Desperate: 99 Toyota Corolla "Lean Surge" (?)

Originally Posted by eljefino
There has to be a used coil pack/ ignition module you can get for a few bucks for that car. They don't go out too often, but yours sounds suspect. I assume you've pulled your plug boots and looked down the valve cover to make sure it isn't leaking oil in the spark plug tubes. How much oil are you burning? I had a worn out corolla with that motor that would stall after I drove it on the highway and shut it off for gas. 2nd restart always worked. I think it was fouling its own plugs. Harbor Freight (Princess Auto?) sells a fuel pressure gauge that splices inline with the one in your car, doesn't need a tap.
Not leaking down the spark plug tubes... and plugs look good. Interesting... that high tension lead for cylinder 3 reads open circuit... but when I McGiver'd my '99 Camry sparkplug lead in its place (and the Camry one reads about 12,000 ohms) - no change in behaviour was registered. I guess even if the original plug lead read "open cct" it would still fire when high voltage was applied to it. Re oil burning... it DOES burn some oil. The plug on cylinder 3 looks a bit oily... rest do NOT. But the codes point to cylinders 1 and 4... not 3. I would not consider the plug lead on cyl 3 to really be problematic. ? I will check out the Harbor Freight (and possibly Princes Auto) fuel pressure gauge. The car has no fuel pressure element that I can see.... Is there typically a transducer that "talks" to the PCM in regards to fuel pressure? Is there some feedback to the PCM that a given duration of injector pulse equals a known amount of fuel (assuming that the injectors are not clogged) - by saying: "I have pressure; I have duration of pulse, therefore I have such and such amount of fuel properly injected"?
 
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Originally Posted by Farnsworth
Verify the intake bellows hoses are not cracked. They can crack in the pleats when aged. It's easy to waste money replacing electrical.
Looking at the intake side, the boot is strictly upstream of the throttle body. There is no rubber between the throttle body and the cylinder head... but there are two gaskets that merit checking: i) between cylinder head and intake manifold; and ii) between throttle body and intake manifold (upstream) flange. Spray-type carburetor cleaner... while also up on ramps (and engine under-covers removed).... so I can access the underside of these joints, too.
 
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How many miles on the car? Given the details you've provided, the list of culprits I would zero in on next would be the cam and crank sensors and fuel pressure/pump.
 
Originally Posted by circuitsmith
Common 1zz-fe problem is leaky intake manifold gasket. Gets worse in cold weather. The original black rubber gasket eventually fails near 100% of cases. Be sure to get the updated orange silicone version. It's a medium complexity DIY job. Did it way back when on my previous 2006 Matrix. In meantime check fuel trims. Likely way positive.
To seize on your comment "fuel trims"... I do have a dongle-driven bit of Android software called Torque. The Lite version. I do see the Heated O2 sensor swinging from 0.1V to 0.8 volts fairly energentically (oh, mebe, once per 3 or 4 seconds - by recall). There is another parameter on there.... Fuel Trim Bank 1 Short Term.... and actually a whole host of others.... Fuel Trim Bank 1 Sensor 1... etc. Is this what you mean? What are you supposed to see... when, all is normal, and what would I likely see (on which of these?) when the "lean surge" is happening?
 
As a very general guide, the first thing to check for "random" misfiring with no other CEL codes depends on the situation: Worst at heavy throttle, low RPM : weak sparks. Worst at heavy throttle, high RPM : starving for gas. Occurs only at Idle, off-idle light throttle: air leak or EGR stuck open. This of course isn't a sure thing but it is the first thing to rule out. Visual or ohm checks won't necessarily find bad high voltage parts. The only way to be sure is to substitute. Misting water on the coil or wires should not make the situation worse. If it does, they need to be replaced. Investigating the live sensor data and fuel trims is a great zero-cost way to learn more about the situation. Sensor readings should make sense. Fuel trims should not go too far from zero.
 
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OK. Switch around coils... see if I can chase the fault to cylinders 2 and 3 (but likely NOT). Great advice... and it makes sense that it is NOT a fuel issue. I do not have EGR... so I am betting it is an intake manifold vacuum leak. Gotta get out the aerosol carb cleaner... Easiest to do... carb cleaner... no mech disassembly.
 
Originally Posted by Cdn17Sport6MT
To seize on your comment "fuel trims"... I do have a dongle-driven bit of Android software called Torque. The Lite version. I do see the Heated O2 sensor swinging from 0.1V to 0.8 volts fairly energentically (oh, mebe, once per 3 or 4 seconds - by recall). There is another parameter on there.... Fuel Trim Bank 1 Short Term.... and actually a whole host of others.... Fuel Trim Bank 1 Sensor 1... etc. Is this what you mean? What are you supposed to see... when, all is normal, and what would I likely see (on which of these?) when the "lean surge" is happening?
Lower voltage=leaner mixture, higher voltage=rich The upstream sensor(s) should be swinging when in closed loop. The ECU wants to run stoichiometricly, but that's very hard to achieve. So what it does instead is run lean, then rich, repeating. On average though, it's right where it wants to be. If it's sucking air through a leak, your fuel trims will be high.
 
Originally Posted by Lou_Boyle
Just be aware that problems with the EGR system allowing excessive EGR can produce very similar symptoms to those you describe.
that was my first thought. I think the OP is way off base. Bad coils don't cause surging. I believe you have a lean condition.
 
