New!! Have a few questions (:
 

Hello, i’ve been in the market for an frs for a while now. Today I went and looked at one (2013 manual model) with only 38,000 miles and noticed a few problems and am unsure what is causing them. First, when at a red light or stop sign, the car was have trouble holding idle when in gear, it would die unless you give it gas and bring the rpm’s back up. It idled fine when in neutral and parked. Second, was a coolant leak. it wasn’t leaking from the radiator the coolant wasn’t on the ground rather it was leaking into the engine bay (photo is provided). Lastly is one of the tensioners shaking and wobbling a lot, I know there’s some play but this one was going crazy (another photo included). I’m new to the platform and want some more info before I decide whether or not to spend money to take it to a Toyota dealership to get looked at before buying. Appreciate all the help everyone.

Edit: Came back with 7 codes and decided its not nearly worth what they were asking.
P219A
P0300
P0302
P0102
P0113
B1836
C1201

what kind of mods did the car have?

It had an airraid intake, and an exhaust (brand unknown).

did they provide a maintenance history?

rough idle could be a number of things. but overall, i'm leaning towards it being a vehicle that was ran hard, put away wet, and forgotten about when the wrenches came out.

the leaking antifreeze is likely going to be a bad water pump. if the bearing is shot, it could even be the cause of the rough idle.

low mileage is nice, but a well maintained high mileage car is always going to be better.

unless you're looking for a project, and/or can get it extremely cheap enough to cover about $2,000 in work, i'd consider looking for a better example.


in the future, i'd also recommend getting vehicle work done at a trusted small local repair shop instead of a brand-specific dealer. they'll save you money, and the majority of them are just as certified to perform the work as the dealer is.

Thank you for the info, I was just able to get the engine codes back and there were quite a few like P0300 and P0302. No softly driven car should have cylinder misfires at 38K miles :thumbdown:

You dodged a bullet(s)

A) Run far away from it and
2) What were they asking for this sad hunk of machinery?

The first thing you should do, if you are considering buying a used 86, is unplug the negative battery cable and let it sit for 20 minutes. Plug the cable back in and then let the engine idle for 2 minutes without touching the throttle. Turn it off, then restart. If it still idles rough, then you have real issues; fuel delivery, spark plugs fowled, even a clogged PVC valve. It could take some time to deduce the real cause, you just have to determine if it's worth it in the end.

Leaking antifreeze up top is likely only a bad crossopver pipe oring ir a split, or loose feed hose to the throttle body.

The tensioners all shake, its normal.

As suggested I would disconnect the battery, let sit, and then recheck and road test to see if the codes come back. Many of the codes can be caused by a weak battery.

They were asking $15,000. Found out after it’s been sitting on the lot for like 300 days.

I appreciate the advice, I didn’t think to unplug the battery. It had a cylinder 2 misfire as well, so spark plugs probably needed to be looked at for sure.

that could be why it's throwing so many codes as well. with the leak and the codes, could offer $10k, and keep a few thousand to repair whatever was found.

though i doubt they'd take it.