'96 Tercel Check Engine Light

May 1, 2004

Hi, if anybody out there can help me, please do because I have tried everything and I have no idea what else I can do.

I own a 1996 Toyota Tercel. It is a 1.5L, four cylinders, manual transmission, coupe. Recently, the check engine light came on, and shortly thereafter the air bag light came on as well. When the check engine light came on, I stopped the car immediately to inspect what was wrong, but found nothing, and I gave it a couple of days to see if it would go away. After seeing no progress I figured that it would be okay and went on driving the vehicle. Shortly after, the car started to idle, and bog and then shut off. It would do this while I am driving, turning or at the stop position. Once the car turns off, I am able to restart the car by either turning it off and back on immediately, or by dropping the clutch while the car is in gear. Lately however if I turn the car off, it is somewhat difficult for it to turn back on. I tried almost everything I could think of to fix the problem, but was unsuccessful. Here are some of the things I did to try to remedy the problem:

Replaced the:

Oxygen Sensor, Spark Plugs/Wires, Fuel Tank Cap, Fuel Filter, Ignitor and ECU

Also, I:

Cleaned the throttle body and checked all the fuses.

After all of this the problem continued, so I took it to the dealership in which I was told that several mechanics worked on it and still was unable to figure out the problem. They told me that they performed a diognostic check on the car as well and as far as they were concerened they had no idea.

I plan on replacing the air bag sensor soon, however I do not think that this has anything to do with the check engine light. Also, I searched the internet and found a possible problem, which regards the EGR, however I am not certain if this could be the problem because my car is a Virginia model, and the EGR is only found in California models to my knowledge. Please help, it would be greatly appriciated by this college student who just wants to get from home to school and work.