phongus

Hi, not sure if you have the problem fixed, but have you checked if the alternator is charging the system? Low voltage can cause ECU glitches. Your alternator might be busted and not giving enough charge to run and charge the battery at the same time. Could be loose belt, stuffed regulator or alternator totally dead. It could be as simple as a loose earth some where in the engine bay, something like earth to engine block/chassis. Hope that helps.

No problem Keiran. There should be an oxygen sensor before and after the catalytic converter according to the manual I just bought. I am not sure of their exact location though sorry, the picture is rather odd to read. The engine number according to the manual and some images on google say it is located under the intake manifold...which unfortunately might be hard to see seeing as the engine is mounted slanted. It seems 1991-1993 had no crank sensor, while engines after 1993 had crank sensors. Sorry can't help you on the OBD2 stuff. Don't know much on the electronics side of things!

Thanks for updating and prices seem reasonable :). Cheers.

Have you tried Burson or straight from Toyota? If you find out the price could you update this thread please. I wouldn't mind knowing myself of local prices (even though I am in Victoria) I had a quick search on ebay and it seems they don't sell them on there, except for a whole distributor which looks rather costly. In saying that, if you don't mind waiting, you could probably order it from overseas. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Toyota-Previa-2-4-Distributor-Cap-Dizzy-1990-2000-/180725543713?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item2a1414f321 They are called Previas overseas if you didn't know, same engine though. Hope that helps.

Hmmm pretty sure newer generation (post-2000) engines didn't fit the first generation (1990-2000) of Taragos, however I could be wrong. If you could supply the engine model that would be good. From my understanding, only 2 engines fit the first gen Taragos, that is the 2.4L 2TZ-FE (standard) and 2.4L 2TZ-FZE (supercharged)...the latter not sold in Australia, which was quite disappointing. If the engine was replaced with a standard 2TZ-FE then it should run as per normal, however if the timing is slightly out, it might cause minor issues. With my Ford, when the timing was a little to advanced, it would only run well on 98RON fuel, but horrible on 91RON (lost about 100km/tank). Have you tried running 98RON fuel to see if there is any difference? Here is a list of items that may cause high fuel consumption: Oxygen sensor: Tarago has 2...if they have never been replaced/inspected, I'd have a look at these first. They are one of the major sensors for fuel injection control...a failed one will send bad signals to the computer. Some more information if you are bored: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/signs-of-a-bad-oxygen-sensor.html Vacuum leak: A vacuum leak can cause high fuel consumption, the larger the leak, the more work on the engine to produce the right amount of vacuum according to the ECU. It just puts another load on the engine that is not necessary. Usually after an engine transplant, a vacuum leak can be found at the inlet manifold...you can try checking by having the engine run (at operating temp) and spraying flamable aersol around the intake manifold, if the engine picks up revs there is a leak. Block exhaust: A block exhaust, such as at the catalytic converter or muffler restricts exhaust flow. Engine loses power and you stomp your foot down more (even if just slightly) to move the same pace as you would with less pedal and breathing engine. Only way I can think of easily checking this is to hit the exhaust system lightly with a spanner or something and listen for any odd rattles, usually quite noticeable rattle. Intake air filter: A severely blocked filter will restrict air flow to the engine. This again can reduce engine power and so you hit the accelerator harder to get more power out of, although I rarely have seen people have much fuel economy issues with a blocked filter, unless a cat/possum/mouse family live in it. General maintenance: Inspect fluid levels and have a look at the spark plugs. See how the plugs look like and replace them if you can. Usually if I get a second hand engine and throw it in, I replace things such as spark plugs, leads and give injectors a dose of injector cleaner (through petrol tank). Then the obvious oil/fluids change. This will allow you to keep up to date with general history. Now another option, although highly unlikely, they bought a 2TZ-FZE engine and put it into your car without the supercharger. Although the engines are quite identical, internally they are different. The 2TZ-FZE engine has a lower compression compared to standard (as to suit supercharger), pistons/rods were coated with something to make them stronger, piston oil squirters to cool pistons more effectively and some other little bits. If this engine was running with a standard ECU without a supercharger, it will not run as intended and will have lower power compared to the standard engine. Hope that helps some what :) Regards Phong

So I took my Tarago back to the mechanic regarding the oil leak. Lucky it was fixed under warranty and took about a week to do. Have driven it for about 1000km and there haven't been any leaks that I could tell or oil smell. Will have a look at it again to make sure they did a proper job and not just masked it with a lot of sealant. Now onto the loud pulley noise issue. I am yet to remove the accessories belt to narrow down the culprit. At the moment I suspect it is either an idler pulley (if it has one) or the air con pulley. I suspect the air con pulley because the noise quitens down a little, however a rather noticeable loud squeal occurs for the first 15-20s upon engaging AC. Now to my question. If it is the AC pulley, is it possible to change the pulley without pulling the AC out...is it possible to change the pulley at all or would I need to buy a whole new AC unit? If anyone could help, that would be greatly appreciated. Cheers Phong

