car suddenly wont start - never ran great anyway, esp. cold, now cranks, but won't st

[btwilson86]

Sounds to me like you need to pull your upper timing cover off and verify that the timing is correct (between crank and cams), that there are no missing teeth on the timing belt, and that there is no excessive slack in the timing belt as well. What's happening with your car sounds EXACTLY like what my former 87 Turbo was doing when the timing was slipping. That can also explain why the ignition timing reads incorrectly

[rjSupra]

btwilson, thanks for the advice. I think that's a great idea. I'll check into that.

Makes sense it could make a lot of these problems (starting / ignition off) but could it account for a constant problem of about half power out of the motor? This car has always needed to stomp the gas pedal to get any power at all out of it
(it's like the first 2/3 of pedal play does about 10% of gas / power and then no more power unless I tromp it WOT - again, that's mostly driving in Econ mode on AT in OD - it is more responsive in AT 'Power' mode but certainly no sports car, maybe full size chevy truck with V6 fast - maybe that truck would even smoke me).

It does occur to me that the gas mileage has dropped from maybe 19-20 mpg (was not recording first few tanks closely), to 14 to 13.3 mpg and only then started to have the starting issues (and probably even worse acceleration / power now) after I pulled the CPS to fix that damn frustrating hidden coolant leak... so maybe putting the CPS back in slipped a bit and made it all worse...
But the need for stomping the gas to get any acceleration has been there since I bought it Nov 2009 (I hardly drove it first year - it sat around, wasn't even registered / inspected).
I will take the car for a short drive tomorrow and see if the new timing has any effect on the power / starting.

[rjSupra]

ok, well, the engine codes reset and there are none - from pulling neg batt terminal overnight last sat night.
Since re-connected neg batt terminal, only drove 2 legs of 45 miles and idled a bunch for timing check in garage.
the AT codes are supposed re-set with no power to ECU like engine.
YET, they are both very much there and stored... that's a bit of a surprise so i guess i have a legit prob there.
AT just seems to shift a bit hard here and there, and early in 'Econ' mode with OD on... but otherwise seems solid... normal shifts not hard, but if I have any throttle and have OD 'off' and click to 'on' it usually has a pretty hard shift into OD that I can hear / feel from the rear diff area. Like much too sharp for a normal car. Like a whump and whole car bumps a bit. No throttle and the shift is not abrupt.
I have noticed a 'waxed skiis' type of smell, like when I am ironing wax on my snowboard - that's the smell almost exactly the last 3 times I drove the car/ was not there before even though the error codes on the AT were there before the new smell. AT error codes #62, and #63

one of many other things I need to check. Could this be causing some sort of heavy drag on the car and give me lousy power and mpg?

62
Defective No1 solenoid of short circuit-severed wire harness or short circuit.
63
Defective No2 solenoid or short circuit-severed wire harness or short circuit.

[rjSupra]

FOR AT in Supra, in TSRM page AT 6 it says:

"Line pressure
Line pressure is the most basic and important pressure used in the AT, b/c it is used to operate all the clutches and brakes in the transmission.
If the primary regulator valve does not operate correctly, line pressure will be either too high or too low. Line pressure that is too high will lead to shifting shock, and consequent engine power loss due to the greater effort required of the oil pump; line pressure that is too low will cause slippage of clutches and brakes and in extreme cases, prevent the vehicle from moving. Therefore if either of these problems are noted, the line pressure should be measured to see if it is within standard."

I am noting engine power loss big time. When the car is started cold it will either not basically move, like the slightest incline in a simple driveway will either bog down the engine all the way to stall it, or rev and go nowhere. Once my Engine heat temp is normal, I can drive off - albeit with an appalling loss of power, worse than a gutless truck always. How would I check this stuff? I have the car way up in air, to grease the zerks on my new lower ball joints. Are there also electrical cables I should inspect under there for mouse / chipmunk eatage? (There were tons of nests in the car and engine bay when I bought it).


CORRECTION: I cut and pasted the #62 and #63 AT error codes from elsewhere - note the grammatical error on cut n paste too.
However, the scanned TSRM from Cgynus X-1 is more clarifying and specific:
62 is 'Severed #1 solenoid or short circuit - severed wire harness or short circuit
63 is 'Severed #2 solenoid or short circuit - severed wire harness or short circuit
Not sure where to verify all this, but doing more research now online and will root around under car more too.

