Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior My Celica is trippin out!

This morning when I started my celica, it felt wierd. I felt like the engine was hella shakin while starting up. At first I thought maybe it was just cold, but then I'd make a couple of stop around and it was still doin it. I couldn't figure it out. While drive it seems fine. I even hit lift just to see if anything else was wrong. Its only when I start to car. If anybody have any idea whats up, please post. Thanks.

Maybe you need your idle adjusted. Do you have an aftermarket intake?

Acually yeah I do have a injen CAI. Could that be the cause of it?

check to see if your throttle plate is stuck... and clean around it with throttle body cleaner.

I'll keep that in mind

what year is your car?i have an 03 i wanna know if its a reocurring problem on other celis. i posted the same problem a while back most people replied
1. adjust your throttle cable(cant i have an 03 so that wont work)
2.clean maf sensor(took it out cleaned it, it wasnt even dirty)
3. check my throttle plate(moves fine and i cleaned it also)

after all that my car still shakes, the idle drops from 1500rpm to 500-700rpm(almost feels like its gonna die) and i can hear the intake trying to suck in air.
this only happen upon start up once the engine is warmed up and i give it gas(about more or less a minute or so) idles goes back to normal and my car drives ok so i dunno if its normal or not but its anoyying the hell outta me.
fyi-this started happening after i got my pod gauges installed(a/f gauge and volt)

My celica is a 2000.

Did you use premium gas????

Toyota designed the airbox on your Celica the way it was for a reason. Of course you're going to get problems in the long run by running an aftermarket intake. Air/fuel mixtures have already been optimised for the design of the engine. Yes you can increase horsepower ever so slightly with a larger intake system but you can guarantee the lifetime of the engine will suffer as a consequence. Thats why in the UK, such changes aren't allowed under the manufacturers warranty. Even changing the exhaust can be a problem, particuarly on the GTS. Its a complicated design that has been optimised for the cars performance, hence the reason why Veilside can only offer a suitable back box.

Sorry to put a damper on things but engine mods DO jeopardise the longevity of your engine

I don't think that the air/fuel mixture is changed with an aftermarket intake, and if it is, I'm sure it's not something that would cause extensive engine wear.

Besides, I bet a hose just popped off of his CAI, or perhaps his MAF isn't working properly.

A properly installed aftermarket intake/exhaust, should not cause problems like this. It's most likely an error on his behalf, or something else is wrong.

Check your spark plugs, and make sure that your car is firing on all cylinders.

Okay T-Sport. I understand how the laws in our respective countries work, but seriously, you've obviously never wrenched on a car before. If so, you'd realise that none of the technical stuff above is in the least bit true.

A larger intake allows the engine to inhale freely, and exhaust bits, like headers and axle-back sections allow it to exhale freely.

The engine is essentially a big pump, it sucks in air and fuel, and exhales exhaust gasses. Letting the motor "Breathe" actually takes stress off the engine, believe it or not All engines will gain longevity by adding an aftermarket exhaust/intake setup

This is not to suggest that a perticular method of tuning is legal or not, or that it can't have complications, but the truth is, if you perform engine upgrades properly, they can become more reliable than their stock bretheren.

True, you can run a little lean, this can be fixxed by upping your octane level or tuning the fuel and ignition. not enough exhaust backpressure pressure to keep the exhaust valves sealed properly from that header? Just add a set of heavy duty valve springs.

What breaks down a car is poor tuning and a lead foot! the fact is, most tuners build up their car and just pound on it, this delivers the misconception that tuned engines burn out quicker, which in fact is because the engine fails from excessive abuse of the engine and drivetrain. My last car had about 120K miles on the odometer, never had any major problems (Save for a belt tensioner and a EGR valve, regular maintainance bits) and it was tuned up the arse! Ran better the day I sold it than the day i bought it. the new owner still drives it to this day, and has never had a complaint about it.

Long story short, proper tuning and use will make your engine happy! treat it like a lady, not a Ho! It'll last a lifetime.

Well said.

Adding aftermarket parts (not including forced induction) is doing nothing more than helping your car become more efficient. It's not creating any horsepower, it's freeing it up.

