What's wrong with my car?

Ok, my car is a 96' J-spec TT auto.

I noticed a while go that, whilst giving it the beans, reached approximately 120Leptons and the car just suddenly jerked, like it hit the limiter or wouldn't shift up, I took it back to Vine Place and the only thing they could think of was that it might be a faulty delimiter chip, so they replaced that.

Me and Chris (Chris_and_Alana) have recently serviced the car (approximately 2 weeks ago) we changed the following:

PAS fluid

ATF

Diff fluid

Brake fluid

Engine oil and filter

Spark plugs

The next time I got up to approximately 140Leptons and it happend again, it's happened a few times since, all over 100 and I haven't been able to figure out why.

Anyway, about a week ago I was heading along the A69, giving it a few beans and it happend again, but this time grey smoke started bellowing from the back of the car (I could see it in my rear view mirror) I slowed down with the intention to stop but after around 10 seconds or so it stopped, so I carried on, stopped at a garage to fill up with fuel and then travelled home with no further problems.

Anyway, last night me and a mate were travelling up to my parents place in the Supra, the car is parked in a residential parking area below the building and has smooth screeded floors that show up any moisture/liquid that drops onto them.

I pulled the car out of the space and there was a few spots of what looked like oil there (near the front), I checked under the car to see if I could see any leaks which I couldn't.

Being in a hurry and unable to determine how old the spots were (I used to changed my Vectra's oil in that space) we decided to leave.

Travelling from Gateshead up to the borders, we got just past the Seaton burn turnoff of the A1, and, once again, whilst giving it the beans the car jerked, as if it had hit the limiter or was unable to shift up,

I was going approximately 130leptons, this was again followed by a barrage of grey smoke, so I quickly pulled over, my mate jumped out and ran to the back of the car to report that the smoke was not coming from the exhaust, however, there was smoke seaping from under the bonnet, so popped the bonnet and the smoke was coming from the back of the engine, between the back of the block and the bulkhead if you will.

I reversed the car and there was a small pool of fluid on the ground with spots behind it (it was still leaking) I put my finger into the fluid and had a sniff, it was a brown colour and smelled like ATF, baring in mind we changed around 4L of ATF 2 weeks ago, it was red in colour when we put it in, I'm really leaning towards the possibility of it being something to do with the autobox.

I really didn't want to risk completing the journey so turned around and headed home, stayed at around 60 all the way with no problems to speak of, parked it up for the night and jumped in my mates Teg to come to the borders, I'm still here now, won't be back til later on so probably won't get a chance to jack it up until tommorow now.

Does anyone have any idea what his could be?

It's covered under warranty with Vine but I'd like to try and identify what the problem could be....

Leaky crank seal or cam cover gasket could allow oil down and under the car which would then smoke when hot.

Have you checked the autobox fluid levels?

Without reading all that I'd say the intermittent splittering will be failing coil packs as there under stress/heat. Bossco had the same problem.

Give me a buzz keV if you need a hand.

Indeed I did. I never had any smoke though.

I actually have a set of coil packs you can lend if you want to eliminate a misfire. Give me a shout if you want them.

Leaky crank seal or cam cover gasket could allow oil down and under the car which would then smoke when hot.

 

Have you checked the autobox fluid levels?

It didn't smell like engine oil though mate, again, more like ATF, at least that's what the pool on the ground smelt like...

I've no doubt the smoke is oil based and wherever it's leaking from it's finding it's way onto something hot (probably the exhaust) and burning off hence the smoke coming from the back of the car whilst driving (and out of the engine bay when stationary) I'll try and get under the car tommorow to see if I can spot where it's coming from...

Without reading all that I'd say the intermittent splittering will be failing coil packs as there under stress/heat. Bossco had the same problem.

Give me a buzz keV if you need a hand.

Really could do with a hand mate! I live in an apartment and as such keep all of my tools in my work van, I don't have access to a trolley jack either so any help would be appreciated

As I'm coming up for that clamp would it be possible to take a look at the car whilst at Casa de la Hodge?

My lass is at work from 10:30 onwards so can come up anytime:sos:

Indeed I did. I never had any smoke though.

 

I actually have a set of coil packs you can lend if you want to eliminate a misfire. Give me a shout if you want them.

Did it just feel like hitting a wall whilst on boost mate?

It's very annoying, especially when trying to showcase the abilities of ones new car to ones mates

I will definately take you up on your kind offer, going to type PM

As well as checking the coilpacks, check the connectors, they need to be making good contact to get a good spark, once a year I have to adjust my connectors as per Ian C's FAQ otherwise I get a missfire (although my coilpacks are perfect),

Just to throw another one in the mix - torque convertor?

Did it just feel like hitting a wall whilst on boost mate?

