KOEHLERKER

This car I fell in love with 5 years ago has a problem. Have recently replaced timing belt/ seals/ water pump and P.S. unit. Car ran like never before for about 10 days and then started missing (bad) and was trailing smoke. Have rechecked timing belt 4 times, put in new plugs. Asked several mechanics for input and got several guesses, The best one I thought was it sounded like it was eating a fuel injector or two. Made sense so I replaced them. No change except one was leaking. While doing the plugs I found a previous repair on the O2 sensor on exhaust. The wire nut and wire were melted to the exhaust pipe. Repaired that - of course no change. Several times I mentioned to mechanics that I found it strange the engine light has never come on - it works as it comes on when ignition is on. Have tried to find a OBD1 tester- no luck. This car is 24 years old with 168,000 miles and looks like new. After having American cars all my life , I was surprised how much better this vehicle was. Built like a brick-outhouse. I will entertain any thoughts- I'm planning on keeping this car till it hits 400,000 miles - which will take a long time as its been sitting in the garage! long live my 1992ES

LeX2K

So many things can cause your symptoms, what type of smoke and what does it smell like? You could have a head gasket issue, or not common but a bad ECU can dump too much fuel and cause smoke and poor running in general.

KOEHLERKER

Thanks for your input. Smoke is blue (oil?) and strong smell of gas. Plus water residue on floor at tailpipe smells of unburned gas. compression test yielded numbers of 173 (lowest) to 182 (highest) almost like new numbers according to book. Or maybe rented tester needs calibration. Ha-ha. Thought sure new injectors would fix it, based on the unburned fuel smell. now the no engine light thing has me guessing ECU. But that's an expensive guess. Have not noticed coolant leaks outside the motor or into the oil. And when I say it runs bad , I mean bad as if three plugs are out of the engine.

LeX2K

Pull one injector connector at a time and run the engine, in other words you'll be running on 5 cylinders for each test. The cold start injector can dump excessive fuel into the engine but they don't often fail.

What did the old plugs look like? Did you do a resistance test on the plug wires?

KOEHLERKER

Thanks for all your input Lexus2000. In response- the plugs all looked good, no oil fouling at all but had been in for 35,000 miles (titaniums). All had a creamy tan color. The plug wires were replaced this spring after a mouse or chipmunk made lunch out of them.So I don't think they are at fault. When this all began I had driven to town to golf and car ran perfect. When I headed home is when it started missing and blew the smoke cloud. I was just getting over a bridge and was about to pull over when it all quit and the car was running perfect. Continued on home and in fact made several stops and the car was fine. The next morning and since it has continued to have the problem. I did put some heet and fuel system cleaner in it , but that was after the problem began. I'll do as you suggest and pull injector leads to see if I can isolate bad cylinders and will check the cold startinjector. Another suggested I check to make sure air inlet is opening as it should. Wish me luck as I want this car running again. People tell me how great it looks and the eyebrows go up when I tell them how old it is. I've put four times more into it than its worth- but when you love something it doesn't matter.

LeX2K

Have you ever noticed the coolant level dropping in the reservoir? With the 3VZ-FE one always has to be suspicious of bad head gasket(s) the nature of the failure can give unpredictable and random running issues.

Having said that a bad ECU can also do what you're experiencing.

speedkar9

Did you replace the timing belt tensioner when doing the TB job? Perhaps its failing causing the timing to skip a tooth.

KOEHLERKER

Thanks speedcar9 and Lexus2000 - Thought I posted a reply but it did not show up, So here it is again. Antifreeze is holding level since water pump replacement. Also I ordered the entire kit - belt, cam and crank seals, water pump, idler pulley, and tensioner. I did discover that front cam was one tooth advanced when I first opened it up from a previous repair that was done before I bought the car. The previous mechanic was questionable as he used gobs of RTV cement with no gasket on water pump and it let go and was leaking. Plus why the seals weren't replaced is beyond me - the lower cover was so full of oil and crud it looked like someone put a pint of grease in it and the belt was completely saturated. seals are cheap amigo! I'm awaiting O-rings to fix that leaky Injector and will then try all your suggestions. I hope I didn't make an error putting the front cam where it belonged since it ran okay the way it was. but I think I did right as the car ran much better and had morepower than before. As I said I've opened up the cover 4 times just to check timing and it has stayed spot on. Thanks again guys

Oro

Did you remove or loosen either cam sprocket during the t-belt job?