Help - Sounds like its running on 3 cylinders brown fluid in coolant reserve tank

[mikeijay]

Hi

I'm having a bit of a strange time with my Mr2 mk1. I had a full service at a very reputable garage less than a month ago. They gave it a clean bill of health and got It running like a dream.

Suddenly this morning after shopping I went to drive it 1 mile home when I notice it sounded like their was a fuel blockage. I looked at the fuel gage and realised it was very low. Not yet on the light but I always hate leaving it less than a quarter full and it was almost on the line. Thought it was just the sound of the engine running out of fuel.

I went to the petrol station and filled up with ultra unleaded. On the drive home, it sounded like there car was running on 3 cylinders. Performance at higher revs sounded normal. Car shaking a bit at lower revs. Have it keep foot on accelerator otherwise its stalls.

Looked at the coolant reserve tank and its brownish colour. Really worried!

The only thing i'm thinking is that yesterday a kid reversed fairly gently into my car at a junction - it was only light and zero damage - hardly a scratch to the front of my car but wondering if that had anything to do with the radiator in the front.

So confused! Any thought to where i should look first?

Thanks

[jimzzr]

Sounding a bit like head gasket but need to rule out other possibilities.

If it will idle pull the ht leads in turn - if no effect on revs then problem lies with that/those cylinder(s).

If 1+ cylinders seem bad check for spark with good plug in hT lead and earthed to engine block.

If you have a good spark then pull spark plugs - note their condition. At this point really need to do a compression check - not hard if you have gauge (I assume you don't, otherwise I suggest doing one as a starting point)


unless it obviously overheated then likely nothing to do with the rad.

[Lauren]

It could be just be that your coolant could do with renewing and may indicate it needs a good flush out. Do you know how long it's been in there?

It's not necessarily the head gasket.

There is quite a bit left in the tank when the fuel gauge warning light comes on. That's not an issue either. I have found when removing the fuel pump the inside of the tank and the fuel pick up and filter was about the only part of the car that still looks brand new!

Check ignition components and error codes. It's not worth buying a compression gauge at this point really.

You would notice a detriment to performance if your car was running on three cylinders.

[mikeijay]

Thanks Lauren & Jimzzr, really appreciate the advice.

I had a full Service done a couple of weeks ago on the 24th of August at a Garage that claimed to be a Toyota specialist. So quite surprised they didn't check or recommend a coolant flush. Its very obvious now they didn't!

Annoyingly I had to fly to India which meant I had to pressgang my girlfriend to sort it all out. Considering she thinks I love my MK1 more than her she's made it her mission to get it all sorted before i get back!

Because it happened immediately after being reversed into I reported it to my insurance company who arranged for their approved garage to collect the car for a quote. My girlfriend said that the garage got back to her yesterday and said its doubtful its not the head gasket (phew) but coolant/ignition related and shouldn't be anything to do with the bump. Apparently his friend is an MR2 specialist so he's going to get him to have a look.

I did notice the next day a lot more cracks on the front bumper then I noticed on the day of the collision. At the time I was just happy it was in one piece as it sounded pretty bad! My last MK1 was killed by a young driver who lost control of his car on a patch of ice and slammed into the back of me.

To be fair I have learnt my lesson. I should have taken her straight to Pacific Luke but as I recently moved from Herts to SW London I didn't want to drive it too far without knowing she was shipshape after I bought it.

Keeping my fingers crossed for a positive outcome as until then she was leagues ahead of my previous MK1 and was a joy to drive!

Thanks!

[LimeyMk1]

Could be a TPS issue (diagnostic test will bring that up) or during the servicing a vacuum hose may have been bumped and split.

[mikeijay]

Thanks Limey - my girlfriend got it to the garage for diagnostics... the nerve racking wait continues :S it doesn't exactly help being 5,500 miles away!

[mikeijay]

And the winner goes to Jimzzr!

The dreaded Head gasket! annoyingly I was out the country for work and then a holiday straight after so only just got the car back tonight after being without her for over a month. She's purring like a kitty with a big bag of Dreamies again!

As a consolation prize I was in Florida and originally booked a Mustang to cheer myself up... No mustangs when I landed but the rental company twisted my arm and offered me the deal of the century for a brand new 2016 Corvette Stingray 10 amazing days doing a Crockett and Tubbs burning around Southbeach in a 3.7sec 0-60 beast!