And another note, the shifting all works, R, D, L, OD etc... it starts in first gear and goes up through 2nd, 3rd and OD. Reverse is fine too. In 'Econ' it shifts early in my opinion, but 'power' is better. So, if anyone wants to send some pointers my way or dealt with these errors / issues let me know!!

[rjSupra]

Located the #1 and #2 Solenoid wires. Took hours online, they are not listed well.
They are Green - Black and Green - Yellow wires, that run nearly to the back of the transmission driver side and both go into a rubber insert into Trans. (There's one final wire that runs to very back which is something else).

Coming back from the AT, it meets a wire connector underneath the intake side of engine, and from there goes to ECT underneath glove box I gather. Wiring into ECT looks brand new, perfect, and all wires are still wrapped and look visually complete everywhere I can spot them. Will try to run the Ohm meter on them tomorrow to double check they are capable of carrying electrical current each way.

[rjSupra]

The plastic wire loom looks like shit, but the wires inside are fine looking without any cracks, holes, tears etc... this answers an older posted suggestion.

[rjSupra]

Dunno why, a just in case I guess, but I just ohm and volt metered my TPS (Throttle Position Sensor).
Pulled cabled connector to TPS. Connected 15 VDC setting on voltmeter to TPS unit / car side (not electrical wire side).

Here's my findings on 2 tests:
My 7M GTE motor has a pin config like this starting at top going down to oil pan floor direction (got this right?? - from TSRM)
VC
VTA
IDL
E2

All measurements made with key ignition switch 'ON' but motor off / cold and not running. It's 40 degrees F here today and not been started in 2 days.
Ohm meter RX100 setting, zeroed dial to '0' with probes connected together at start.

IDL - E2 throttle fully closed = 0 (supposed to be less than 2.3 ohm)
IDL - E2 WOT = infinity (supposed to be infinity)
VC - E2 = 60 ohms (SUPPOSED TO BE 3.9 - 9.0 ohms) - NG
VTA - E2 throttle fully closed = 5 ohms (supposed to be 0.47 - 6.1 ohm)
VTA - E2 WOT = 35 ohms (SUPPOSED TO BE 3.1 - 12.1 ohm) - NG
---------------

2nd test
diagnostic box. My diagnostic box does not list a "TT" connector but has a labelled 'ECT' - that the one I used, voltmeter at 15 VDC setting red probe to 'ECT' pin and neg/blk probe to 'E1' pin.
Ignition switch still at 'ON'. Engine off / not running. Car Battery checked in at 12 Volts (it's cold today).
no throttle:
ECT - E1 reading = 4 Volts
WOT:
ECT - E1 reading = SAME - 4 Volts, it did not budge at all.

Crap, did not measure clearance between lever and stop screw. i remember there is fair amount of slack on the two throttle cables before they would engage anything. Will try to re- check this now.

I am not throwing any engine codes (just AT ones) and no code 41 present. I also have insulation exposed on 1 wire to AFM, the Green - Red one. The wire is exposed about 1/4" near AFM. It's not in contact with anything else, but I just noticed this right now (can't really short anywhere that I can think, other cables with it are intact).

So, is this a smoking gun that my TPS is bad? Or something else like a relay somewhere bad? All the fuses were good not that long ago, can re-check them.
As noted earlier, this car has so little power. It idles immediately at 600 rpms always at cold and warm start up (some start problems in very cold weather where it cranks but won't run over), there is never a high idle no matter how cold she is, or how cold outside. Idles reliably, can't drive for shit cold (will barely move on the flats in any gear), after full Op temp on engine temp gauge it can drive down the road. Can drive at 70 - 75 mph, it's very happy at 70 mph and has some power and runs smooth. Runs like shit at 50 - 55mph at 1700 - 2200 rpms (AT in OD), motor runs ok, but no power, and some light stumbling felt and body quiver. Also started bogging down if I give it 1/4 throttle or more at red light start. I wind up accelerating quite slowly pissing off all behind me. I can tromp it and get the Turbo to whine and spool up and I get a lot more power, but not sports car fast power.

Also, I can work with voltmeters no problem. Never ohm-ed a thing in my life so could have been doing it wrong, but seems pretty simple. Can get '1' on certain metal things etc... makes sense to me.

Any thoughts my helpful forum people? Thank you.