn't see any, so assume the valve seals etc. are ok. As I expected the check engine light was on.
- The engine sounded fairly smooth (even compression). The valve train was quiet and not rattly.
- I tried revving the engine, and it had a bad lag before finally revving up.
- I took it for a drive. Again, it had bad throttle response (lag), and didn't pull nearly as well as I would have expected. Everything else seemed fine though. Car felt nice and solid - had good braking.
- While driving I wanted to get a feel for handling and also check for clunking from the CV joints. So I went a round a cul-de-sac (turning left) a few times pretty hard. Car handled awesome and had no knocking.
- As I drove back to the fellows house, I noted that the HVAC display was blinking on and off. The lights were dimming on the car. This seemed to indicate that the voltage was dropping.
- When I arrived back at the house, I left the car running for a bit. Then shut off and tried to start again. All I got was a click from the solenoid. The lights in the car were dim, hvac display still screwed and non responsive. ABS, Airbag, and CEL lights were on at this point.
- So we started looking under the hood. I noticed a bunch of fresh oil on the passenger side inner CV boot and around the general area. Presumably this occurred when I was pulling hard around the cul-de-sac. I noticed lots of oil all around the bottom of the engine. It was hard to tell where it was coming from. Looks like there had been oil leaks for a while.
- We noticed that the engine bay illumination light was flickering like there was an electrical short somewhere. So we immediately disconnected the battery to make sure nothing caught fire.
- I felt bad that I left the car with these issues, but it's probably likely that they are all related and would have happened eventually anyhow. I told the guy I'd come back to troubleshoot further, and was still interested in the car. And of course, there is now the chance that I could get this car really cheap.
So, I want to get an idea of what I'm up against. I'd like to go back and check the engine codes as described here: http://www.shophoenixproject.com/eec/eec.htm Although with the shorting issues, i'm not even sure I could get codes out of the ECU.
I'm not afraid to buy this car, have it towed to my place and try to fix the problems. But I do want to make sure I'm not going to be up against impossible electrical problems or fatal engine issues.
I am hoping you guys might have some ideas as to what would cause these problems? I'm wondering if the oil leak is causing all the issues. Maybe oil in the starter shorting something out? Maybe oil in the crank sensor caused the original engine starting and lag problems?
I was already expecting to do the standard 60,000mile tune up anyhow (especially not knowing the history). So maybe replacing some oil seals while I'm doing the timing belt will solve the issues?
If you made it this far, thanks a lot. Maybe I wrote too much detail...haha!
Cheers,
Nick
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