I screwed up. I was running low on cash and missed two oil changes. ( I do them with Mobil One at 5k miles). Is that enough to throw the valves out of whack, or am I just hearing an exhaust leak? What can I do to find out without going to a mechanic? It's a 2005 XRS with 112k miles.
Thanks for the input, Jason
So, Jason, are you telling us that you went 15K miles without changing the oil because you didn't have twenty bucks and now your motor is making funny noises? Is there any oil in the pan?
15K on Mobil 1 shouldn't kill an engine unless you run low.
agreed.
auto valve lash adjusters on that motor or not? otherwise exhaust leak was a good guess.
Pull off your heat shield and look at the manifold. Ive seen tons of older Toyotas with cracks in the cast manifold where the 1st 2 and the 2nd 2 cylinders merge. Get a cheap ebay header to replace. They can be found for about what a new one costs and provide a nice lil bump in HP.
2ZZ-GE, right? The valve clearance is adjusted with shims AFAIK, but I would be surprised if a long oil change interval was solely responsible for valve adjustment problems.
How much oil came out? What did the oil in the pan look like?
You can take the heatshields off, get under the hood with the car cold, and have a friend start it while you quickly and CAREFULLY look, listen, feel around for exhaust leaks, of course before it warms up and keeping aware of sharp and moving parts.
Valves can be checked with FSM, feeler gauge, and valve cover off.
ae86andkp61 wrote: 2ZZ-GE, right? The valve clearance is adjusted with shims AFAIK, but I would be surprised if a long oil change interval was solely responsible for valve adjustment problems. How much oil came out? What did the oil in the pan look like? You can take the heatshields off, get under the hood with the car cold, and have a friend start it while you quickly and CAREFULLY look, listen, feel around for exhaust leaks, of course before it warms up and keeping aware of sharp and moving parts. Valves can be checked with FSM, feeler gauge, and valve cover off.
Forgive me, it's early... but doesn't the 2zzge have shimless buckets? Or is that the 1zzfe.
The 1ZZ-FE has shimless buckets for sure. I seem to recall that the 2ZZ-GE uses shims for adjustment, but I haven't actually worked on one. If I can remember, I will look in my Matrix FSM when I get home to check valve adjustment procedure.
It is a 2ZZ. My wife took it to the oil change place and got it done.
Take the heat shield off and look for cracks on the header? Are they separate bolts or is stuff attached with them?
Does the exhaust manifold curve towards the passenger side? It seems louder over there.
I read that Toyotas are known for exhaust issues... if I take to Car-x would they ding me for the inspection?
In the mean time the car sounds fine just louder.
Jason
jrg77 wrote: Take the heat shield off and look for cracks on the header? Are they separate bolts or is stuff attached with them? Does the exhaust manifold curve towards the passenger side? It seems louder over there. Iif I take to Car-x would they ding me for the inspection?
My AE101 (95 with 4AE motor) had separate bolts holding the shield to the manifold. There were 4 I think. There wasnt anything else held on by them, so removing the bolts only removed the heat shield. Im not all that familiar with newer models, but I would think its pretty much the same. Get one of those telescoping mirrors to help find all the bolts. there was one that took me over an hour to find since it was up under the rear part of the manifold (part of that hour was the drive up to the parts store for the mirror ). Make sure you give it plenty of time to cool down!
If it is cracked, it wont hurt anything, but it may cause you to run a little richer since the O2 sensor wont read as much exhaust flowing thru and it may think youre a little lean...drop your economy just a hair with richeningn up and also ingesting a small amount of exhaust since your dumping it into the engine bay.
The crack probem happened to my carolla, and a buddies camry. In both situations, I replaced the stock manifold with an inexpensive ebay header which I also wrapped in fiberglass "tape" since the heat shiled wouldnt fit anymore. In both cases, the header swap was rewarded with better HP and fuel economy...pluss a little underhood eye candy. Although, Im not sure how this might affect your warranty, so take that one into consideration too.
I cant say about Car-X, I have never gone there. The manifold should wrap straight down from the head and go directly under the motor. Good luck
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