AHof
03-21-2020, 08:12 PM
Hi All,
Wondering if anyone has any suggestions for a place to start when diagnosing some recent troubles my van has been having?
I have an 87 Toyota van wagon 4WD which I have had for about a year and a half. The van has ~150,000 miles though the last owner apparently replaced the engine and transmission so there's likely only 45,000 miles on each of those. So far I have had absolutely no issues with not starting or with the engine and honestly have not gotten to know the engine too well because of that. It's my first van. This is where you can help perhaps my friends.
I admit not providing very good information as the sounds and recent behavior is nothing I recognize mechanically. I'll describe a little of what I've been hearing and if anyone has any ideas on what this sounds like or where I might start I'd be most appreciative. Historically the van has had zero starting issues. Ever. I'd say over the last 2 weeks there were a few mornings where it didn't turn over immediately, and it kind of struggled. Had to turn the key again and give it a bit more gas. That kind of ceased happening until yesterday. I turned her on and heard a strange, "alarming" rattling from underneath and also a sound for about a minute or two that sounded somewhat like a belt (or spinning?) issue. I began driving and then after about a mile (right after a small hill) heard a foreign sound that sounded as if the engine struggling. It sounded almost like something in the engine was restricted almost like the brakes were locking. There was also a weird smell associated with this moment. The engine then died while stopped at a light for no reason. I was able to start it up and idle but I had to give it a bit of extra gas to keep it from dying at idle. There was still some engine compartment sounds that I honestly can't remember how to describe. My intuition from the sounds was that it was something serious and I shouldn't keep driving it. For whatever reason in the moment, I continued to drive it to my friends house about another mile. The temperature gauge never rose beyond what is typical. It seemed to me like there was a connection between one of the belts and the engine's poor performance/"heinous sounds".
When I fired it up again after letting it rest, there were still some odd belt-like sounds but I couldn't see that one was off track. No more "heinous engine sounds" but I wasn't quite sure where to start. When I shut her off there was the sounds of a noticeable release of air/pressure that I had never noticed before. As an aside, I also was running a really weak battery for the last few months but replaced it recently with a stronger one. I know this is not very specific information, but this is the extent of what I noticed and I couldn't really place the source of the "struggling engine-type" sounds or how to describe them better.
Any ideas on something it could be, places to start and if it might be a bad idea to drive at this time? Any thoughts would be most appreciated.
Adam
Wondering if anyone has any suggestions for a place to start when diagnosing some recent troubles my van has been having?
I have an 87 Toyota van wagon 4WD which I have had for about a year and a half. The van has ~150,000 miles though the last owner apparently replaced the engine and transmission so there's likely only 45,000 miles on each of those. So far I have had absolutely no issues with not starting or with the engine and honestly have not gotten to know the engine too well because of that. It's my first van. This is where you can help perhaps my friends.
I admit not providing very good information as the sounds and recent behavior is nothing I recognize mechanically. I'll describe a little of what I've been hearing and if anyone has any ideas on what this sounds like or where I might start I'd be most appreciative. Historically the van has had zero starting issues. Ever. I'd say over the last 2 weeks there were a few mornings where it didn't turn over immediately, and it kind of struggled. Had to turn the key again and give it a bit more gas. That kind of ceased happening until yesterday. I turned her on and heard a strange, "alarming" rattling from underneath and also a sound for about a minute or two that sounded somewhat like a belt (or spinning?) issue. I began driving and then after about a mile (right after a small hill) heard a foreign sound that sounded as if the engine struggling. It sounded almost like something in the engine was restricted almost like the brakes were locking. There was also a weird smell associated with this moment. The engine then died while stopped at a light for no reason. I was able to start it up and idle but I had to give it a bit of extra gas to keep it from dying at idle. There was still some engine compartment sounds that I honestly can't remember how to describe. My intuition from the sounds was that it was something serious and I shouldn't keep driving it. For whatever reason in the moment, I continued to drive it to my friends house about another mile. The temperature gauge never rose beyond what is typical. It seemed to me like there was a connection between one of the belts and the engine's poor performance/"heinous sounds".
When I fired it up again after letting it rest, there were still some odd belt-like sounds but I couldn't see that one was off track. No more "heinous engine sounds" but I wasn't quite sure where to start. When I shut her off there was the sounds of a noticeable release of air/pressure that I had never noticed before. As an aside, I also was running a really weak battery for the last few months but replaced it recently with a stronger one. I know this is not very specific information, but this is the extent of what I noticed and I couldn't really place the source of the "struggling engine-type" sounds or how to describe them better.
Any ideas on something it could be, places to start and if it might be a bad idea to drive at this time? Any thoughts would be most appreciated.
Adam