It's very annoying, especially when trying to showcase the abilities of ones new car to ones mates

 

I will definately take you up on your kind offer, going to type PM

That's exactly what it felt like. My miss was occurring at much lower speeds though. As soon as the 2nd turbo came on to boost it the car would judder and wouldn't accelerate. I would drive perfectly fine if I kept it below 4000 rpm.

Over filled the auto gearbox?

As well as checking the coilpacks, check the connectors, they need to be making good contact to get a good spark, once a year I have to adjust my connectors as per Ian C's FAQ otherwise I get a missfire (although my coilpacks are perfect),

Will do Jay, cheers for that mate!

Just to throw another one in the mix - torque convertor?

Ah yes, Chris mentioned this, he said it could be a reason for the fluid being cooked so quick aswell, because of it slipping??

That's exactly what it felt like. My miss was occurring at much lower speeds though. As soon as the 2nd turbo came on to boost it the car would judder and wouldn't accelerate. I would drive perfectly fine if I kept it below 4000 rpm.

Excatly the same mate, this is looking like the root of at least one problem!

Over filled the auto gearbox?

We took 4L out and put 4L back in...

As well as checking the coilpacks, check the connectors, they need to be making good contact to get a good spark, once a year I have to adjust my connectors as per Ian C's FAQ otherwise I get a missfire (although my coilpacks are perfect),

The coil pack connections are not the best when we done the plug change, some of the clips just broke off. This could be the cause of your high speed jittering, however, it also done this before we changed the plugs. Another anomaly was the mixture of spark plugs we took out. Some were NGK iridium’s, some were some sort of Denso plug, didn’t have such a small tip as the NGK's.

Just to throw another one in the mix - torque convertor?

Before we changed the ATF, we checked the level and the colour. It basically looked like engine oil, brown in colour and smelt slightly burnt, kinda like old PAS fluid. Kev gets quite a jerk from the car when putting it in either D or R from park so we changed some ATF. Now I have done mine twice and each time I drain the sump I get about 1.5L out. Kev's just kept coming and I got 4L out before having to put the plug back in. We checked the fluid a couple of days ago and it's back to brown. (it did go a red/brown colour after the change) Pos torque converter issues?

Over filled the auto gearbox?

We checked the level before hand and it was right. When I took the ATF out I actually use a measuring jug and make sure I put back exactly what I took out.

Maybe it was overfilled from beggining. Autodata says you should use 1.9 litres to drain and refill gearbox. Oil is dripping from gearbox, because till now with 2 additional litres it pushed some seals out.

We checked the level before doing a change and it was fine. We then took 4L out and put 4L in. Kev then went through the gears up and down etc and we checked the level after putting the new oil in, which again was fine.

Cheers for the input Chris, you've probably filled all the gaps I left in my original post

sounds like the autobox is overfillied - you only should get 1.5ish litres from the sump

use the guide on www. mkiv.com

Both John (Hodge) and Bossco had a look at my car today and John reckons it could be a seal on the autobox....

With regards to overfilling, again, we only put back in what we took out, I've been told that the box holds approx 4.5L of fluid so we've done almost a complete change, how could there be 2.5L extra in there? if the Sump only holds 1.5L then it's obviously coming out of the inner box too surely?

I've been driving the car 2 months now, would I not have noticed anything before now if the box had been overfilled?

Sounds like the autobox has been overfilled for a long time causing the seals to burst.

The sump should only hold a maximum of 1.5ish litres as said above.

4 litres coming out of the sump indicates massive amounts of overfilling by previous owner.

Yes the whole autobox unit contains more than 1.5ish litres of ATF fluid, but you should only change the sump amount regularly.

It defo looked like auto fluid to me. Leaking from the mate between the engine and box.

My moneys on the gearbox oil seal.

So do you reckon it's worth dropping out some of the fluid? using the dipstick as an indicator? Thing is, the dip stick looked bang on when we did the change...

These documents are a godsend:

http://mkiv.com/manual/index.html

Please refer to E340 Auto Transmission (Auto) section and then drain off everything you have in the sump. Then refil using the amount quoted in that guide.

They are scans of actual Toyota spec workshop manuals.

Ive never had any issues using these guides for maintainance of my car.

Just an update, I was away working in London for the week, so I dropped my car off at Vine Place last sunday so they could figure out and sort the problem, the leaking oil was coming from a broken seal on the hydraulic pulley tensioner.

The part was ordered and came in yesterday, should hopefully get my car back this week.

I've also borrowed a set of coilpacks from Bossco to see if I can eliminate my missfire problem.

Just spoke to Dave @ Vine again,

They've stripped the belt off today and the tensioner lost it's fluid, apparently oil is also weeping from the cam cover gasket so they're replacing that too, they've also just ordered two camshaft seals, parts should be here on friday and hopefully back on the road for saturday, oh my poorly car