I did spot a very clean MR2 Mk1a on they way to Miami and of course gave him a wave!

[mikeijay]

... and just when I thought this saga was over!

Turns out that the garage the insurance company referred me to put a nasty dent on the back of the rear wing, like they reversed it into a rod or something. I didn't notice until I went to wash this car this morning and I was like WHAAAT! The garage that did the work mentioned that it was there when it arrived and noted it down on their record.

The insurance company received a photo the day it went to their approved garage with the back in mint condition and said that proves its not their garage.... Even though it sat on their property for another 10 more days with me constantly chasing progress from India before I had it recovered to my good garage 15 minutes away.

So annoyed as i'm now having to rely on recovery company marking the copy paper with a nice ring on the back when they collected it from the first garage to prove it was the first garage.

I doubt I'll ever get to the bottom of it but now have a £200+ dent to fix! Anyone know a good bodyshop in South London :S

[jimzzr]

And the winner goes to Jimzzr!

The dreaded Head gasket! annoyingly I was out the country for work and then a holiday straight after so only just got the car back tonight after being without her for over a month. She's purring like a kitty with a big bag of Dreamies again!

)

Had the gasket failed in the typical place (4th cylinder)? I'm wondering if these water free coolants (no pressurisation no corrosion) you can get these days might be a solution (literally) to this problem?

[mikeijay]

Thanks, Apparently there was no compression on 3&4 if my memory serves me correct.

In the daytime I thought I would look at the coolant to see what colour it was and I was a bit shocked to see brown murky water in the both the reserve and under the pressure cap! (I am correct right - this isn't normal right after a garage claims to have flushed and added new red coolant??) I remember when I had this done on my last MR2 the coolant in the reserve tank straight after was as red as the Nile. On a car like this, if I am not mistaken coolant is the lifeblood?

I marched back to the garage and went over the car with the mechanic who at first said it was the fact that they did bleed the system and replace with red but didn't empty the reserve tank but said the clean coolant should be under the pressure cap so I showed him that it was not. He said someone may have forgotten someone forgotten?????

Will be going back Monday for a full flush and coolant change. Please can you recommend any particular brand of water free coolant I can ask them to replace it with?

I'm a little bit annoyed as after a gasket failure and asking if coolant would be flushed and being told 'yes' - to find grubby to the bone coolant circulating around my system!

The Car Insurance people have offered to go half on the big dent that suddenly appeared and the Recovery Driver has offered to go half on my half as he didn't keep a damage diagram before moving the car from the insurance approved garage so at least thats something.

[Lauren]

You should use Toyota Longlife coolant, just buy it from Toyota in pre-mixed form. 12 litres or so IIRC.

It's an old car with an old engine so there will be some muck in it, that's not particularly unusual.

If the gasket has failed it could well pollute the coolant.

[JD]

You should use Toyota Longlife coolant

Or you could buy coolant from your local motor factor at about 15% of the price and save yourself some money!

[Lauren]

You could, but when it comes to my car I don't skimp on cheap parts or products. Given you should not be replacing the coolant more than every five years or so, why not just use what the manufacturer intended and specified?

[JD]

You could, but when it comes to my car I don't skimp on cheap parts or products. Given you should not be replacing the coolant more than every five years or so, why not just use what the manufacturer intended and specified?

Because it's exactly the same as any decent off-the-shelf ethylene glycol coolant, except it's red, and expensive. Can't say I've ever had any trouble using generic coolant mixed at home. There is an enduring myth that goes round Toyota forums about Longlife but it never has any science to back it up. If you look at the label, it's the same stuff as you get from a decent motor factor.

[jimi]

why not just use what the manufacturer intended and specified?

Actually Mr T doesn't specify Toyota Longlife
This is a direct quote from the BGB aka the Toyota Repair Manual.
" Use a good brand of ethylene-glycol base coolant mixed according to the manufacturer's directions"
The Toyota 4 age engine book repeats this statement and goes on to add "we recommend a mixture of more than 50% coolant to water but not in excess of 70%"

[Lauren]

Well, the choice is yours. I only use the OEM stuff. But, I don't care about cost with regard to these kind of things.