[MR2] Idle Issues

[William Brandt]

Gail - what I love about your post is that these dealerships have no idea 
what the problem is but both want to charge you $1,000 to "fix" it.

Something wrong with that picture?

Reminds me of a story I had with my '67 Camaro 37 years ago - while driving 
back to my school in VA from CA I had a heck of an "idle" problem in 
downtown Chicago - to the point I had to keep it revved to 4,000 rpm to keep 
the engine from dying.

I literally sputter into a Chevy dealership and the service writer is 
listening to it.

"This car has vacuum leaks all over the place - I'll need to keep it 3 
days".

Now since you are a female (presumably of the "gentler" sex but maybe you 
can out drink me and out arm wrestle me - but I will keep my inner thoughts 
I had at the time with said service manager - and sexual metaphors - out of 
this post.

"Can't you hook it up to a scope first? I think it is an ignition problem", 
I asked. When your engine is sputtering with quick staccato-like 
frequencies - it is usually electrical (ignition), long, drawn out "pulsing" 
is usually fuel - starvation to be specific...

"Look", said Svc Writer said, "If you don't like my diagnosis you can go 
somewhere else".

So I did - sputtering out - I stopped at an old decrepit garage in a bad 
area of town - the sole mechanic (and owner) looked at it for a moment and 
found the problem.

For you old guys remember those GM points that had the outside adjustment 
that you turned with a hex wrench? This was the easy way to set the dwell 
without having to start-stop-reset gap countless times.

The mechanism was broken and the points were hardly opening. (This is a test 
for you younger people - what are "points"? ;-)

Anyway a new set of points, $20 and a 6 pack of his favorite beer and I was 
on my way.

I have no idea either about your problem but won't charge you $1,000.

I can say that one time in my long and storied mr2 experience (20 years) I 
had a similar symptom on my AW11 and it was a throttle position sensor. The 
dealer charged me about $200 at the time.

Don't know if your 2nd gen even has a TPS but that would be my guess, for 
whatever it is worth.

Bill

***
I need help, again.? I have a '91 MR2 (non turbo) manual transmission with 
98,000 miles.? I have a intermittent but re-occurring problem with the 
idle.? The car has been to 2 Toyota?dealerships - they did not?know what to 
do and both said $1,000 to fix it (with no plan in mind) ??? My regular 
mechanic (Toyota certified) kept it for 2 weeks?a few years ago and made it 
better for awhile -??but, was not sure what he did that?fixed it 
(temporally).