It certainly appears to be lean; that's exactly how it feels to me. However, is it just a coincidence that cylinder 1 and 4 have fault codes, re a miss detected? The one coil feeds cylinders 1 and 4. I have to rule it out... sooner or later.. But the easiest for me, this weekend - as a first-up task, prior to swapping ignition coils, is to drive up on ramps, pull the under-engine covers, check the crankshaft position sensor while there, and access the (solely under-side accessible) gasketed joints - cyl head to intake manifold, intake manifold to T body... and spray with aerosol carb cleaner, listening for an rpm increase while doing so. While at it, I will change the oil and filter. Oh, and it appears this car does NOT have EGR.
 
While I don't doubt the intake manifold gasket could be leaking as it's a common issue on the 1ZZ-FE. The fuel trims will show overly positive corrections at idle especially cold. Fuel Trim data is of NO use if the engine is actively misfiring!!, Raw fuel will actually drive the O2 sensors LEAN, I realize this is counter intuitive.....But it's a hard fact!! Cam & Crank sensors......Get that out of your head, It's a dead end! Test the coils like I already outlined, It's the most obvious component that will cause your drivability issue. Waste spark coils work overtime having to jump 2 spark plug gaps in series! Ask any seasoned mechanic what's the most failure prone ignition coil type on domestic & asian vehicles?.....Waste Spark Coils would be the answer. Though you could make a good argument for 2-wire Ford COP coils being the most failure prone in the last 10 years since WS has pretty much been phased out, But that's another topic/debate. [Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
 
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Originally Posted by clinebarger
While I don't doubt the intake manifold gasket could be leaking as it's a common issue on the 1ZZ-FE. The fuel trims will show overly positive corrections at idle especially cold. Fuel Trim data is of NO use if the engine is actively misfiring!!, Raw fuel will actually drive the O2 sensors LEAN, I realize this is counter intuitive.....But it's a hard fact!! Cam & Crank sensors......Get that out of your head, It's a dead end! Test the coils like I already outlined, It's the most obvious component that will cause your drivability issue. Waste spark coils work overtime having to jump 2 spark plug gaps in series! Ask any seasoned mechanic what's the most failure prone ignition coil type on domestic & asian vehicles?.....Waste Spark Coils would be the answer. Though you could make a good argument for 2-wire Ford COP coils being the most failure prone in the last 10 years since WS has pretty much been phased out, But that's another topic/debate. [Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
OK, will do... That's Saturday's project!
 
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Do you have a Incandescent Test Light?, This procedure is a barbaric approach but VERY effective in finding/identifying a weak coil. I don't normally link to Youtube videos....But this guy did a pretty good job of explaining the procedure, I don't have the reservations of hooking my test light to the negative battery terminal like he does. If you keep the tip of the test light near the tower while pulling the wires off.....You will NOT get bit by secondary! Start at the 7 minute mark to avoid all the BS intro stuff.
Excellent video, Clinebarger. I will find my incandescent test lamp. This hack really saves labour!
 
Update: I fixed the problem. I learned several things... The problem was - high tension lead for cylinder 4 would fault under load - but would not test-out (i.e. with a digital multimeter) as being either an infinite resistance.... or being out the typically accepted range (i.e. 5000 ohms to 14,000 ohms ???). I found this out by cannibalizing my Camry - and McGiver'ing its ignition lead for cylinder 4 - into my Corolla (see pictures). I used three chunks of split-open hose product to centralize and stuff-up the annular space 'round the sparkplug-connecting "tower" and the deep-well in the valve cover. I had checked both the plug conditions (visually) and I had tested the high tension leads (DMM)... and all checked out. My folly was to have kept saying - it's lean-surge, and not an ignition problem. I should have trusted the P0304 code that kept coming up (cylinder No. 4 misfire detected). I DID test both coils... using the incandescent test lamp trick... but the spark length from ea. tower was indeed very close to its twin. I even swapped the coils... front one moving to back... and vice versa (and when I had 'em out I thoroughly cleaned / degreased them). No joy. What I learned: i) ALWAYS go thoroughly thru the ignition system... including plug leads - first; ii) same can be said, re going thru the fuel delivery system, too.... say Second; iii) do not trust, necessarily, the ohms resistance rejection criteria for ignition leads.; and iv) learn that a miss CAN (and in this case) DID sound like lean "carburetion" behavior. It feels GOOD to again have a car that will make its way up a hill! Sincere thanks to all for your fantastic cooperation, offering comments and helpful possible solutions. Great forum!

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Originally Posted by mehullica
Does the air intake between the filter & throttle body have any cracks? Are you using dual electrode spark plugs?
Can't understand why the rubber between air filter box and T Body would play a roll re "lean". Yes, it'd be bypassing the filter (bad) - but i t would not equal "unmetered" air. Also, I bought NGK dual electrode plugs (a necessity for this engine, apparently) - to have in reserve. But when I switched out ignition leads - well, that was the smoking gun I was waiting for. It fixed the problem.
 
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Other comment: I bought aerosol carb cleaner, and I did spray the joint... between cylinder head and intake manifold flange... and same, between T Body and Intake manifold. No increase in RPM detected.... but I was spraying the "Topside" joints. BUT... with me taking off the two under-side plastic shields... still there was NO WAY that I was going reach the underside of the intake manifold to cylinder head joint. Likewise T Body / Intake Manifold joint. Spraying from that distance, from underneath, would be futile. The product was equipped with a short straw. I would need a ton of straws joined (somehow) together to ever hope to reach the underside joint. Not practical. What do folks do, here, to get carb cleaner into that inaccessible area?
 
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