Thanks for the reply Mick. I have had a look at the engine in the last few days and found that the last mechanic who did the head gasket broke 2 valve cover bolts! So the corner was open enough to obviously leak. I thought they forgot to put it back in, but upon further inspection there was a stuck bolt tip in there. So taking it back to the mechanic seeing as it is still under warranty. So that is the oil leak out of the way. I thought it may have been the distributor seal, but the distibutor was suprisingly clean. The idle does sit at around 750RPM so that isn't too much of an issue and after driving it through a full tank, I have found that the fuel economy is about 11.5L which is as I expected it to be. So good fuel economy. I have also found the loud noise to be a pulley, specifically the A/C compressor pulley. It rattles when the A/C is off but as soon as you turn it on the noise goes away with a slight initial squeal. So I assume the A/C pulley needs a bit of TLC...I just hope it is fixable rather than a replacement, the price for another A/C compressure unit is rather on the high side! Didn't get a chance to look at the SADS because it was dark and I was upset about the broken bolts so didn't want to look into it further in fear of breaking something in anger. I will keep this updated for those who also have issues with the Tarago :). Cheers Phong

Thank you! So slotted rotors are available, that might help the braking temp a bit. Will need to check if it has ABS though. Hopefully it does! Also I read up on SADS and found there are replacement parts for them. Nolathan supposedly make them and there are also other companies using polyurethane as well. Will keep this updated for anyone else interested :). Cheers

Hello everyone This is my first post (uhhh second if you count welcome thread), so please bear with me and sorry in advance about the long post with lots of questions! (summary at the bottom) I have been given a Tarago as a hand me down and was wanting to fix it up and do some work on it...not to make it go fast, but to keep it tip top and hopefully use less fuel. It is currently using a heap of fuel...something like 14-15L/100km, which is more than my modified manual Ford Fairmont 6 cylinder (13L/100km pure stop start traffic, 7L/100km highway). I understand it has a 4 cylinder 2.4L engine (similar to the Hiace?) pushing close to 2 tonne of steel, so it would be labouring a fair bit, but I didn't think the fuel consumption would be that bad. Is this consumption common/normal or way out of order? I have been rather heavy footed in the first 200km, however 150km of that is highway so not much acceleration/deceleration. The main culprits of fuel consumption from my experience with the Ford, which I would assume is similar to the Tarago, would be vacuum leak, O2 sensor, severely blocked air filter and maybe blocked catalytic converter. So far I can scratch the air filter and blocked cat out, air filter is new and I am not getting any power loss at high RPM to suggest blocked cat. So I will be looking for a vacuum leak and replace the O2 sensor. Are there any other causes for high fuel consumption for the Tarago? It does have 17" alloy wheels, so that might play a role? Also is it common to have vacuum leaks on the Tarago? Such as at the intake/rocker cover/etc? The engine does idle a bit rough...although I have nothing to compare to hence the vacuum leak theory. Also when accelerating fast, there is a slight rattle. After a quick google I found that the SADS could be the culprit. Is it the whole shaft that needs replacing or can certain components be replaced to fix the rattle? Expensive? Brakes are decent, they work well for their intended use, but I remember once I was going down some twisties after taking a full load of people to have a geezer at a waterfall and the brakes were cooked, to the point I had massive brake fade and used the hand brake to help slow down to a stop! I was taking it slow, due to some motion sickness of people out the back, but the brakes were still cooked by the time I got to the bottom. Are there ways to upgrade the brakes at all? I assume there are no race spec discs you can get, but if there are slotted rotors I can put in place with some better pads that would be great. Any brakes from other Toyota models that might be interchangeable? Another mod/upgrade I would like to do is to remove the fan that is located behind the air intake snorkel...I assume that could be the radiator fan or condensor fan. I didn't take note what accessory it was attached to, but if I can remove it and replace it with an electric one that would be great and will reduce the noise level somewhat. It'll have a signal wire connected to a temp sensor which will trigger the fan on/off when only needed. This might be a bit more far fetch, but if it's possible to remove the fan I might give it a shot. Although finding an electric fan to fit in it's place might be a bit hard. Finally the paint on the roof has lost most of its clear coat and looks sad. I am going to be sanding it back and giving it a lick of paint. Still deciding wether to use acrylic or 2 pack paint. Anyone know what the factory paint is from Toyota? I hear Honda use acrylic paint and thought maybe Toyota does the same. Well that's all I have ideas for at the moment...hopefully I can do some of the things I have laid out here and keep this thread updated. Thank you in advance and sorry again for the long post. tl;dr? I have a Tarago in bad shape, high fuel consumption (15L/100km) what could be the cause? Are there any slotted rotors with better pads for Taragos? Rattle when accelerating...SADS? Can SADS be fixed using aftermarket components or need whole new shaft? Other causes of rattling under acceleration? Can one remove fan found behind air intake snorkel and replace with electric type? Toyota OEM paint...acrylic or 2 pack? Cheers!

Hello everyone Thought I'd join a Toyota forum and say hello after recently acquiring a 95 or 96 Tarago Getaway as a hand-me-down seeing as my parents don't drive many people around anymore. Looking forward to gaining insight/information/advice from people in the know regarding these beasts of a people mover. Coming from a Ford Falcon, this is a totally different ball game! Cheers Phong