Hey I'd never thought about it that way...good point.

holy...ur problem is still not solved??
do you want to try to take out the pod gauges and see if those problem still exists?
maybe you can get a grounding kit.they kinda do wonders on my car...softens the idle, HID brighter...ect.

my car (consider it the same as urz, 03 GTS auto with intake.) doesnt make all those problems...but Toyota fucked up my belt.

yup but like what i said its not really a biggie just an annoyance when i startup. i dont really wanna take out the pods and if any it might be the a/f gauge tapped to my o2 sensor but it is soldered and it was not cut so i dont see why that could be the problem iam just praying its nothing major

^^^hope it's nothing major~

man thanks for all your input guys. Also I highly agree with Rave. I've also asked some people at my work. Some says, its spark plugs, clean or replace your intake filter (which i haven't). Well, im gonna try and replace my filter and spark plugs and see what happens this weekend. again thanks everyone

If it's injen, no need to replace it; just CLEAN it

I just got my car back from Toyota service and my problem was pretty similiar to yours. It all happened with CEL and they thought it was one of the spark plugs. It's was registering misfire. So they replace the spartk plugs and it was ok for few day. CEL came back. By the way, when I start to car up in the morning it would shake and look like engine is going to get cut off. After it's warmed up it drives fine. Anyway, CEL came back and took it back to the service. They did about 3days of researching on the car and came with this: Bad fuel injector. They found out misfire is coming from fuel injectors not spark plugs. Well got my car back and no CEL and so far drives fine. Starts up cold fine. Have to see how it goes little longer though. My GTS is 03 too. Hope this help you out little.

good to know but mine does not show a CEL so i dunno, I dont want to take it to toyota coz knowing the dealership they'll try to fix things that does not need fixing and charge me an arm and a leg

Hey guys, I think I know why my engine shakes while starting. I was checking out my engine bay to see anything strange. Well I've notice something was loose (could be an engine mount)I tried to get it out, so I can put it back but the engine is sitting right on it. Well I guess I have to take it to the dealership this weekend and see if they cant bolt it back on. I wonder how much would it cost to fix that?

If you're under warranty, it won't cost you a dime.

my warranty is over

shouldn't be too expensive; it's really only for labor, the part will be cheap as hell. If they want too much, take it to another mechanic. Toyota service can be a ripoff when you don't have a warranty, sometimes.

Hmm, how often do you accelerate hard? (also called jackrabbit starts) You may have busted a motor mount... Not a big deal, and easy to fix (you don't even need to pull the engine, just jack it up a bit, unbolt, and replace it)

that would explain it,I broke motor mounts in my old El Camino before, wasn't too unusual, since it had a 350 Vette engine in it. Your car would shake a lot with a busted motor mount, but it wouldn't explain the unusual idle you are experiencing, unless of course, all the engine twisting is messing up oil flow or sensor readings. Definitely replace the busted mount, and see how it runs from there.

You may need a new O2 sensor as well, if it's not quite dead yet, but beginning to fail, you would experience similar problems with no CEL (the sensor pre-heater may be messed up, which would explain why it runs like crap until the engine is warmed up all the way)

If it doesn't cure your problem, you may need to take it to toyota.

Oh yea, one more thing, everybody mentions the plugs, but nobody has mentioned the coils. Our cars use COP (coil on plug) systems that utilize individual coils on each plug, if one of those coils is going on you, you would experience those problems too, maybe you should get them checked out while you're looking into things.

^ great advice

Thanks for the advice Rave. My idle is fine. Its just the hard raddle when starting the car. Everything else is fine. I do want to try and fix it myself, but Im afraid to mess somethin else while jacking up the engine. I'll see what its gonna cost.

rave about the o2 sensor i know a while back we were talkin about the piggyback plug to install the a/f gauge but i decided just to splice into it . do you think thats the problem for mine coz as i mentioned it only started happening when i got the gauges installed. but the way it was spliced was the guy that installed it just "skinned" the wire(not cut it) and soldered the a/f gauge wire to it so its kinda hard to point it as a problem considering nothing was cut but how can you tell its the o2 sensor and if you know how much do you think to get it fix, is it under warranty? it looks like you know a lot about cars maybe you can pinpoint my problem

I would get rid of the air/fuel meter. I just unwired mine. My car would shake hard at cold start like yours and it goes away when car gets little warmed up. It all started when I installed air/fuel meter. So far it's starting good and no shakes so far. Atleast your CEL didn't come on mine did. Try to unwire the air/fuel and drive it for few days who knows problem might go away. I think 03 GTS are little different with O2 sensors. Like I said mine is 03 GTS too.