adric22 wrote:
> I have a 1995 (non turbo) Talon. I bought it two years ago with
> 94,000 miles on it, and I've only managed to rack that up to 110,000.
> Car still runs okay.. but I've had some bizzare issues I thought I'd
> share. My best friend is an auto-technician for toyota and he helped
> me a lot with these issues, but even he was stumped for a while.
>
> Issue #1 - One day the car wouldn't start. I mean the starter motor
> would actually not engage at all. We put power right to the starter
> relay, and it turned over. So, we poked around through all the wiring
> and fuses, and relays for two days. Eventually what we found was that
> the clutch pedal has this stupid little plastic "stopper" that became
> old and brittle and fell out. So the switch that the pedal is
> supposed to depress was not getting depressed because the swtich just
> pushes right through a hole in the pedal. Sad thing is, we had
> unplugged the switch and tested it with a volt meter the first day,
> and found it was working. Never realized the problem was the pedal..
> Anyway, I kind of dismissed this as a really odd problem. But then a
> couple of months later my brake-lights were sticking on. What did I
> find? Same issue on the brake pedal! I fa****oned something that
> works tem****arily to fill the holes... but how irritating, and no
> mention of this problem on any of the DSM FAQ's I've read.
> I had the fogged headlights too. I found toothpaste and a paper towel
> and some scrubbing solved that.
Typical for any car that has plastic headlights, which is about all cars
these days.
> the check engine kept comming on for the EGR. We replaced the EGR but
> it still kept comming on. Eventually found that one of the vacuum
> lines that rubs up against the engine had a hole in it right at this
> spot. Should have checked that first, I guess.
Sounds like you should replace all of the pneumatic lines.
> Kept having issues with the battery terminals. The lights on the dash
> would start flickering and the car would not start again after
> shutting off the car. I could jiggle the terminals and it would fix
> it for a few minutes. I kept cleaning the terminals but didn't help.
> Eventually I discovered that there is a metal ring inside the
> terminals to help tighten it. Well I popped that ring out and found
> corrosion between that ring and the terminals. I took my dremel and
> sanded that ring down and the inside of the terminal.. cured that
> problem.
Have no idea what this "metal ring inside the terminal" thing is.
> I have also had the doorhandles break off of BOTH DOORS TWICE EACH!
> That is a total of 4 door handles I've replaced in 2 years. The first
> time they broke I replaced both driver and passenger side with cheap
> aftermarket door handles. One lasted 3 weeks and the next lasted a
> year. So the next time I replaced them with factory handles. So far,
> so good.
It sounds like you live in a very hot climate, or the car came from such
an environment. This would explain why all the rubber and plastic
components have deteriorated.
> Of course, the struts on the hatch don't work.. have never gotten
> around to replacing them.
Typical for any car that has such struts.
> I also have a leaking head gasket, which leaks down into the sparkplug
> holes and has to be cleaned out once or twice a year.
Get a new valve cover gasket, which should also include the seals for
the spark plug wells. There are four screws near the spark plugs that
secure the valve cover to the head. Check to see if they are tight, but
hand tight only with a nut driver and not a ratchet (aluminum head).
> besides that, I'd say it has been a great car for being over 11 years
> old.
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